Country Fire Authority Vegetation Management

The Country Fire Authority Act 1958 authorises the CFA to conduct fuel management activities in the country area of Victoria. The CFAs fuel management activities are undertaken on private land and public land that is not managed by DEECA (for example, roadsides and rail corridors), on the request of the landowner or land manager.

This section describes CFA fuel management activities and programs on public and private land, across planned-burn and non-burn fuel treatments. It includes three tables. Table 6 outlines CFA fuel treatment activities by treatment type. Table 7 outlines CFA fuel treatment activities by region. Table 8 provides a detailed breakdown of regional treatments.

CFA field management activities

The CFA conducts fuel management activities at the request of the landowner or land manager. It does not manage land itself but works closely with landowners and land managers, such as councils, and road and rail authorities, to conduct planned burning or non-burn fuel treatments, such as slashing, mowing, spraying, ploughing and grazing.

CFA’s fuel management program reduces risk by providing critical access for fire fighters to suppress bushfires, facilitating safe egress routes for communities, and protecting assets by reducing fuels next to residential areas and critical infrastructure. It helps deliver on joint bushfire management strategy approaches, including more effective fire suppression, reduced bushfire spread and severity, and reduced impacts of bushfires on people and property.

The CFA fuel management program is often driven by local communities and, as a result, has positive flow-on effects for communities in understanding their own bushfire risk and the role fire can play in reducing risks and maintaining ecosystems. However, due to the smaller size and linear characteristics of CFA’s planned burns, they are less represented in the calculations used to monitor fuel-driven bushfire risk due to current modelling limitations.

Fuel management delivery

In 2023-24, CFA delivered its largest fuel management program on record. This can be attributed to several factors such as:

• A longer season suitable for planned burning
• Staffing arrangements with regions that assisted in planning and delivery
• Relationships with landowners/managers and stakeholders, and
• Availability of volunteers through the CFA Planned Burn Taskforce (PBTF).

Increased planned-burn resourcing through the CFA Planned Burn Taskforce (PBTF)

The PBTF has grown significantly over the 2023-24 financial year and has assisted greatly in the delivery of CFA's program, with it estimated that the Taskforce assisted with delivery of a third of the CFA planned burn program.

The PBTF has enabled Volunteer CFA members with an interest in planned burn delivery with the opportunity to attend planned burns led by both CFA and FFMVic. The PBTF increases both CFA and FFMVic capacity to deliver planned burning operations, as well as increasing CFA members firefighting skills efficiently through joint agency participation in planned burn events.

Since its commencement in 2019, the PBTF has on average seen 112 CFA member deployments per season to planned burns. In 2023-24, the PBTF actioned 327 member deployments; an approximate 300% increase in the number of member deployments compared with the 5-year average.

The PBTF has seen an increase in deployments without a net increase in expenditure through improved efficiencies in deployment procedures and increased CFA volunteer engagement. The Taskforce is anticipated to increase capacity to deliver treatments through streamlining request processes and ongoing recruitment of CFA members registering with the Taskforce.

Key fuel treatment delivery highlights

The CFAs fuel treatments for the year 2023–24 is presented and compared to the previously reported year.

In 2023-24, CFA completed 287 operations to treat a total area of wide hectares with fuel management. This included 236 planned burns treating 5,499 hectares, and 51 non-burn fuel treatments covering 732 hectares. The planned burning delivered included 912 km of roadsides and rail corridors. Non-burn fuel treatments included various mechanical treatments, such as spraying, slashing, ploughing and mulching.

The total area of fuel treatment delivered by the CFA in 2023-24, 6,231 hectares is an 83% increase from the 3,406 hectares delivered in 2022-23. More roadsides were also treated, with 912 roadsides treated by CFA in 2023-24 a 60% increase compared to the 570km treated in 2022-23.

Of the 236 burns CFA delivered, 11 were for ecological purposes (5%) which is an increase from previous years. CFA advises they are working closely with land managers, stakeholders, community members and Landcare to deliver planned burns for ecological objectives. The other 225 burns were for the primary purpose of bushfire risk reduction.

Table 6 provides an overview of the CFAs fuel treatment activities by treatment type.

Table 6: Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) fuel treatment activities by treatment type in 2023–24, and previously reported in 2022–23.

*Note the hectares and number of activities for the cross-tenure burns, rail corridors and roads are included in the total fuel reduction figures.

CFA fuel treatment activities by region

Table 7 shows CFA fuel treatment activities by region.

Regions with the largest areas treated in 2023-24 were the South West CFA region (3,624ha) and the West CFA region (1,895ha). This is consistent with delivery patterns in 2022-23.

The South West and West CFA regions delivered a larger program than the previous financial year, almost twofold. This can be attributed to good conditions for undertaking burning as well as the availability of volunteers to deliver the program.

The South East CFA region delivered one of the largest burns in the region to date, with a planned burn of 250 hectares delivered at Lake Tyers in partnership with the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust.

Case Study: Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust Fuel Management Program

The Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust (LTAT) and the CFA have partnered to manage bushfire risk across the Trust’s 1,541 hectare property, of which 1,296 hectares, or 86%, is native bush and scrub. This collaboration began in 2011 and includes the Bunjil Brigade, a community-based fire brigade that evolved from a satellite of the Toorloo Fire Brigade into an independent unit, playing a key role in fire preparedness and response within the LTAT community.

Under the JFMP, the CFA and LTAT worked together to plan and execute planned burns on select forest blocks surrounding the community. Seven blocks were identified, using existing tracks as boundaries, to reduce fuel loads while protecting culturally significant sites. The first planned burn, a 14.59 hectare area, took place in 2023, with LTAT community members guiding the protection of scar trees and sensitive areas.

The largest burn occurred in April 2024, covering nearly 250 hectares, and marked the CFA’s most extensive forest burn in District 11. This operation required collaboration among LTAT representatives, who identified She-oak trees (crucial for the Glossy Black Cockatoo) to be protected with mulched buffer zones. Multiple ignition methods were used over four days, achieving a 51% burn coverage within the target range of 50-80%.

The program demonstrates how the JFMP can integrate cultural knowledge into fire management, with LTAT community members actively shaping treatments to balance bushfire risk reduction with other land management objectives.

Further treatments are planned for 2025, reinforcing the ongoing, community-led approach to bushfire safety and land management.

Table 7: Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) fuel treatment activities by region.

Reporting is broken down into further detail, showing the treatment types delivered across a region, in Table 8.

The delivery of linear burns on roadsides and rail corridors was predominantly implemented in the South West and West regions through the large grassland and grassy woodland corridors. Managing for appropriate fire regimes is important to maintain ecological health and function within these grasslands, with burn planning and delivery undertaken in consultation with land managers and stakeholders.

Table 8: Detailed breakdown of the Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) regional treatments.

*Note that no hectare figure is reported against roadside and rail corridor treatments as these treatments are linear corridors better represented by kilometres.

**Note that number of total number of roadside and rail corridor treatments, and cross-tenure burns, is included in the number of bushfire risk reduction treatments.