CRITERIA TO BE USED IN MAPPING VICTORIA’S BUSHFIRE PRONE AREAS
Introduction
1.
Victoria’s building regulations require the Minister for Planning to designate the areas that are,
or may be, prone to bushfire and to show these areas on a publicly available map. These areas
are known as bushfire prone areas and they are decided on the basis of scientific knowledge
about bushfire behaviour.
2.
The map shows a ‘point-in-time’ assessment of bushfire hazards on the statewide bushfire
prone area map, which can be viewed at www.land.vic.gov.au
3.
The purpose of designating bushfire prone areas is to show the areas where landowners need
to construct buildings to a higher standard to protect them from a bushfire, in particular embers
and radiant heat, which can damage or destroy buildings.
4.
Landowners who wish to construct, alter or build an extension to a building in a bushfire prone
area must:
5.

assess the severity of a potential bushfire to the proposed building site

construct the building to a standard that corresponds with the bushfire’s anticipated
severity, and

at a minimum, construct to a standard that helps protect from ember attack and lower
levels of radiant heat.
The standard for assessing bushfire severity and construction requirements is Australian
Standard AS3959 Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas. The minimum bushfire
construction standard required in Victoria is Bushfire Attack Level 12.5 as described in AS3959.
Criteria for deciding bushfire prone areas
6.
Victoria uses three ‘hazard levels’ to identify bushfire prone areas. From the most to least
extreme, these levels are:

Bushfire Hazard Level 2 (BHL 2)– these include large areas of forest, woodland, scrub,
shrublands, mallee and rainforest, with the potential for bushfire behaviour such as a
crown fire, extreme levels of radiant heat and extreme ember attack

Bushfire Hazard Level 1 (BHL 1) – smaller areas of forest, woodlands, scrub, shrublands,
mallee, rainforest and unmanaged grasslands where there is potential for bushfire
behaviour such as crown fire, grassfire, and lower levels of radiant heat and ember
attack

Bushfire Hazard Level Low (BHL Low) – areas where the extent, configuration and/or
management of vegetation means there is low potential for bushfires. Some examples
include vegetated areas of less than two hectares, residential land, recreational areas
and ovals, managed golf courses, botanical gardens, mangroves, commercial and
industrial land, irrigated agricultural land, orchards, vineyards, market gardens,
wholesale and retail nurseries, airports and some airstrips.
Published 3 June 2014
7.
Using these hazard levels, the following areas are mapped as bushfire prone areas:

BHL 2 areas that are larger than four hectares, plus a 300 metre ember protection
buffer

BHL 1 areas that are between two and four hectares of wooded vegetation, but not
grassland, plus an ember protection buffer of 150 metres

BHL 1 areas that are larger than 2 hectares of grassland only, plus a 60 metre ember
protection buffer

BHL Low areas to which an ember protection buffer applies from BHL 1 and BHL 2.
8.
Where two or more bushfire prone areas are within 300 metres of each other, the area
between them may be mapped as a bushfire prone area if there is potential for a fire to travel
across it.
9.
The criteria outlined at paragraphs 7 and 8 above may be varied as part of the decision-making
process outlined below.
Process for deciding bushfire prone areas
10. The Minister for Planning decides the bushfire prone areas on recommendation from the
Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure.
11. In making recommendations to the Minister for Planning, the Department:

consults with the housing and development industry stakeholders to identify the areas
that need reassessment

consults with municipal building surveyors and local brigades of the Country Fire
Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade, to ensure local knowledge of bushfire hazard
conditions is taken into account

consults with its Rapid Verification Taskforce, which gives technical advice on the
appropriateness of any proposed changes to the bushfire prone area map to achieve
statewide consistency in mapping bushfire prone areas.
The Taskforce is comprised of experts from the head offices of the Country Fire
Authority, Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Department of Environment and Primary
Industries, and Victorian Building Authority.
12. When the Minister decides on updates to the bushfire prone area map, the decision is
published in the Government Gazette and the new bushfire prone area map is published on the
Department’s website. The updated bushfire prone area is effective from the date of
publication in the Government Gazette.
Published 3 June 2014