In June 2012, the Warrandyte Community Association received a ‘Fire Ready Communities Grant’ from the Victorian State Government supplemented by funds from Warrandyte Community Bank, Manningham City Council, Shire of Nillumbik and the Warrandyte Market Committee – $100,000 all up – to improve the community’s bushfire preparedness.
The project – ‘Be Ready Warrandyte – Living with Bushfire Risk’ – is a self-help, community-led project to develop tools and resources to help our community to be safer and more able to deal with the risk of bushfires. The project’s goal is to have more Warrandyte households with effective bushfire plans.
The project has 3 distinct phases.
Not Ready
The first of these – the collection and analysis of householder information regarding bushfire survival plans, run from August – September 2012 – provides the benchmark data to tell us how much we know, what we need to know and how we can learn more. (We anticipate 10% of Warrandyte households have a written plan – let’s see if you prove us wrong!)
Get Ready
From this information will come Phase 2 in which we anticipate conducting community meetings, inviting local experts to share their knowledge with the community and providing a range of information specific to the Warrandyte area on this website.
Be Ready
The final phase is the development of a Community Firebox (Toolkit) – this will take a variety of forms and focus on providing relevant, reliable, consistent and local support and information to help our community be fire-ready.
Ultimately, we will be seeking support for a follow up survey to see how far we’ve come – we’ll be looking for 80% of households to declare themselves prepared.
As this is a community project, we welcome your thoughts and suggestions. Contact the Be Ready Warrandyte project team by either email or phone 03 9844 5855.
“Bushfire plan applauded”
– Warrandyte Diary December 2012
I applaud the WCA and the wonderful work they have done with their Bushfire Readiness survey.
With a number of mild seasons behind us we must never become complacent. It is vital that all residents have a bushfire survival plan which I urge you to develop with the best being to leave early. Remember, nobody ever died by leaving early.
Please also consider vulnerable people in your neighbourhood, what you can do to look after them in an emergency and also alert council.
My most important message is “don’t wait until a fire is around the corner”, when roads will be congested with traffic, fire vehicles, smoke, etc., and you may not be able to get out.
Also, whilst we have Neighourhood Safer Places of Last Resort, they should not be part of your plan. They are there for when your plan fails!
Let’s hope we get through this summer without incident and be thankful to our volunteer CFA and SES members who give up so much of their time and put their lives at risk for our community.
Cr Meg Downie
Chair Manningham Emergency Management Planning Committee
Be Ready Warrandyte Committee
Chair: Dick Davies
Deputy Chair: Warwick Leeson
Secretary & Public Officer: Bruce Davidson
Treasurer: Kerrie Boyle
Local Government Representatives: Cr David Ellis (MCC), Peter Doyle (MCC), Lew Wilson (MCC), Justin Murray (NSC), Sarah Martin (NSC)
CFA Representatives: Ray Fritz, Glenn Cockram, Tammy Garrett, Jim Armstrong, Nicole McGill, Greg Kennedy, Rohan Thornton
Committee members: Bruce Marsh, Fiona Elliott, Jason Patton, Blythe McLennan
DPCD Representatives: Shirley Young, Bronwyn Morphett, Paul McGee
Project Managers: Jodi Clark, Lesley Ryall
Advisors: Sarah Wrigley, Phil Ashfield
Contributions and support have been provided by many across the community including;
Cameron Boyle, Max Garner, Professor John Handmer, Jock Macneish, Quinton’s Supa IGA, Wayne Rankin, Warrandyte Community Church, Warrandyte Diary, Warrandyte Post Office, Dr Joshua Whittaker.