Webinar to get community fire ready

A WEBINAR held by Agriculture Victoria next week will focus on getting farmers prepared for the fire season.

The session will involve land management extension officer Kylie Macreadie discussing ways to prepare a farm, and season risk agronomist Dale Grey talking about the current climate.

“We will go through some of the key messages of things farmers can do to be prepared not just for fighting a fire but also what they can do to be prepared for recovery,” said Ms Macreadie.

“It can be for big commercial farms or for people on a little bit of land with a few livestock.”

Using Agriculture Victoria’s newly released fire preparedness toolkit will also be covered.

Following the 2019 and 2020 Victorian fires, staff at the organisation wanted to create resources like the tool kit so farmers could be better prepared for future emergences.

“This product has been developed after that 2019 and 2020 fires where we had staff working in Gippsland and the north-east,” said Ms Macreadie.

“We can saw the common things that farmers experienced and we wanted to be able to share those things with other farmers so they can be prepared in the future.”

Ms Macreadie said it’s hoped that by equipping farmers with information, recovery after future events will be smoother.

“It’s about getting people better prepared so when they are experiencing the stress and trauma of an event they can get through that better,” said Ms Macreadie.

“It’s also about being able to recover faster if they do some of the steps in the checklist.

“Even little things like knowing the length of the boundary fence or reviewing the insurance policy can help have a fast recovery.”

The webinar will take place on Tuesday 28 November from 12pm until 1pm and to register visit bit.ly/3R0Rbqx.