Program aims to prepare community

WITH regional communities bracing for a dryer, warmer fire season, representatives from local health and emergency services, as well as Golden Plains Shire, are coming together to help get landholders prepared.

With sessions previously held in Dereel and Snake Valley, two bushfire resilience programs are set to be held at Smythesdale and Linton later this month.

The initiative is being supported as part of the State Government’s nearly $2 million Safer Together Strengthening Local Government Partnerships grant program.

The sessions will see representatives from the municipality, DEECA, NBN Co, and local fire brigades, and bushfire resilience officer Fiona Williamson said many themes will be addressed.

“They’ll talk about the range of things affecting them during fire season in the region,” she said.

“The NBN coordinator for example will be able to explain to people their options in terms of internet during emergencies and what will work best for where they are.

“We’ll have agencies like the Australian Red Cross and Disaster Legal Help Victoria at Linton so it’s a good chance to come down for specific advice especially for carers or for helping your neighbour.

“It’s all about community preparedness. We’ve seen up the coast similar fire seasons to what we had in 2019/2020. That trend isn’t going to shift anytime soon.”

The Smythesdale session will take place as part of the town’s regular Country Market on Saturday 18 November in the form of an information stall.

Following that, the Linton session will be held on Saturday 25 November from 10am to 1pm, with the location to be confirmed via the Linton community Facebook page, and municipality’s website.

Originally receiving support in October 2022, the timeline for the sessions were extended as a result of the spring floods, with the first session delivered in Smythesdale late last year.

With this year’s program focusing on protecting the household, Ms Williamson said the project’s scope will be broadened in 2024.

“We’ve also run a series of other workshops like Get Techy, Get Ready, and using situational modelling with Phoenix,” she said.

“Past the market and events, we’ll shift into some community planning workshops and look at a bigger level than the household.”