Working Together to Prepare for the Coming Bushfire Season

As we head into the busy season for Lorne and other Otway communities it’s a good to time review how we, as a community, can work with key bushfire and land management agencies to prepare for the coming bushfire season.  Last summer we saw significant bushfires in the Otways at Chapple Vale and Cape Otway, plus multiple smaller fires that were quickly contained by firefighters.   It is worth noting this Christmas Day marks the 10-year anniversary of the Wye River Bushfire in 2015.

This is a reminder that Lorne has an extreme bushfire risk and while there has been some rain over the past month, there is still significant underlying dryness from over 18 months of severe rainfall deficits.

So, in light of this, Committee for Lorne are working with Forest Fire Management Victoria (FMMV) in partnership with CFA, Surf Coast Shire, GORCAPA and Parks Victoria, to raise awareness of bushfire risk and various preparedness activities to reduce that risk.

FFMV will be reducing bushfire risk on public land with mechanical fuel treatments, including maintaining strategic fuel breaks around high risk communities, and spring planned burns (weather permitting).

 

These works will complement a number of planned burns around Lorne completed over the last few years.  This includes modifying vegetation in strategic corridors around Lorne to support planned burns and bushfire response- particularly to keep firefighters and communities safer.  Broader landscape burns over the years the years have created a mosaic of different fuel levels across the Otways.  FFMV note the recent Chapple Vale bushfire in Nov 2024 was significantly smaller due to two planned winter burns which slowed the spread and size of the bushfire.  This planned burn footprint also provided refuge for wildlife to escape the fire, and escape from predators.

The Committee for Lorne and fire agencies ask the Lorne community to support all these works in preparing for the bushfire season.  It is the season for cleaning up and preparing your property.  For instance: keep your grass below 10cm, remove vegetation litter, building materials, and other surface fuels. Move your woodpiles and other combustibles away from your house.  Do your personal bushfire plans- we know every summer we hear about the traffic congestion so plan for this too.

Our local bushfire agencies are busy working in full capacity to prepare for the coming season- let’s work together to support these efforts.

 

Find out more about property and personal bushfire preparedness here: www.cfa.vic.gov.au.

www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Community/Emergencies-and-safety/Fire-ready

You can see more about all the strategic planning and delivery for planned burns over the next 3 years here – https://bushfireplanning.ffm.vic.gov.au/jfmp/ and register for Planned Burns Notifications – https://plannedburns.ffm.vic.gov.au/ – this is an excellent way to stay up to date and plan for upcoming planned burns.  If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

John Agar

Feature Writer

A word from the chairman

Hello

Over the last two months the Surf Coast Shire, in conjunction with the Committee for Lorne and other community organisations, has held a series of three workshops addressing the issues of key worker housing in Lorne.

The workshop group has defined the problem facing Lorne as follows:

“Lorne has insufficient affordable long-term rental and owned housing opportunities.  This affects the availability and quality of services by not accommodating and retaining low-income families and key workers in industries such as hospitality, emergency services, education and healthcare to sustain a healthy, contributing community year-round”.

The group has identified possible solutions to address the problem, including the following:

1. Identifying and securing council/public land site/sites that could be leased to a housing provider and/or developer to provide affordable housing and to develop a feasibility/master plan for an agreed site or sites which could include:

• high-level assessment of need and type of housing
• leveraging council dollars to get more funds from State and Federal government grants

2. Advocacy for a pilot trial in Lorne (limited to 25 properties) to explore Council rates/land tax exemptions/incentives to encourage long-term rental of existing houses.

The SCS council has already committed $50,000 towards a Lorne-based affordable housing project and the above solutions will be presented to Council for consideration before progressing further.

*****

Congratulations to our netball and football teams who have made it to the Grand Finals this week.  Our D Grade and 15 and under netballers both won their preliminary finals in closely contested games last week and, along with our Reserves footballers, will compete for the ultimate prize at Central Reserve, Colac on Saturday.  Unfortunately, our Senior footballers and our 13 and under netballers lost their preliminary finals last week.  We wish our remaining teams every success.

As our winter sports come to a close, we thank all our players and their support crews for their commitment and endurance through some challenging weather conditions.  The Lorne Football and Netball Club is an important part of the Lorne community, providing participation opportunities for players and entertainment and camaraderie for supporters.  We thank the leaders and volunteers of all our sporting clubs for your selfless service.  You play an important role in building and binding our community together.  You provide opportunities for all ages and abilities, fostering good sportsmanship, commitment, teamwork and resilience.

I encourage everyone to get involved with our community sporting clubs.  Whether it be golf, tennis, bowls, cricket, netball, football or fishing, there is something for all ages and abilities.  And if active participation is beyond your desire or capability, there are plenty of jobs behind the scenes in management and administration of our clubs.  With annual general meetings coming up for our sporting clubs and community organisations, I urge you to consider getting involved.  You will find it very rewarding.

Cheers

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

September

19-20 – Waking to Wonder Art Exhibtion, by Lorne P-12 College at Lorne Community Connect. 9am – 12pm free entry

28 – Lorne Aquatic & Angling Club – Major Fishing Competition No 5, Weight cut off at 12.30pm, Free roast lunch for competitors, $10 non-fishing members.

October

15-19 – UCI 2025 Gran Fondo World Championship

19 – Amy’s Great Ocean Road Gran Fondo, cycling event on the Great Ocean Road www.amysgranfondo.org.au

19 – Run the Marsh, 3km Walk, 2km and 5km fun run at 9am, Frogwood Arboretum, Deans Marsh

25 – Women of Troy, Anglesea Performing Arts group, 2 performances, 2pm & 7.30pm at Lorne Community Centre, www.trybooking.com/DCWRE