Lorne Planned Burn Update

Autumn 2018

This autumn, forest fire management Victoria, Parks Victoria and the CfA will be focusing on taking planned burning opportunities around the Lorne community. These planned burns are part of a strategy to ensure Lorne remains a fire ready town.

As the forest around Lorne is generally wetter than a lot of Victoria, we will likely be burning when other parts of the state are still concerned about bushfire, so you can expect to see ignitions early March.

After a few years of unfavourable conditions, we will be looking to take every opportunity to reduce your town’s bushfire risk. We are monitoring the fuels and weather with support from the Bureau of Meteorology. Our forest firefighters will be monitoring the moisture of dead grass, leaves and other fine fuels in the priority burns around Lorne almost every day from late February.

We have also been keeping in touch with the Committee for Lorne and other community members to ensure that our plans have as minimal impact as possible on all the great things happening in and around Lorne.

As you know from last year’s Big Hill Track planned burn, the burns around your community are complex and require thorough traffic management planning, community engagement and notifications to locals and visitors. This year, many burns include popular walking tracks behind Lorne, so these will be closed for up to a week or more. Our commitment to your community is that we will minimise the impacts of our work on your lives as much as possible, but acknowledge that planned burns do and will have some impact upon you.

There are quite a few new planned burns on the schedule for this autumn and they need to be properly prepared. This involves treating hazardous trees and upgrading the tracks surrounding them. Our very capable ParksVic teams are working with excavators to treat hazardous trees so if you are on the tracks behind Lorne please adhere to the traffic management in place; it’s for your safety.

Complementing our planned burning program, Surf Coast Shire have been working with Lorne residents to reduce the fuel loads in and around houses which further reduces the bushfire risk to the community. Where possible, Forest Fire Management Victoria and Surf Coast Shire have tried aligning the planned burning and private property fuel management programs to add value to each other’s work.

Our combined efforts really do make Lorne a fire ready community and we appreciate your ongoing support and patience as we continue to reduce bushfire risk around your great town.

The planned burns most likely to be scheduled in the next few weeks around your community are the Lorne- Green Break Track and Lorne- Grove Road burns. The map on the opposite page shows the location of the planned burns.

If you would like to be notified by SMS or email when this burn is scheduled, go to ffm.vic.gov.au/bushfire-fuel-and-risk-management/planned-burns/planned-burning-notification-system and opt in. While you’re there, why not sign up to be notified when any of the Lorne burns are scheduled over the next few years.

David rourke
Otway District Manager
Forest Fire Management Victoria