Since the catastrophic bushfires of January 2003, and the impact of the 2019-20 fire season, the ACT Government and community have been proactive in implementing plans to provide increased protection against bushfires for the people, property and the environment of the ACT.

The Strategic Bushfire Management Plan (SBMP) sets out how to protect the ACT community from bushfires and reduce harm caused by bushfires. This is something we need to do every 5 years.

This Plan is the fifth version of the SBMP. It builds on past bushfire protection measures and lessons learned, many of which are now standard practice in the ACT Government and community. Version 5 aims to improve bushfire management further, adapting to challenges like climate change.

For a brief summary of key themes within SBMPv5, please see the Summary Guide.

Stage one gave you an opportunity to comment on version 4 of the SBMP through this website as well as general comments. Your responses, along with other conversations we are having with organisations and stakeholders, have informed the development of version 5.

Stage two was a statutory consultation period of 15 days for you to inspect the draft plan of the new version, with a further 15 days to provide comment.

To ensure shared responsibility of the plan, diverse representation of feedback and perspectives was a key priority.

Some actions or functions in the plan cannot change, as they are required to fulfil legislative requirements of the Emergencies Act 2004.

Some of the areas that your feedback can have the greatest impact are:

• The structure and readability of the plan
• Existing actions under the six objectives
• Additional actions and why they should be included
• Additional outcomes and why they should be included
• How effectively this document equips the ACT to deal with bushfires now and through the next five years

If we’re not able to directly incorporate your feedback into the final document, capturing your perspective is valuable for related projects and future versions of the SBMP.

For a summary of what we heard from the ACT community on the draft of SBMPv5, please see the Listening Report.

You can use the ACTmapi Bushfire Map to find out if you live in a bushfire prone area.

For more information about preparing for bushfires go to the ACT Emergency Services Agency website.