Client
Surfing WA
Location
Margaret River, Western Australia
Key Services
Fire Management Planning
Outcome
Bushfire risk planning and management doesn’t only apply to permanent habitable buildings.
Sometimes, councils require a development application to be submitted for temporary buildings and tourist events, including sports events and music festivals. If these events are located in a designated bushfire-prone area, they require assessment of the bushfire risk to life and property assets and demonstration of compliance to relevant guidelines or legislation.
One such event, which showcases the South West of Western Australia to a global audience, is the Margaret River Surf Pro, a world-class tourism event held at several locations in the Margaret River area. Engaged by Surfing WA, we prepared a Bushfire Management Plan (BMP) to support the development application for this tourism event.
The challenge with events of this nature is that there is no specific regulatory guidance in the West Australian State Planning Policy 3.7 for temporary structures or events. In the absence of regulatory guidance, the BMP was developed using best-practice principles and methods from SPP 3.7, the Guidelines and Australian Standard 3959-2009 Construction of buildings in Bushfire Prone Areas. Because portions of the event sites were assessed as being in areas with BAL-40 or BAL-FZ ratings, the BMP successfully demonstrated compliance with ‘unavoidable development’.
Various ‘Performance Principle Solutions’ were used to address non-compliances with the prescriptive Acceptable Solutions of the Guidelines and to demonstrate compliance with the bushfire protection criteria of the guidelines. Evacuation diagrams for each site were produced to nominate emergency assembly areas for bushfire scenarios.
