Bushfire prone land

Vegetation Category 1 is considered to be the highest risk for bush fire. It is represented as red on the bush fire prone land map and will be given a 100m buffer. This vegetation category has the highest combustibility and likelihood of forming fully developed fires including heavy ember production.

Vegetation Category 1 consists of:

• Areas of forest, woodlands, heaths (tall and short), forested wetlands and timber plantations

Vegetation Category 2 is considered to be a lower bush fire risk than Category 1 and Category 3 but higher than the excluded areas. It is represented as light orange on a bush fire prone land map and will be given a 30 metre buffer. This vegetation category has lower combustibility and/or limited potential fire size due to the vegetation area shape and size, land geography and management practices.

Vegetation Category 2 consists of:

• Rainforests
• Lower risk vegetation parcels. These vegetation parcels represent a lower bush fire risk to surrounding development and consist of:
  • Remnant vegetation
  • Land with ongoing land management practices that actively reduces bush fire risk. These areas must be subject to a plan of management or similar that demonstrates that the risk of bush fire is offset by strategies that reduce bush fire risk; AND include:
    • Discrete urban reserve/s
    • Parcels that are isolated from larger uninterrupted tracts of vegetation and known fire paths
    • Shapes and topographies which do not permit significant upslope fire runs towards developmen
    • Suitable access and adequate infrastructure to support suppression by firefighters
    • Vegetation that represents a lower likelihood of ignitions because the vegetation is surrounded by development in such a way that an ignition in any part of the vegetation has a higher likelihood of detection.

This new vegetation category has been introduced to reflect the bushfire risk presented by grasslands and includes areas of unmanaged grassland (cattle grazing), cane land, cleared and unmanaged banana plantations, melaleuca tea tree.

Vegetation Category 3 is considered to be medium bush fire risk vegetation. It is higher in bush fire risk than category 2 (and the excluded areas) but lower than Category 1. It is represented as dark orange on a Bush Fire Prone Land map and will be given a 30 metre buffer.

This category consists of: 

• Grasslands, freshwater wetlands, semi-arid woodlands, alpine complex and arid shrublands.

The method for the determination of bush fire vegetation buffering is as follows:

• Bush fire prone vegetation (BFPV) Category 1 – apply a 100 metre external buffer to each vegetation polygon.
• BFPV Category 2 – apply a 30 metre external buffer to each vegetation polygon.
• BFPV Category 3 – apply a 30 metre external buffer to each vegetation polygon.

Vegetation excluded from being mapped as bush fire prone includes:

• Single areas of vegetation less than 1 hectare in area and greater than 100 metres separation from other areas of Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation;
• Multiple areas of vegetation less than 0.25 hectares in area and not within 30 metres of each other;
• Strips of vegetation less than 20 metres in width, regardless of length and not within 20 metres of other areas of Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation;
• Areas of “managed grassland” including grassland on, but not limited to, recreational areas, commercial/industrial land, residential land, airports/airstrips, maintained public reserves and parklands, commercial nurseries and the like;
• Areas of managed gardens and lawns within curtilage of buildings;
• Non-vegetated areas, including waterways, roads, footpaths, buildings and rocky outcrops.
• Managed botanical gardens;
• Agricultural lands used for annual and/or perennial cropping, orchard, market gardens, nurseries and the likes are excluded;
• Saline wetlands including mangroves.
• Other areas that, due to their size, shape and overall risk are not considered Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation.

Since the previous map was certified in 2012, parts of Tweed Shire have been developed and are no longer bushfire prone. These areas have been removed from the bushfire prone land map.

Under new RFS guidelines, grasslands, pastures and fresh water wetlands are now recognised as a fire risk under the new Vegetation Category 3.

This has resulted in an additional 25,000 ha of land in the Tweed – or an additional 20% of rural land – being classified as bushfire prone land since the 2012 map.

The new vegetation category has been introduced to reflect the bushfire risk presented by grasslands and includes areas of unmanaged grassland (cattle grazing), cane land, cleared and unmanaged banana plantations, melaleuca tea tree.

Below is a Land use zone/Bushfire prone land analysis which shows what has been added and removed from the bushfire prone map when it was updated in May 2023.

Land use zone / Bushfire prone land analysis

• Parcel Based analysis
• Where a parcel had multiple zones the zone with the highest coverage area was assigned to be the zone for that parcel.
• All LEP2000 zones were translated to Standard instrument zones.
• Area of land added/removed calculated by the sum of:
  • Land intersecting BFPL-2012 that is not intersecting BFPL-2023 (NEGATIVE)
  • Land intersecting BFPL-2023 that did not intersect BFPL-2012 (POSITIVE)

Redistribution of the BFPL can give varying results, for example R1 has a lot less parcels but an increase in land area.

Bushfire prone land is an area of land with vegetation that can support a bushfire or is likely to be subject to bushfire attack. The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) describes what they will designate as bushfire prone land in their Guide for Bushfire Prone Land Mapping.

The bushfire prone land map tells us what sort of bushfire protection measures are needed for any new development.

Council will access any proposed development on bushfire prone land with the rules set by the NSW RFS in their Planning for Bushfire Protection Guide. These rules will specify what can be done on the land, including how and where you can build.

All of this is done to help keep you and your property safe.

Council works with the NSW RFS to create the bushfire prone land map for our local government area, the Tweed Shire.

Council is required to map bushfire prone land across the Tweed to comply with legislation (the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979).

The NSW RFS designates which land must be mapped and council is then required to assist with making the map complete.

The map needs to be updated regularly to keep up with changes in development and types of vegetation.

Council uses the NSW RFS Guide for Bushfire Prone Land Mapping to identify which vegetation category applies to vegetated areas in the Tweed and which areas are excluded.

Council and the RFS use aerial photography, vegetation mapping and management records as part of this process.

The bushfire prone land map is then reviewed and certified by the Commissioner of the NSW RFS.

You are responsible for checking to see if your property is bushfire prone land. You can find out if your property is bushfire prone land by using our online mapping tool.

The planning certificate for your property will also include a statement whether the land, or part of the land, is or isn’t bushfire prone.

If your property is on bushfire prone land, it is a reminder that you need a bushfire survival plan. This means knowing your risk and having a plan for what you will do in the event of a bushfire.

Being bushfire prone does not prevent you from developing on your land. It means that in the event of any new development, including building, renovating, Council will assess whether your development plans have included enough bushfire protection measures.

Depending on the level of risk, certain measures will need to be taken to ensure your development meets bushfire safety standards. These measures may range from things like metal flyscreens and gutter guards to modifying the style, construction material or location of a building.

Every Council in NSW is required to map bushfire prone land and it is intended only as a trigger for development assessment, not other purposes.

Councils have no control over what insurance companies charge for their premiums, however we do know that insurance premiums are based on a range of factors, including worldwide trends and cost recovery for the many and varied natural disasters we’ve seen globally over the past decade.