Learn about your property’s fire break requirements and other fire mitigation responsibilities.
Hazard reduction burning—also known as prescribed, controlled, or planned burning—is a key fire management strategy used by the City to reduce fuel loads and minimise the risk and severity of bushfires. This method involves the planned burning of vegetation such as leaf litter, grasses, and grass trees under controlled conditions.
These burns are typically low-intensity ‘cool’ fires, conducted in suitable weather to prevent harm to native flora and fauna. By reducing ground fuels, hazard reduction burning helps protect lives, property, and the environment from the impacts of uncontrolled bushfires.
The City implements this approach in coordination with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES), which endorses its use as an effective bushfire mitigation strategy in designated reserves and bushland areas to reduce the risk of bushfires.
Hazard reduction burns are planned in collaboration with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) and independent environmental consultants to ensure safety and ecological integrity. By reducing the risk of high-intensity bushfires and supporting bushland regeneration, hazard reduction burning plays an important role in sustainable fire and land management across the City.
To find out about upcoming hazard reduction burns, please refer to the City’s Public Notices. To receive an automated notification via text message or email, register for the Hazard Reduction Grass Tree Burning Notifications online.
Complete the Hazard Reduction Grass Tree Burning Notifications online form
Fuel load is the amount of combustible material in an area that accumulates over time. Dead material is more flammable than live material and includes the dry dead skirts on grass trees, dead grasses and dead leaves and bark that fall from trees and shrubs. Fuel load is expressed in terms of tonnes per hectare (t/ha).
City reserves and bushland areas are routinely assessed based on fuel age and community vulnerability and prioritised according to risk. Hazard reduction burns will only be undertaken where the City, with input from Department of Fire and Emergency Services, determine a requirement to reduce potential bushfire risk to the community.
Specific times and locations of hazard reduction burns are scheduled by City staff in liaison with suitably qualified personnel and usually a small number of reserves will be burnt each year.
City reserves/bushland areas can be divided into sections utilising existing tracks and paths. The areas with high fuel loads that are within close proximity to vulnerable assets, such as residential properties, schools, and community buildings, will be prioritised. While each area varies in size, they are approximately 10,000 to 20,000 square metres (one to two hectares).
Patches within these areas will be burnt, leaving a mosaic pattern of burnt and unburnt areas to provide minimal impact to flora and provide habitat refuge areas for fauna.
Post-fire weed control will be undertaken and burnt areas will be monitored to assess weed growth to support the sustainability and regeneration of native vegetation.
Fire is a natural part of the Australian landscape. Hazard reduction burns are implemented as a cool, low intensity burn over small areas, targeting ground, near surface and some elevated vegetation and the surrounding leaf litter. Fire is managed such that it does not go into the tree canopies. This will reduce undesirable impacts and assist with regeneration and long-term biodiversity. Planned burns reduce the risk of intense and devastating bushfires that have the potential to destroy people, property and the environment.
Any hazard reduction burn will create smoke, however, as part of the burn planning there are appropriate procedures to reduce the impact of smoke. Burns will only be carried out:
To minimise the impact of smoke the following are recommended:
Hazard reduction burns will be undertaken by highly qualified, trained and experienced personnel. As part of the planning process a burn escape risk assessment is conducted and controls identified and implemented during the burn to manage this risk.
The following bushfire management actions are already implemented by the City annually:
a. Weed control (mechanical and chemical).
b. Installation and maintenance of firebreaks on City owned and managed land.
c. Manual fuel load reduction.
d. Firebreak inspections on all vacant land and bushland.
e. Controlled access to sites.
f. Community education.
For further information on the City’s Hazard Reduction Burning Program, please contact the City’s Parks and Natural Environment Team on 9400 4000 or via email to info@joondalup.wa.gov.au
Be informed of when a burn is taking place by:
The City of Joondalup acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of this land, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging as well as all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
