Shires across the South West will be better prepared for bushfire season, with the state government handing out $3.3 million in funding to regional governments to complete mitigation activities.
The Shire of Boyup Brook was allocated $321,150 to manage identified bushfire hazards while the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes received $151,780. The Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup also received $272,570 in funding and the Shire of Nannup was given $476,500 from the Mitigation Activity Fund.
Emergency Services Minister Fran Logan said the funding would help to make “communities safer” as the warmer months start to approach presenting the threat of bushfires.
“It is by identifying and treating bushfire risks that we can improve efforts at reducing catastrophic bushfires and make those fires that do occur hopefully more manageable,” Mr Logan said.
Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray said he was pleased to see shires in his electorate take up the funding opportunity and were working hard to reduce their bushfire risks.
“As those of us who live in the regions know all too well, fire is an ever-present threat during the warmer months and we have to try to reduce the threats where we can,” Mr Murray said.
Eligible regional local governments will also be provided with $500,000 of funding later in the year, and nearly $1.2 million will be made available to other government agencies to treat bushfire risks in areas such as unmanaged Crown reserves.
Also announced was a further $1.2 million under the Department of Fire and Emergency Service’s new Rural Fire Division to treat bushfire risks on unallocated Crown land.
“For the first time, DFES will be co-ordinating mitigation of bushfire risks on unallocated Crown land through the Rural Fire Division and a $35 million mitigation fund,” Mr Logan said.
“We are putting to the side whose responsibility mitigating those bushfire risks may be and simply getting on with the job of trying to improve community safety.
“But we must always remember that fire is a part of the Western Australia landscape.
“We must all play a role, including local landowners, in trying to reduce the chances of inevitable fires becoming unmanageable.”