CFG Update

Hi to all the CFG leaders & members,

Just wanted to update you on a few things, hope everyone is OK and getting prepared for the coming fire season.

CFG Forums. “ Understanding Black Saturday” Sunday 6^th December

Kangaroo Ground in the morning  -  Lilydale / Montrose area in the afternoon ( exact venue to be confirmed).

The annual forum this year will focus on understanding the events of Feb 7 ^th , this will include a panel of CFG members who will share their stories and experiences and give us an insight into our own preparation and planning for bushfire. Full details to follow – keep this date free !!

Fire Restrictions – ARE NOT IN YET

There seems to be some confusion regarding this – Fire Restrictions have NOT been declared in any of our Municipalities yet, you are still able to burn off according to your normal local regulations. The 100 days countdown that the State Gov’t promoted was about getting prepared for summer not fire restrictions.

It is anticipated that this may be around the start of December but it depends on the weather & rainfall on a daily basis. There is a process of gazetting this approx a few weeks ahead of approval – our operations manager always lets me know when this happens so you get a bit of an earlier notice.

CFG Courses – Some of these are booked out – so if anyone is wishing to attend these they will need to book quickly. ( note * these are refreshers for people living in a CFG street) Bookings by email or fax as per the booking sheet in the last Fireguard Newsletter.

Fire Ready Workshops – there will be a number of FRV Workshops held throughout the region mid November – mid December. These will be put up on the CFA website shortly & are for general public, bookings will be required.

Royal Commission.  The commission has recommended hearings into a range of other matters, before handing down a final report next July. For accurate reports of what is said in the commission and the context in which statements are made, consulting the daily transcript of proceedings is recommended. This is available at http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au

Some of the items from the interim report such as Neighbourhood Safer places were covered in the last Fireguard newsletter. These are in the process of being assessed and when an announcement is made we will let you know of the outcome.

Fireguardian Newsletter – next edition

An additional edition of the Fireguardian will come out in November, if you would like to contribute anything or have a suggestion as to what you would like to see included in this edition please contact me ASAP. It will need to go top print Monday 9^th Nov.

We have had a very busy start to the season – we already have over 200 referrals for people wanting to start CFG groups or join existing groups and the facilitators are doing a fantastic job, some groups will have to wait a while as we are allocating them out according to their risk environment, we are keeping up with the priority areas though. We are also having a trained CFG facilitator meet with all of our established groups this season. It is great there is so much interest.

Cheers Helen

Helen Wositzky

Community Fireguard Coordinator.

CFA Yarra Area

18-22 Lakeview Drive

Lilydale, Vic.  3140

Phone: (03) 8739 1315

Fax (03) 8739 1382