South eastern Australia, including Victoria, is among the most bushfire-prone areas in the world.

Victoria’s high bushfire risk is due to a combination of factors including increasing population density in fire-prone areas.

Major bushfires can lead to loss of life and injury, damage to key state infrastructure such as electricity transmission lines, water supply assets and transport links.

Additionally, fast moving grass fires in metro/rural interface environments, structure fires in urban environments, and mine fires caused by fires in nearby bushland all pose their unique challenges and consequences.

Examples of significant bushfires and related fires include the 2009 Black Saturday fires, 2014 Hazelwood mine fire and more recently the 2019-20 fires which led to major reviews at state level and a Royal Commission at national level: Inquiry into the 2019–20 Victorian Fire Season and Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements respectively.

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Publish year Assurance activity Summary Organisation
2011 Lessons Learned by Community Recovery Committees of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires (External link) A summary of the hard-won lessons from community leaders following the 2009 Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires. The report was prepared so other communities impacted by disaster might be supported or assisted in their recovery, and remains relevant today. Independent
2011 Bushfires Royal Commission Implementation Monitor Progress Report - July 2011 (External link) A progress report into the implementation actions as outlined in the State’s Implementation Plan for each of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report recommendations, and the effectiveness and efficacy of the methods used to carry out the actions. Bushfires Royal Commission Implementation Monitor
2011 Review of Community Bushfire Warnings (External link) A review of systems and processes for issuing information and warnings following the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. The findings highlighted that further work was required to address capability, capacity and management of information within Incident Management Teams, systems for disseminating warning, timeliness of warnings and the lack of a framework for evaluating the total warning system. Fire Services Commissioner Victoria
2010 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission final report (External link) The culmination of the Commission’s work, the final report describes and analyses the bushfires of January–February 2009 and makes 57 recommendations about changes needed to reduce the risk, and the consequences, of similar disasters in the future. It also describes how the Commission went about its task. The final report consists of four volumes, and together with the Commission's interim reports, should be considered one body of work. 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission