The Victorian Fire Risk Register (VFRR) is Victoria’s first consistent bushfire risk register. It is demonstrating value to those with risk planning mitigation and response accountabilities.

The register lists all infrastructure, townships, environmental, tourism and cultural assets that may be impacted by bushfire. It is centrally maintained on behalf of all agencies but has been built from the ground up with the participation of over 160 agencies and businesses and local government across 70 municipal footprints using consistent facilitation and business systems. VFRR meets the ISO 31000 international standard for risk management.

A 2012 independent evaluation identified that the VFRR was an effective tool in providing all stakeholders with a shared and consistent understanding of bushfire risk to enable robust evidence based bushfire management planning.

One of the VFRR tool’s key strengths is its ability to spatially represent assets at risk and overlay them with topography and satellite imagery. Its maps have provided municipal fire management planning committees with an effective communication tool that the wider community easily understands and can engage with.

The VFRR however goes beyond the preparedness and planning environment and is now used in a dynamic response mode to provide accurate asset information for decision making by fire agencies and the emergency management sector to support prioritising and resource allocation strategies.

The paper will:

• Briefly highlight the risk assessment process.

• Display output tables and maps.

• Through case study snapshots provide insight to how this material is being used by non-fire agencies to better plan for their bushfire response.

• Describe and illustrate risk data (VFRR) informing response planning.