Councillor backs new bushfire strategy ahead of new Toowoomba planning scheme

Managing bushfire risks in a changing climate will be a major part of a new Toowoomba Regional Council planning scheme.

The Toowoomba Regional Council has endorsed a new strategy in relation to development in bushfire-prone areas.

The Toowoomba Regional Council’s planning chair says a newly-endorsed bushfire strategy will help mitigate risk of future development projects.

Councillors voted at a special meeting last week to approve the start of a new study into the bushfire risk management, as part of the council’s upcoming planning scheme.

Planning and development chair Councillor Megan O’Hara Sullivan said the motion simply set the framework that the officers would follow.

“As part of this, we will look at a policy or strategy to do with what’s acceptable in vulnerable areas, and acceptable for what will be built,” she said.

“It’s about tightening up the regulations, so if it’s tolerable risk, how do you make it so that those buildings are as safe as possible?

“Like flood-prone areas and people live near cyclone areas, it’s the same principle – it will make it much more acceptable.”

While the motion was a necessary part of the process to create a new planning scheme, Ms O’Hara Sullivan said she was cognisant of how important quality bushfire risk management was to residents.

She said the studies will also factor in the impacts of climate change on the region’s seasons.

“When those bushfires were on (in 2019), it was scary and at the top of mind of everyone,” Ms O’Hara Sullivan said.

“It made us ask how a council (in other regions) could approve houses so close to bushfire areas?

“We’re getting more intense events and less rainfall and the fuel on the ground is getting dryer, so we’ve made sure the studies factor in climate change.”