14 November 2023
This article was written by Jesse Clark, Executive GM of Assets & Infrastructure at Hydro Tasmania
In the wake of recent Tasmanian bushfires, we want to assure Tasmanians that we are bushfire ready, and have plans in place to keep staff, and assets, safe and operational.
Australia’s climate influences have shifted significantly since last spring, and the arrival of El Niño is expected to bring reduced rainfall, more temperature extremes, and a greater risk of bushfires. We take that risk seriously, and the preparation work done by the Assets and Infrastructure (A&I) and Workplace Health and Safety teams ahead of bushfire season, is testament to that.
Our business is responsible for managing approximately 120,000 hectares of land and water resources. Each year our A&I team develops an annual Bushfire Management Plan to ensure sustainable and prudent risk management.
Many of our assets are in remote bush locations which means it’s critical to have proactive and clear emergency plans in place. With this in mind - here’s an overview of how we’re preparing for the summer months:
Above average temperatures and below average rainfall is expected for almost the entire country for the coming season. Many regions have also seen increased fuel growth due to above average rainfall throughout recent La Niña years, which is contributing to increased risk of bushfire across locations in Australia during spring 2023.
Tasmania has a normal bushfire risk for spring 2023, but drier and warmer conditions combined with an abundance of fuel will see the bushfire risk increase towards summer.
In June 2015, individual bushfire preparedness fire management plans were created for each of our power stations and outlying assets. These look at the topography, elevation, and other characteristics of each location to ensure they’re adequately prepared for the bushfire season.
These plans are reviewed each season and routine work is done with help from our vegetation contractors to maintain defendable space around power stations, consisting of an inner building protection zone, known as the Asset Protection Zone (APZ) and an outer zone, called the Fuel Modified Buffer Zone (FMBZ).
These are designed to give things like power stations, pump stations, pipelines, and penstocks as much protection as possible from a wildfire. The better prepared these defendable spaces are the less likely assets are to be damaged by intense radiant heat and windblown embers.
Think of the FMBZ as the first line of defence – designed to reduce the risk of a high intensity bushfire reaching the APZ.
Weather events are tending to be more unpredictable and intense, as a result our actions are ramping up. To provide added protection, we’ve recently taken the steps to introduce hazard reduction burning. Based on vegetation mapping and on the ground surveys, we now perform hundreds of hectares of hazard reduction burns each year. This is proven to be one of the most cost-effective methods to reduce fuel loads and increases the chances of a fire being supressed or self-extinguishing.
In some cases, more extensive vegetation management is required, such as managing and removing the understory of bushland, while maintaining the canopy to protect from ember attacks. We also establish and maintain fire trails as part of our bushfire preparation, providing access for firefighting vehicles during an emergency.
All this work is done in consultation with a range of stakeholders, including the Tasmania Fire Service, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife, TasNetworks, and Sustainable Timber Tasmania, in accordance with best practice standards and legislation.
We look to take a risk-based approach to tackling fires - if we come across a small fire we feel comfortable and competent to extinguish then we will do so. However for larger fires we will leave it to the experts and revert to providing support and assist with mop up afterwards.
In recent years we have had significant fires close to our assets. Our involvement in fires around Rowallan and Fisher Power Stations in the Mersey Forth, Lake Echo and Waddamana in the Upper Derwent and Gordon area have all provided valuable insights and learnings for us to feed back into our planning and preparations.
The safety and wellbeing of our people underpins everything we do at Hydro Tasmania, and we want everyone to stay safe. As important as our assets are, we simply couldn’t function without passionate people driving the business. That’s why Hydro Tasmania is committed to maintaining the highest safety and wellbeing standards for our staff – that’s no different during bushfires.
Finally – if bushfire preparation is of interest to you these two free online courses from UTAS are valuable resources:
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