Living with Bushfire Community Conference 2016

The Living with Bushfire Community Conference was held in Yarra Ranges in October 2016 (LWB‑2016).Now in its fourth year, LWB is a well-established and respected travelling Victorian conference.

Its purpose is to increase community disaster resilience by bringing community together with emergency agencies, business, youth, academia and government to build relationships, learn and share knowledge about bushfire risk, mitigation, relief and recovery.

Due to the generous sponsorship from the conference partners, Council, agencies and business LWB‑2016 was low cost and therefore accessible to all in the community, attracting almost 500 participants. Themed ‘working together for a safer future’, the program included fire behaviour, risk, youth, art, ecology, community impacts, social research, indigenous fire knowledge, community based emergency management and personal experience.

Outcomes from LWB‑2016 include participants having a better understanding their bushfire risk and the responsibilities of individuals and emergency services agencies regarding bushfire management. Participants are now better equipped to prepare for, respond to and recover from a bushfire.

For further information email EmergencyManagementEmail@yarraranges.vic.gov.au (External link)