Folk who want to build in the bush need to have a mandatory code applied to all such building approvals.

First, there needs to be an area of completely cleared land around the domicile. An engine-powered, ride-on brush cutting razor the minimum!

The domicile cannot be built with timber or any other flammable material, there should be a 2 metre high colourbond fence and the supporting framework, concrete and steel.

Houses should come with steel frames and metal roller doors mounted just under eves.so as to exclude any ember storm.

The yard, front back and sides, need to have popup sprinklers and the roof needs several to ensure wetting during any fire overwhelming period.

One notes that 445 folks died of smoke inhalation during our last firestorm season!

And there needs to be at least two million litres of reserve water storage to support such amenity that can disappear at the rate of 5,000 litres an hour! hemp and limestone bricks are not just fireproof but have thermal qualities that make life more tolerable during heat waves and the coldest winter night

There needs to be a buried shipping container equipped with a toilet and reserve water etc to last at least 24 hours, as your last stay and fight refuge/firestorm shelter.

If we are to return to past practice? Then let it be grazed national parks and selectively logging of all bushland! And where logging roads became natural fire breaks and where dozens more eyes were there and alert to any outbreak of fire!
Alan B.

Alan B's got a lot to say but not much to contribute. Blackfellas burnt to maintain access and food, for cooking, heating, signaling, sanitation and celebration as well as to flush out, uncover or attract game. Burning is easy and safe and fun when it's done properly as it was when i started working in the bush. Fires get away now because RFS Bureaucrats got rid of most of all the old hands that knew what they were doing and stood up to the bosses with the uniforms and medals and stupid rulebooks. Now they light lines of fire from the bottoms of hills and across the wind. Of course they get away. Most burns are too hot and create more fuel - hazard production burns. If you do it right, the more you do the easier it gets.

Alan B, we really gotta educate blackfellas! Silly buggers bumbled through more than 40,000 years of climate change without boots or overalls or colorbond fences or limestone bricks or buried shipping containers.
But never mind. Stuart Ellis is giving evidence to the Royal Commission tomorrow. He headed up the COAG inquiry that delivered us education instead of sensible land management. 15 years of "Learning to live with bushfires" killed hundreds of people. Looks like we're lining up for more of the same.

I very much doubt there are many aborigines left who know much about fire. The when, why & the how is long gone among most of them, & none have actual practice, at least not in areas where people are killed & many homes burnt.

How ever there are still a number of graziers who have long experience, & even a few who learnt the art from the old aboriginals.

Around here the old hands burnt most paddocks every 4 years. The rotation was 2 years grazing, a year locked up to grow enough fuel to carry a warm fire, then a burn in the forth year, followed by grazing to pick off sprouting scrub.

These burns were not for bush fire control, but for woody weed control. With out the regular burns the woody weeds & saplings proliferated crowding out grass, & producing the dangerous understory that makes fires hot & dangerous.

This burning maintained the open woodland best for grazing, & prevented the dangerous fires we see today. Too many greenie regulations & too many tree changers bitching their heads off at a whiff of smoke have led to many giving up. The really good graziers have cleared their places & planted improved pasture, with no weed control required.

Meanwhile there are far too many tree changers building in places that are pretty, & have great views, but are a death trap in a big fire. While we have some councils fining people for clearing a suitable fire break around their homes, we know fire reduction will never be practiced as needed.

Little,
The Blackfellas weren't vying for positions on podiums for Hero status either !

Hasbeen and Individual,
There's not many blackfellas or whitefellas left that have been brought up with it and know how to do it. But there's enough. The problem is green academics, emergency services chiefs and politicians.
With Bradstock giving expert advice to NSW Inquiry, and Ellis giving evidence to the Royal Commission, there's no bloody hope of our elected politicians working for us and restoring sanity.