Through its workshops, QFBC provides private landholders, land managers, and other stakeholders with practical information on fire management and biodiversity conservation and allows them to network and collaborate.

Training and workshops include :

• Fire information nights (3 hours). Dedicated to landholders and the public, these sessions are informative overviews of bushfire and fire preparedness. Participants gain practical advice and guidance and hear from local experts on reducing bushfire risk in their specific landscape.
  Local representatives from partnering agencies/organisations present on their respective topics, including (but not limited to) Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES), local government, Traditional Owners, other state agencies, and utility providers.
  The fire information nights are of particular interest to landholders because they focus on fire management roles and responsibilities, fire season planning and preparation, as well as managing fire regimes to protect and enhance native vegetation.
  Topics span from QFES's Prepare Act Survive message to local and state vegetation management laws, local disaster arrangements, agencies’ roles and responsibilities, fire as a land management tool, bushfire mitigation activities within local land management agencies, and more.
• Property fire planning workshops (1 day). These practical sessions give local landholders and land managers the chance to learn how to prepare for and manage fire on their properties and in the surrounding landscape. They provide a better understanding of fire management issues when it comes to risk mitigation, property values, and ecosystem health. The workshops support landholders and land managers to reduce the threat of bushfires/wildfires to life and assets on their property, whilst protecting and enhancing the diversity and abundance of native plants and animals, with considerations for primary production. Using the newly revised QFBC Property Fire Management Planning Kit, landholders are supported to develop their own fire management map and action plan tailored to their individual property, priorities (e.g. primary production and/or conservation), and circumstance.
• Overall fuel hazard assessment training (7 hours). The QFBC has been delivering the overall fuel hazard assessment awareness course since 2010. The aim is to equip prescribed burn practitioners, fire fighters, development assessment officers and land managers with the skills and knowledge to rapidly assess fuel arrangement and its effect on the probability of controlling a bushfire. Learning outcomes are significantly enhanced through hands-on learning via training field days in fuel assessment.
• Fire weather 1 training (7 hours). This is essential training for those involved in the practical use of fire in the landscape. This course provides participants with a basic level of understanding of the relationship between fire weather and fire behaviour. QFBC’s fire weather series provides a unique opportunity to interact with a senior meteorologist with extensive experience in analysing and forecasting weather specifically associated with bushfires and planned burns. Fire weather 1 is a prerequisite for Fire weather 2.
• Fire weather 2 training (2.5 days). This is essential training for senior practitioners involved in the practical use of fire in the landscape. This course was developed to meet the needs of fire agency staff by equipping participants with the knowledge and skills to interpret and apply more advanced weather information to fire related operations. The course is highly practical with the last half-day devoted to applying the concepts to two case studies. It requires participants to have a solid foundational understanding of weather concepts (e.g. completion of Fire weather 1) and a good level of familiarity with fire weather products issued by the Bureau of Meteorology.
• Undertaking a planning and building performance assessment for bushfire protection training (3 days). Bushfires are a natural part of the Australian landscape, but they can have devastating consequences for people, communities, production, cultural values, and the environment. The purpose of this awareness course is to provide practical training for local government officers and other agencies to gain an understanding of the requirements for planning and building for bushfire resilience. The course covers all appropriate bushfire building code and planning regulations under the Queensland framework.
• Fire in the landscape training (tailored to partner). This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the contemporary use of fire across the landscape, including hazard reduction for public safety and infrastructure protection, biodiversity conservation, considerations for production and cultural values, and general land management objectives. The course is tailored for each individual organisation.

All these valuable capacity building tools aim to increase community bushfire resilience, management, awareness, and capacity. For more information, visit www.fireandbiodiversity.org.au.

Established in 1998, Healthy Land & Water’s QFBC is one of the oldest collaborative fire programs in Australia.

The QFBC is a network of land managers and stakeholders devoted to supporting property fire management planning across Queensland, offering a range of resources and services including community fire information events, fire management planning workshops and training, fire management expertise, research support, and best practice recommendations.

By providing tools and support, the QFBC enables landholders and land managers to balance fire safety, property productivity, and land management priorities with protection and management of ecosystem and biodiversity outcomes.

The QFBC facilitates partnerships and collaborations that bolster resilience and improve land management outcomes across landscapes.

The QFBC is about to expand, with the development of three new regional hubs to enable a focus on prioritising and delivering tailored fire and biodiversity outcomes for each region. Find out more about the expansion here.

This incredible work wouldn’t be possible without the support of our important and stellar partners. For information about who they are, go to www.fireandbiodiversity.org.au.