Firefighters and farmers brace themselves for the upcoming bushfire season

Firefighters and farmers are among those bracing themselves for the next bushfire season after the Bushfires and Natural Hazards CRC released its outlook for the 2016 bushfire season.

It predicts that in many parts of Australia the start of the bushfire season may be delayed due to higher levels of rainfall throughout spring, but that fuel loads are also likely to increase as a result.

Mapping (see gallery) indicates that Western Australia is at higher than normal risk over the coming months, as well as parts of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.

Garry Davis, Donnybrook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Service Brigade media liaison and firefighter, said people needed to be prepared around their homes and have bushfire plans ready.

"People need to be prepared in particular because of what's going on with the season,” Davis said.

"If they go onto the DfES website they can go through their plans if need be."

Donnybrook people had to get their act together now, he said.

“Our job is to look after the town, we support the bushfire brigade. There are some controlled burns happening in town soon."

Davis said a deliberately lit bushfire – that happened last December – could easily have spread through to the town.

A bushfire preparation meeting will be held at the Brookhampton Hall on October 23 at 10am to get people up to speed with their bushfire plans in what is considered a high-risk area.

Bridgetown-Greenbushes deputy chief fire control officer and Yornup fire control officer Michael Campbell said there would be more grass due to a late and wet winter.

"You've got to abide by local fire break laws and make sure you've got good clearance around your building and have a fire action plan in place,” Campbell said.

"Now is the time to start preparing, there's no point in preparing in a month's time when it's dry."

Keith Scott, owner of St Margaret's Vineyard in Margaret River, has about 10 hectares of bushland to keep as clean as possible.

He said he would go through the same process as he does every October.

"I guess it's common sense to us as farmers, but we make sure our firebreaks are in. I have 365 breaks as they turn; and that's all the way around my farm, three metres wide,” Scott said.

As one of three Rosabrook fire control officers, Scott pays a visit to the residents in his district to discuss early burning and to hand-out bushfire ready information to those who want it.

"[I] basically tell them that they can't exactly expect a red or a white truck to turn up the moment they get a bushfire."

He estimated about half of the 130 homes are non-residents who live in Perth.

Scott visits those properties over weekends in build-up to the anticipated bushfire season.

"We don't really get dangerous here until December."

He said the risk was high this year because of the wet and cold winter.

"We're hoping for a below-average fire season," he said with tongue in cheek.

Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance spokesperson Jim Casey was a career firefighter with Fire and Rescue NSW.

"We're a concerned group of firefighters around the country who are basically trying to raise the question of awareness around climate change because of the way it's affecting our workload,” Casey said.

"Our concern is the conditions under which we're expected to do our work. It's deteriorating and will continue to deteriorate. There's only so much you can do at the end of a fire hose."

The Bushfires and Natural Hazards CRC suggests that a combination of a warmer than average winter, in conjunction with a wetter than average winter, is setting us up for a difficult season.

“The reason for that: a short and a wet winter reduces the window for hazard reduction, so it reduces the space in which we've got time to burn off.

"There are parts of WA that I think are going to see a higher than average bushfire this coming season.

Casey predicts that it will be a late start to this fire season and a bad one.

"The thing we're really saying to people is that there's only so much you can do as an individual and there's only so much we can do as firefighters,” he said.

"We don't know if this is going to be a bad year, we don't have a crystal ball, but what is certain is that it's not a question of 'if', it's a question of 'when'.

"As our planet warms we will see more catastrophic fire behaviour. It's an issue that Australians, collectively, need to try and address."

For the full outlook, including state and territory breakdowns, go to: bnhcrc.com.au/hazardnotes/019