Bushfire
The annual bushfire season on the Gold Coast runs from September through to December, although seasonal changes can extend or shorten this period.
Bushfire alerts
You can subscribe to Gold Coast Alerts or select the ‘QFD Warnings’ filter on the Gold Coast Situation Map on our Disaster and Emergency Management Dashboard.
Be prepared
Being prepared is everybody's responsibility.
Your house may not be threatened by a direct fire front but embers can travel tens of kilometres to affect neighbouring houses. Smoke from a bushfire also can be a threat to your family and pets.
The Queensland Fire Department (QFD) provides the following tips to help you prepare for each bushfire season.
Before a bushfire warning
- Make sure your emergency plan is up-to-date and your emergency kit is ready, should you decide to 'go early'
- Clean gutters, trim overhanging tree branches and bushes around your home
- Make sure you have enough water supply if there is a bushfire
- Clear fuel around the house such as wood piles, boxes and cans of fuel
- Check water systems, pumps or generators are in working order
- Make sure fire trucks can access your property
During a bushfire event in your area
- Listen to the radio for information and updates
- Follow instructions from local authorities
- Disconnect hose and fittings and bring inside
- Go inside for shelter
- Wear protective clothing
- Drink lots of water
- Check and patrol for embers inside, especially in the roof space
- Check family and pets
Be prepared for the effects of a bushfire including heat and wind, smoke, noise, loss of power and phone lines, and loss of water pressure.
After a bushfire
- Listen to the radio for information and updates
- Continue drinking lots of water
- Check for spot fires and embers inside and out (including roof space)
Report all fires to Triple Zero (000)
If your house is seriously damaged, contact the State Emergency Service (SES) on 13 25 00 or the City's Disaster Hotline on 1800 606 000 for assistance.
How do we manage bushfire risk?
Bushfire risk is managed strategically via planning and development, along with on-ground management activities. Some of the bushfire risk management related activities that the City undertakes include:
- supporting wildfire emergency response efforts, working directly with the Queensland Fire Department (QFD) through our Local Disaster Coordination Centre and Local Disaster Management Group arrangements
- ensuring that bushfire management issues and arrangements are incorporated into City policies and strategies
- where relevant, assessing development applications against the Bushfire Hazard Overlay Code that is part of our City Plan
- developing risk-based bushfire management strategies
- monitoring and reducing bushfire fuel, such as dead wood and undergrowth, within selected priority City reserves and land
- planning, coordinating and implementing our annual hazard reduction burn program
- constructing and maintaining fire trails and water tanks on Council land
- mapping bushfire footprints (fire scar extents) and hazardous vegetation
- supporting community bushfire education programs.
We also participate in the South Coast Area Fire Management Group and the Regional Bushfire Committee, both run by QFD.
While we have a vested interest in reducing bushfire risk across the whole of the city, our activities are restricted by law to City-owned or managed land.
Most of the medium and to very high potential bushfire hazard areas within the city are on private property. To learn how to undertake a hazard reduction burn on your property, visit QFD – Lighting fires in Queensland.
To report your concerns about overgrown land on private property, visit our Report a problem – Trees, plants & vegetation page.
Although out of our control, we encourage and educate other natural landholders, public and private, to be vigilant in their bushfire preparations.
Contact us
For more information, phone 07 5629 5629 or 1300 GOLDCOAST.