Protecting our water catchments from bushfire
Most of Melbourne's water comes from within 160,000 hectares of uninhabited forested catchments north east of Melbourne.
It's critical that we protect these native forests from fire. Here's how:
Closed catchments
Most of the catchments are off-limits to the public. This reduces the risk of fires starting in the first place.
Early warning and detection
Fire tower in the Upper Yarra catchment
Lightning tracker - Lightning can start fires, so we use the Department of Sustainability and Environment's tracking tool to locate lightning strikes.
Fire towers - Help us spot fires when they start and put them out before they take hold. Our 4 towers are part of a network with the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Country Fire Authority towers.
Regular patrols - Fire fighters patrol our catchments during fire season.
Fire breaks and access roads
Areas cleared of ground cover vegetation (up to 30 metres wide). Fire breaks are designed to stop the spread of fire. Many double as service roads and fire tracks.
1,860 kilometres of access roads assist quick and safe fire fighting.
Fire breaks established during the 2006/07 Great Divide Fire were critical in keeping fire out of the Thomson and Upper Yarra catchments. Department of Sustainability and Environment is currently creating 500 kilometres of fire breaks to help protect Melbourne's catchments, in addition to the 126km of firebreaks we currently maintain.
Fire fighters
We have more than 30 permanent accredited fire fighters based near water catchment areas year round. During fire season, more than 100 trained fire fighters on standby.
Fire Equipment
Water bombing helicopter releases water over a fire
5 tankers and 5 bulldozers are part of a wide range of fire fighting equipment. We also have a water bombing helicopter on standby, dedicated to our catchments.
40 water tanks (22,000 litres each) are strategically located in the catchments to provide easy access to water for fire fighting.
In the event of fire...
There are ways we can safeguard the quality of Melbourne's drinking water supply if there was a major bushfire in the catchments.
Our 9 water storage reservoirs are spread over a wide area and we can transfer water between them. If bushfire affects one (like Thomson or Upper Yarra), we can rely on supply from the others (like Silvan, Cardinia and Sugarloaf) for the period of weeks or months that it might take for the water quality to return to normal.
Longer-term impacts of bushfire are harder to manage. Forests recovering from fire need a lot of water and that would reduce the runoff available for reservoirs.
Some estimates say it can take more than a century after a bushfire for the catchments to return to normal. That's why we work hard to protect them.
Brief history of bushfire in catchments
1939 - 129,000 hectares of our catchments burnt including Maroondah, O'Shannassy, Upper Yarra and Thomson.
1982/83 - 17,000 hectares burnt (5,000 ha in Wallaby Creek Catchment in late November and 12,000 ha in the February Ash Wednesday fires at Starvation, McMahons, Upper Yarra and O'Shannassy catchments).
2006/07 - Major summer bushfires came close to entering the Thomson and Upper Yarra catchments but were stopped by efforts of fire fighters and fire breaks.