Fire Ready Apollo Bay
Project
Community report 6/01/2020
The Fire Ready Apollo Bay Project was developed in late 2019 and is a partnership between Apollo Bay CFA, Marrar Woorn Neighbourhood House and Otway Health*. This project was developed after consultation with community to establish what type of local response our community needs in response to a ‘fire event’.
The project aims to:
- Work with Apollo Bay Emergency Services to further develop an Operational Plan for the event of a fire. Emergency services include: Apollo Bay CFA, DELWP, Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Colac Otway Shire and Victoria Emergency Victoria.
- Develop an area wide Community Response Plan for the event of a fire including individual fire plans, business and accommodation planning and linking our community facilities.
Fire Ready Apollo Bay is a big project. It encourages everyone in our community to take a positive approach to fire planning and it gives further support to our local CFA branch. Over the coming months we will have specialist support for our CFA and emergency services to model and review the issues we have in Apollo Bay and surrounds. We will also be working with local businesses and community organisations to help people understand their responsibilities, as well as what they could expect in the event of fire.
There will be a lot of questions, and a lot of learnings. This project aims to give our community more tools so we can work better together and have a better understanding of how to plan and look after each other.
Fire Ready Apollo Bay has been funded by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation with support from Otway Health* and delivered through Marrar Woorn Neighbourhood House.
What has happened to date:
- In late 2019, 3 community meetings were held and were well attended by the community. The meetings resulted in a draft “Apollo Bay and Surrounds Community Response to Fire”. This plan focus was on on what the community can do themselves in the initial hours after a fire occurs, before any other outside support arrives
- Emergency management teams (Apollo Bay CFA, DELWP, Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Colac Otway Shire) are drafting their “Emergency Services Operational Plan”. This plan outlines how emergency services will respond in the event of a fire
- Marrar Woorn Neighbourhood House received funding for the Fire Ready Apollo Bay Project
- Otway Health employed a Community Partnerships Officer to assist in the project.
Next steps:
- Saturday January 18th Community Bushfire Planning Workshop – 10am-1pm at Apollo Bay CFA, 28 Pascoe St Apollo Bay
- Securing specialist consultant to assist with Emergency Services Operational Plan
- Securing consultant to develop Community Response Plan
- Establishing a skills register for those keen to be involved in the project
- Ongoing communication in the Apollo Bay Newssheet and Otway Community News on facebook and Marrar Woorn website, www.mwnh.org .
We would like to thank the community for their contribution to date, many hands make ‘lighter work’. For more information please contact Marrar Woorn Neighbourhood House on 03 5237 8590 or email coordinator@mwnh.org.
*Otway Health is the Apollo Bay campus of Great Ocean Road Health