Burning Bush and Disaster Justice in Victoria, Australia: Can Regional Planning Prevent Bushfires Becoming Disasters?

A range of socio-economic factors determines vulnerability to bushfire disasters. Land use or spatial planning plays key roles in the knowing and governing of landscapes, shaping the relational dynamics of bushfires, people and place. As a determinant of peoples’ exposure to hazards, spatial planning is central to consideration of disaster mitigation and disaster justice. Drawing on experience from Victoria, Australia—a region of intensely destructive wildfires—this chapter explores the opportunities and challenges involved in using integrated planning to mitigate bushfires. With climate change increasing bushfire impacts and intensities, knowledge of bushfires needs to be systemically converted to plans, policies and practices. Learning to live in highly flammable landscapes requires adaptive policies and deeper respect for the co-produced nature of the country and its bushfires.