Australian Fire Danger Rating System Fire Weather District review

The PGA has lodged a submission on the review of Fire Weather Districts (FWDs) under the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS), welcoming the review while raising practical concerns about how district boundaries and rating thresholds are affecting agricultural operations across the state.

The submission supports realigning FWD boundaries with Local Government Area boundaries wherever possible, and endorses the review’s capacity to allow LGAs to move into districts that better reflect their local conditions. The PGA flags a specific example where a shire is grouped with another some 70 kilometres south in a geographically different environment — resulting in Total Fire Bans and restricted burning periods that are misaligned with actual local risk.

More broadly, the PGA raises concern that the AFDRS triggers Total Fire Bans and cancels burning permits at lower thresholds than the previous system, significantly narrowing the windows available for hazard reduction burns, stubble burning, and other essential farm management activities. The submission calls for local knowledge — from landholders, bushfire brigades, and Chief Bushfire Control Officers — to be formally embedded in how the system is applied on the ground.