Bushfire & Emergency Services

SBG Advisory was appointed by Country Fire Authority over several years following the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires and subsequent Royal Commission, to undertake two key pieces of work.

Incident Management Team Training was the first of many recommendations made by the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission investigating the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. During the Royal Commission this one recommendation was identified as being so urgently needed, ahead of the next bushfire season, that it was implemented immediately. We developed the Incident Management Team Training Program (IMTTP) Project Management Plan (PMP) that brought under one program, 12 training programs across various disciplines and behavioural attributes that had been identified as being necessary to achiever higher standards of competency for all IMT Leaders (volunteer and career fire-fighters). This IMTTP program was funded by the Victorian Government to AUD40Mil. and implemented over four fire seasons.

During this period, it became evident that a multi-agency coordinated approach to planning, prevention and management of bushfires was necessary. We led the establishment of the first Victorian multi-agency emergency services coordination committee delegated by the Victorian Fire Commissioner to create an integrated approach to management of emergencies in Victoria involving CFA, SES, DRNE and other emergency services and parks and lands authorities, and to create a forum for collaboration with volunteer fire fighters and communities.

The second piece of work was a review of fire-fighting infrastructure and development of a Strategic Asset Management Plan involving fire-fighting devices, field training grounds and other infrastructure valued at AUD175Mil.