Bush fire prone land and a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) are different things, made by different people for different purposes. The first is a map of land. The second is an assessment of a site, and it decides how a building there must be built. No map gives a BAL. For new work it is assessed for the site, by an accredited bush fire consultant or, for some development applications, by the applicant using the RFS's kit; for an existing house, the BAL it was built to is in the vendor's documents or the council's development file.
Bush fire prone land is land a council has mapped because it could carry a bush fire or be exposed to one. The council prepares the map and the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service certifies it. A section 10.7(2) planning certificate must say whether all or some of the land is bush fire prone. What the map means.
The map sorts vegetation into three categories, and the RFS ranks them in this order, which is not the numerical one:
Land in a buffer is bush fire prone land too, even if it carries no vegetation itself. Category 3 was added in the 2015 version of the RFS mapping guide, so a map certified under the earlier 2014 version shows only Categories 1 and 2.
There are six Bushfire Attack Levels: BAL-LOW, BAL-12.5, BAL-19, BAL-29, BAL-40 and BAL-FZ. They run from the lowest risk, through ember attack, to BAL-FZ, the flame zone, where a building would be exposed to direct flame. Australian Standard AS 3959 sets the construction requirements for each, so the BAL decides what a new house or an addition must be built to.
The RFS says a BAL depends on the area the site is in, the vegetation, the distance from the vegetation to the building, and the slope.
The bush fire prone land map carries the vegetation category and the buffer. It does not carry the slope under the vegetation or where on the lot a building sits, and a BAL depends on both. Two buildings on bush fire prone land, even on the same street, can have different BALs. No map, including ours, gives a BAL.
For a development application, a BAL can be assessed by an accredited bush fire consultant, or by the applicant using the RFS's Single Dwelling Application Kit, which not all councils accept; the RFS also notes a self-assessment can slow the process. For complying development, only an accredited bush fire consultant or the council can endorse the BAL. For an existing house, the BAL it was built to is a question for the vendor's documents or the council's development file.
For a New South Wales address the report reads the certified bush fire prone land map against the whole lot. It says whether any of the land is mapped, as vegetation or as buffer, how much of the lot is mapped where only part is, and names the nearest mapped vegetation's category and distance. It states what the mapping triggers, and says in terms that it does not establish the BAL of any dwelling.
It is not a BAL, a bush fire assessment or a certificate. It does not measure slope and does not know where on the lot a building stands. The bush fire map shows, for each council, the share of its addresses whose lot is at least partly mapped, and the council pages list what else is mapped there.
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A Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rates how severely a building on a particular site could be exposed to ember attack, radiant heat and direct flame. Australian Standard AS 3959 sets out the six levels, BAL-LOW, BAL-12.5, BAL-19, BAL-29, BAL-40 and BAL-FZ, and the construction requirements for each; Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019 applies them in New South Wales. A BAL is determined for a particular site.
A BAL is distinct from bush fire prone land, which is land mapped by a New South Wales council and certified by the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service. The map classifies vegetation as Category 1 (highest risk), Category 3 (medium) and Category 2 (lower), with buffers of 100 metres for Category 1 and 30 metres for Categories 2 and 3. A BAL depends on the vegetation, the distance to it, the slope and the area the site is in, and cannot be read from the map.
Adapted from NSW RFS web pages. © State of New South Wales (NSW Rural Fire Service). For current information go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au. CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
General information about New South Wales registers. Not legal, planning or valuation advice for any particular property.