Brookton orders compulsory firebreaks and 75mm hazard cut for 2026/27 season

The Shire of Brookton has ordered every owner and occupier of land in its district to clear firebreaks or reduce vegetation to a maximum height of 75mm ahead of the 2026/27 fire season. The notice was issued under section 33(1) of the Bush Fires Act 1954 and published in the Western Australian Government Gazette of Tuesday 3 November 2026. It appears as item LG501 in the Local Government section, on page 2537.

A statutory duty on every owner and occupier

The order follows the standard mechanism used by Western Australian local governments to compel fuel reduction on private land before the bushfire season. Section 33(1) of the Bush Fires Act 1954 empowers a local government to give notice that owners and occupiers of land within its district must undertake specified works on the land they own or occupy, and the Brookton document uses that wording directly: the requirements fall on “the owners and/or occupiers of land within the district”.

The notice is one of a series of municipal firebreak orders gazetted in the same publishing cycle, and it sits in the same edition as rate-basis determinations for the City of Rockingham and the City of Swan issued by the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety. Unlike those instruments, the Brookton order carries no ministerial delegate’s signature line in the published text — the obligation is imposed by the Shire itself as the body corporate responsible for bush fire control in the district.

Different rules by land size and land type

The order divides the shire’s land into three categories, each with its own compliance standard, and the thresholds turn on property area.

• Townsite land of 2,023m² or less: vegetation fire hazard reduced to a maximum height of 75mm, with all slashed material removed.
• Townsite land over 2,023m²: either a minimum 3m wide bare earth, unobstructed and trafficable firebreak built within 3m of the property boundaries, or reduction of the vegetation to a maximum height of 75mm including removal of slashed material.
• Rural land of 100 hectares or less: a 3m wide minimum bare earth, unobstructed and trafficable firebreak within 30m of the property boundary, plus a 5m wide minimum bare earth firebreak within 15m of, and surrounding, all buildings, sheds, fuel storage including drums and flammable chemicals, silos and fodder stacks, and hay stacks in sheds, or within 400m of infrastructure such as operational generators and stationary motors.
• Rural land over 100 hectares, including aggregated holdings: the same 5m wide firebreak requirement around buildings, fuel storage, silos, fodder and hay stacks and infrastructure, with seed cleaners excluded.
• Hay and straw stacks in open paddocks: stacks awaiting pickup and removal are not required to be surrounded by a firebreak.

Plantations get the toughest standard

The notice also defines a plantation as an area of planted trees, other than a windbreak, exceeding 3 hectares within gazetted townsites or exceeding 10 hectares outside a townsite, and imposes a two-part regime on such land:

• Boundary firebreaks: a 15m clear area on all plantation boundaries and along public roads, with a trafficable surface of at least 5m width of clear bare earth and a minimum vertical clearance of 4m, while the remaining 10m must be kept in a low fuel condition.
• Compartment firebreaks: internal breaks between compartments of up to 30 hectares must be at least 6m wide, and at least 10m wide for compartments over 30 hectares, with a 5m trafficable surface and 4m vertical clearance in all cases so firefighting appliances can gain access.

The published text specifies the works required but does not attach a separate completion or maintenance date to the obligations, which rest on the section 33(1) notice as gazetted.

Why it matters

For Brookton landholders the order converts general bushfire advice into an enforceable legal duty, with the 75mm vegetation limit and the 3m and 5m bare-earth standards applying according to where the property sits and how large it is. With the notice now on the public record as LG501, compliance can be tested against a published standard, and the shire’s authorised officers have a documentary basis for inspecting holdings across townsite, farmland and plantation alike.

Source: Western Australian Government Gazette, No. 140, 3 November 2026, Local Government, p. 2537 (official reference: LG501).