Safety of community and employees our priority on high fire risk days

Published on 02 December 2025

With an expected hot and dry summer approaching, please be aware that there will be short-term closures at our facilities and service disruptions during the highest risk fire days.

Council policy aims to protect the safety of our employees and the community on days rated by the Country Fire Authority (CFA) as having ‘Extreme’ or ‘Catastrophic’ fire danger.

Under the policy, our employees and contractors will not work or travel in fire risk zones at the highest risk times.

This means services and facilities in high bushfire risk areas (such as Lorne, Aireys Inlet, Anglesea and parts of Jan Juc) and high grassfire risk areas (such as the outer areas of Winchelsea and surrounds), will be impacted on Extreme fire risk days.

Facilities closures and impacts will extend to outdoor facilities in Torquay and other lower risk urban areas on Catastrophic days.

Depending on their location and the fire danger rating on any given day, the following facilities may experience unscheduled short-term closures:

• waste transfer stations;
• Lorne and Anglesea Visitor Information Centres;
• kindergartens and maternal and child health services;
• sport facilities and recreation reserves;
• community facilities, including men’s sheds, community gardens and community houses; and
• health and aquatic facilities.

Kerbside bin collections and emptying of public bins on Council land may be paused or conducted at earlier times (with catch-up collections scheduled as soon as possible), while Council-run events and events on Council land may be cancelled or re-scheduled.

General Manager Community Life Damian Waight said Council was ready to enact its safety policy when needed, with the declared fire danger period now in effect.

“We understand that service disruptions and facility closures are inconvenient, but we will always put the safety of the community and our staff first,” Mr Waight said.

“The expert CFA advice is clear: people should avoid high risk areas on Extreme or Catastrophic fire danger days. These are the days you should be enacting your fire safety plan.

“We will notify the community as soon as we can when closures or service disruptions need to happen, including contacting users directly where possible.

“Sometimes these decisions may need to be made at short notice as weather conditions change.

“We encourage everyone to follow our social media pages for updates as soon as they’re available.

“Thanks in advance for your understanding.”

Updates will be provided on our dedicated webpage.