Well our bushfire risk assessment came back at BAL-FZ (Flame Zone) which is the highest rating under the Bushfire Standard. The consultant’s suggestion to reduce this, by only 1 level mind you, was to clear a 25m perimeter around the house. Easy enough. Hang on, isn’t there a VPO on the block.

So we submit an application to council to see what we can remove, and after about a month, they come back saying that we can only remove trees within the BLE.

That means the current design will not conform to the Building codes and standards. So its back to the drawing board to redesign and re-think materials.