PWS fire management
The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) is responsible for managing the fire risk and response to bushfires across all the lands which it manages.
In Tasmania there is an agreement between the three key fire management authorities - PWS, the Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) and Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) - to coordinate responses to large bushfires. Large, complex fire incidents are managed by Incident Management Teams in accordance with the nationally recognised Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System.
PWS has a range of fire management specialists, including fire management officers, fire operations officers, fire crews and incident management teams that assist with firefighting each summer.
Management Plans
Fire management strategies and plans are produced for particular reserves. The plans address public and visitor safety and the protection of ecosystems and property.
PWS has developed a fire management plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The preparation of a fire management plan is recommended in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Management Plan (2016) and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Bushfire and Climate Change Research Project.
The plan can be viewed on the Have Your Say page.
Bushfire response and current bushfire situation
The PWS response to bushfires is guided by a suite of fire management policies, guidelines and safe work procedures that align with National Best Practices such as the National Bushfire Management Policy Statement for Forests and Rangelands 2014. For more information on the management of our parks and reserves, please see our Management plans page.
Current information on bushfires, permit fires and planned burns on all lands across Tasmania is available on the TFS website. For information on track, campground and reserve closures or restrictions see our alerts page. Updates on the impact of current fires on our reserves are provided on the PWS news and events page.
For information relating to PWS planned burns, please refer to our Planned burns page.
For information on campfire restrictions, please see the Campfire safety and restrictions page.
Aboriginal cultural burning policy and procedures
Aboriginal cultural burning practices, undertaken for tens of thousands of years, have helped shape the Tasmanian landscape we know today.
To support Aboriginal people to connect with country and share their culture, PWS has developed a policy and procedures for cultural burning on land managed by PWS.
The procedures enable Tasmanian Aboriginal people to conduct cultural burns on country within acceptable risk limits.
View the Aboriginal cultural burning policy and procedure documents.