The Bushfire Planning and Design (BPAD) industry is a relatively new industry in Australia when compared to others (civil engineers, lawyers, doctors etc). BPAD was borne out of the findings of Victorian 2009 Bush Fires Royal Commission. The BPAD industry across Australia is at varying levels of development: NSW legislation since 2002, Victoria circa 1994, and WA is fledgling only starting in the national accredited BPAD system through a legislative framework in 2016.
In 2006 Fire Protection Association Australia developed and implemented BPAD in response to demands from the community, government and industry to establish a recognition program for BPAD Accredited Practitioners to assist the community undertaking development on land subject to bushfire impact.
The challenges across the industry are similar and how do we as an industry work together to resolve these challenges? In this session I will explore the issues confronting the BPAD practitioner as a sole trader, mentoring in the industry, gaining Continuing Professional Development Points (CPD), continuing education in the specialist field, and conflict of interest (both perceived and actual). The BPAD practitioner faces many of these issues on a day-to-day basis, I don’t pretend to have the answers but a journey well-travelled is one we should all do together.
