The devastating fires throughout the Summer of 2019/2020 made it clear that Australian homes need to be ready for future climate disasters. As part of our Green Rebuild Toolkit project, this year we’re focusing on retrofitting exisiting homes to be more resilient in the face of bushfire. Over four online sessions throughout November we will provide the information that you need to get your home best prepared for fire season. You’ll learn how to make easy changes that you can implement quickly, as well as longer term design improvements to plan for. You’ll hear from fire experts, architects, builders, designers, and homeowners who have first hand experience. Each session will feature a panel discussion and a Q&A hosted by Renew CEO Fiona Gray, so bring along your questions.

Retrofitting for Resilience: Water and Landscaping

We’ve all seen that amazing photo of the mulberry tree that is said to have saved a home near Bega in the summer of 2019. This session is all about how landscaping, passive and active water set-ups and garden selection can increase your home’s resistance to bushfire. We'll discuss topics like what plant species are the most fire retardant, and conversely which species are the most flammable. We’ll also explore key considerations in resilient landscape design, as well as how water set-ups such as home sprinkler systems can be activated to help defend your home.

Featuring:

Lesley Corbett

Lesley Corbett is a writer and a keen gardener who lives in the Perth hills, in the southwest region of Western Australia. Late one night she looked out the window and saw flames in State forest, not far from where she lives. The fire had been deliberately lit. Determined to make her garden more firesafe, she began researching plant flammability. ’Safer Gardens’ is the result of that research. This is citizen science. Lesley does not have a scientific background but became very familiar with the subject in the years she spent researching plant flammability, and has assessed over 500 native and exotic plants based on plant flammability tests and reputable studies from around the world.

Susan Bell

Susan Bell has qualifications in horticulture, landscape design, environmental management and strategic planning, with a Masters degree in the latter. She has taught at TAFE and University across a range of related subjects and spent a number of years working as a consultant, designing numerous gardens across the Blue Mountains towns. From 2007 until 2020 she was employed as Principal Urban Designer at the Blue Mountains City Council. She is a registered Landscape Architect.

Nigel Bell

Nigel has been a practicing architect and planner for over three decades within the bushfire-prone Blue Mountains and elsewhere, dealing with the full range of bushfire issues. He’s been at the forefront from writing design guides, educating community and professionals, involved in bushfire recovery in Victoria (2009) and NSW (2013) and presenting to the 2020 Royal Commission on behalf of the Australian Institute of Architects. His evidence included the fundamental need for guidance on bushfire-retrofitting for existing houses that in many cases could mean reliance on active water sprinkler systems. He has continued to promote these concepts to all three Australian Standards to do with bushfire and building.

Fiona Gray (Moderator)

Dr Fiona Gray is the CEO of Renew. Fiona has more than 25 years’ experience as a registered practising architect, urban ecologies researcher and local government leader. Her previous roles include Executive Manager of City Design at the City of Ballarat and the Founder and Director of Civic Collective, an urban research and design consulting agency. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Centre for Regional and Rural Futures at Deakin University and an expert advisor to the Heritage Advisory Committee for National Trust of Australia (Victoria).

Tickets:

This is event is part of Renew's Retrofitting for Resilience series. You can buy tickets to the series here, or an Annual Pass to all extended Sustainable House Day events here.
This event is free for Full Members of Renew. Join up for access to all our events at https://renewportal.org.au
There are a limited number of free tickets to the event for those experiencing financial hardship.
This event is part of our Retrofitting for Resilience event series. You can purchase a series ticket here or an annual pass to all extended Sustainable House Day events here.
Renew depends on the generosity of our community to continue its valuable work. We would welcome your donation here: renew.org.au/donate or via the additional donation option when choosing your ticket.

This project received grant funding from the Australian Government.

This event is also supported by NatHERS, Design for Place, Your Home, Light House Architecture & Science, and Sonnen.