BAL Assessment Blairgowrie Mornington Peninsula

The main bushfire hazard for BAL assessments in Blairgowrie is within the Mornington Peninsula National Park. The Coastal Heathland in this park is highly flammable. Th orientation of the park fas a long narrow coastal strip that runs from South East to the North West means the prevailing South Westerly winds would push a bushfire right up to the adjoining residential allotments and throw embers into the back yards.

Predominately Coastal Tea-Tree and Coastal wattles with scattered Moonahs and increasingly heavily infestations of woody weeds such as polygala make up the fuel load in the park. While the residential allotments have largely urban gardens they are interspersed with remnant coastal heathland species and Tea -trees are especially retained to provide a cover of privacy.

The distribution of the vegetation across the local landscape lends itself to the possibility of multiple small quick spot fires ignited from a larger bushfire that starts in the Coastal Park under a prevailing South Westerly wind, causing confusion and chaos as people try to get out along the narrow avenues onto the Melbourne Road. As a high bushfire risk area this is a good place to develop a traffic flow/evacuation plan.