Water Tank Intel for Building in Bushfire Management Overlay

With Winter well and truly upon us, I recently had a stark reminder why plastic tanks are not recommended for use in Bushfire Management Overlays.

My compost bin made of the PVC like that used in water tanks recently burnt to the ground. I had placed some ash from cleaning out the fireplace into my compost bin that was a third full of dry horse manure and closed the lid.

I came back the next day to discover the entire compost bin gone!

The ash I had put in the bin must of had a few warm embers in it and the horse droppings which were very dry caught alight, burning the whole bin and catching the wooden fence on fire.

I had seen the PVC water tanks completely melted in the Black Summer bushfires in Gippsland in 2020 - even those ones with water in them - so I should have known better. This is why only concrete or metal tanks are part of the conditions for holding the static water supply for fire-firghting purposes when building in Bushfire Management Overlays