Within Western Australia there are a growing number of remote communities within a very wide range of complex ecosystems and rainfall zones. There are hundreds of remote aboriginal communities, many remote mine camps, small towns and hundreds of pastoral stations. All of these community assets are isolated and many are vulnerable to unplanned bushfire events which, if they occur, can have catastrophic consequences. A further level of complexity is the geographic and climatic range that these communities are located within. Many of the community assets are located where the fire predictive tools are required to be interpreted rather than applied in accordance with specifically designed inputs for that particular vegetation type, structure and weather. This community protective work is undertaken within the constraints of the very strong environmental protection legislation and following the ISO 31000 risk management principles and guidelines. In some instances the community protection requirements lead to a direct conflict with the environmental protection legislation.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services, WA (DFES) is working with many of these communities to enhance their protection and increase their resilience. The development of true symbiotic partnerships has demonstrated an exponential benefit to all participants. The bushfire protection in these areas requires specialist skills as these areas have vegetation with no specific, fuel-accumulation rate, no specific, appropriate, fire-spread model and limited accurate, historic, fire-weather data and a high-value community that is potentially at risk from a bushfire attack.

This paper will describe the partnerships between DFES and pastoralists on the Nullarbor, pastoralists in the Kimberley and two isolated mine camps. The paper will discuss the methodology to create a more resilient isolated community and the shared responsibility associated with the creation of a holistic approach to bushfire management where community protection may be in conflict with maintenance of biodiversity.