Fire Management in Wellington Park
Bushfires in Wellington Park are inevitable. Unless suppressed when small and accessible, major bushfires will occur. Since European settlement severe fires have been recorded in the Wellington Range in 1806, 1851, 1897, 1914, 1934, 1945, 1967, 1983, 2001 and 2013.
Approximately 90% of the Park was burnt in the ‘Black Tuesday’ bushfires on 7th February 1967. These bushfires burnt 270 000ha across southern Tasmania including the fringe of Hobart. In five hours, 1300 houses and 128 major buildings were burnt. Sixty-two people lost their lives.
Within the Park bushfires can damage and destroy infrastructure and cultural heritage, reduce scenic values and affect the quality and amount of water that can be extracted from the drinking water catchments in the Park. Although many of the plant communities in the Park benefit from occasional fire, some can be severely degraded by fire. Much of the vegetation in the higher parts of the Park is still recovering from the 1967 bushfires.
In Wellington Park, fuel reduction burning, fire trail management and other bushfire risk mitigation activities are the responsibility of the designated Park Management Agency (City of Hobart, Glenorchy City Council or the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service). These activities are undertaken under permit from the Wellington Park Management Trust to ensure that Park values are maintained. In the event of a bushfire in Wellington Park, the Tasmanian Fire Service is the lead agency to fight fires.
During 2024-25, the Wellington Park Management Trust is working with the Tasmanian Fire Service, Glenorchy City Council, the City of Hobart and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service to replace the Wellington Park Fire Management Strategy 2006 with a mosaic of three strategic bushfire management plans defined by tenure-blind, risk-based boundaries. Sensibly, the plan boundaries do not conform to the Wellington Park boundary, but rather have been defined using 'source of bushfire risk to the priority Human Settlement Areas' identified in the Hobart and Southern Bushfire Risk Management Plans as a lead criterion. This work is due for completion by mid-2025 and is supported by the Tasmanian Government's Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Grants Program.
Park neighbours should reduce the risk of fire through simple preparation and precautions. Every neighbouring household should have a Bushfire Survival Plan and this must be implemented early.
Visitors to the Park are reminded to observe fire restrictions during total fire bans as no fire places can be used during these periods. To minimise the risk to Park visitors and reduce the risk of bushfires, the Park will be closed on days with an Extreme or Catastrophic fire danger rating in either the South East or Upper Derwent Valley forecast districts.
