Chapter 10 – The Opportunity for Improved Regulations After the 2009 Victorian Wildfires1 in Australia

This chapter demonstrates changes that were brought to the regulatory planning after a disastrous bushfire event and discusses the political and technical decisions that triggered these changes. This chapter examines the events after the 2009 Victorian Bushfire season that not only claimed the lives of 173 people on a single day (February 7, 2009, or Black Saturday) but also resulted in significant changes to relevant urban planning and built environment policies and regulations. Data were collected using document and policy analyses, archival, and semistructured interviews with key professionals after the 2009 wildfires. However, the overview of planning-related policies since 1991 demonstrates gradual changes to the overall system and suggests that the 2009 season was a catalyst to facilitate “latent” change embodied in research and science. Furthermore, the changes that were implemented can be considered positive improvements, making this case also a relatively successful example of how the political processes can be used as adjustment mechanisms for planning.