The Bushfire Safety Officer is accountable to the Manager Development Assessment Service for providing professional development assessments for the CFS, consistent with legislative requirements and service standards under Planning and Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 and (General) Regulations 2017.

The Bushfire Safety Officer will be required to:

Undertake in-field site inspections, evaluate site conditions such as vegetation and topography, access and egress, against criteria provided in an assessment and reporting templates.

Exercise a broad understanding of the intent of the assessment and application of criteria in context to make informed judgement, whilst documenting assessment rationale and maintaining accurate records of the process.

Assess planning applications against organisational and legislative criteria and produce reports in regard to planning applications throughout the State.

Establish relationships with relevant local stakeholders including Council representatives on matters relating to planning issues, bushfire prevention and protection and provides technical advice and information in these areas.

Provide consultative services regarding risks to proposed developments to a range of stakeholders.

Serve as a representative of the CFS in providing expert opinions on routine matters before the Environment and Resources Development Court and the State Commission Assessment Panel hearings.

Assess the viability of routine alternative solutions regarding bushfire risks.

Exercise authority and make decisions based on likely fire behaviour to determine appropriate planning conditions, bushfire protection and mitigation strategies.

Contribute to the development of policy, standards and processes to ensure that CFS responsibilities under the Planning Development and Infra-structure Act 2016 and (General) Regulations 2017 are met.

Participate in and maintain up-to-date knowledge of research into building and development controls and bushfire management issues relating to development assessments.

Undertake an emergency support or incident management role, via a defined ‘operational’ on-call roster, with the potential to be re-called under emergency situations, to enable the provision of emergency service activities by CFS to the community. Whilst undertaking such operational roles, personnel will be required to work in emergency situations, which may include day, afternoon, night, or extended shifts.