Lifestyle
The bushfire on your doorstep — why metro Perth must prepare
Above average rainfall has increased the bushfire risk this season even in metro areas.
Updated • Published
9 min read
Text size
Lifestyle
4 min readLifestyle
Above average rainfall has increased the bushfire risk this season even in metro areas.
Updated • Published
9 min read
Text size
Updated •
Published
Text size
In the summer of 2021, suburbs across Perth’s north eastern fringe faced grave danger.
A bushfire of the size normally seen only in the wooded areas outside the city started in Wooroloo. With February temperatures in the high 30s, the blaze quickly raged through the Shire of Mundaring and City of Swan.
Over six days, 86 homes were destroyed and 110 were damaged, eclipsing the 57 destroyed in the area by fires seven years earlier.
Fortunately, no lives were lost, but the scale of the blaze could have been far worse — only a downpour of rain allowed it to be brought under control and avoid residential neighbourhoods nearby.
The Wooroloo fire has become emblematic of the challenges Perth’s suburbs face as bushfire season approaches.
The same conditions that make it easier for fires to start and spread outside the city apply in urban areas as well, and the risk to lives, homes and infrastructure continues to grow.
But many city dwellers underestimate the risk that bushfires can pose — and that’s a perception fire authorities are anxious to change.
The recently released Seasonal Bushfire Outlook for summer 2025-26 has identified a heightened risk of fire for regions across the western and southern parts of our state.
In Yalgoo and the Geraldton Sandplains to the north of the city, spring rains mean increased brush and grass, which has created additional fuel for fires. In late November and early December, a major fire impacted homes in suburban Geraldton, resulting in property damage.
Along the Esperance Plains and Mallee regions in the Great Southern, years of declining rainfall means soil around the rootzone of plants remains dry, also increasing risk.
Closer to the city, northern parts of the Swan Coastal Plain and the inland jarrah forests have been highlighted as having higher than usual bushfire risk, due to persistent deficits in soil moisture.
This might seem counter-intuitive, given that Perth had a wetter than average winter, but the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jessica Lindgren says years of drier winters have taken a toll.
“Perth has seen above average rainfall through both winter and spring, but unfortunately it does little to overcome the deficit of the multiple years of below average rainfall that preceded it,” she says.
“The root zone soil moisture was high during winter and spring, but has already started to dry out as rainfall has become lighter and more sparse, and the temperature has warmed.
“The rain that has fallen through the season has not been able to sink into the deeper layers of the soil, which are dry due to multiple below-average years.”
Soil dryness is correlated with bushfire risk and is now increasingly used as a predictor of how easily a fire can spread.
While the metro area has not been singled out as being at increased risk, that’s little comfort given the high number of bushfires we can expect in any given year.
In 2024-25 there were 5191 bushfires around the state, burning around 754,366 hectares. Around 60 per cent occur in Perth’s bushfire season, which runs from November to April.
In November 2025 alone, there were 189 fires in the metropolitan area including a fire at Wireless Hill in Ardross, which burned more than 10 hectares and required 27 fire trucks and aerial support to bring under control.
It was followed by a fire in Aubin Grove that burned 20 hectares and threatened nearby homes.
Speaking at a press conference to announce WA’s fire response for summer, Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said fire preparation was essential given the inherent risks of living in WA.
“Some 93 per cent of WA is bushfire prone and every year we have approximately 4000 bushfires,” he said.
The Aubin Grove bushfire was the first really significant fire of the season in the urban area, but authorities were preparing for a busy summer, particularly in the areas highlighted by the Seasonal Bushfire Outlook.
Firefighting aircraft will be deployed from early December to monitor potential spot fires along the Darling Scarp and fire fighting vehicles and appliances have been moved to high-risk areas including the Mid West.
“This is a daily and sometimes twice daily event where we are constantly assessing the risks that the weather presents, in line with soil dryness indicators, and that drives where we put our resources,” Klemm said.
“It’s a strong reminder to sit down with your family and work out your plan.”
To support better preparation, the WA Government has re-released an app designed to encourage people to have access to a bushfire plan and emergency advice on their phones.
The Emergency WA app includes live maps of bushfires and other incidents as well as emergency alerts, but has been extended to allow people to pinpoint specific locations.
The app now offers a planning tool that allows residents to designate up to 10 ‘watch zones’ and be notified of any emergency changes in that area.
It will replace the My Bushfire Plan website by consolidating alerts and planning in one location.
Already a quarter of a million Western Australians have the app downloaded, while the Emergency WA website had more than 37 million views in the past year.
Despite the efforts of authorities, most of us have never lived through a bushfire and that lack of familiarity with how fires work can put lives and homes at risk.
Dry hot days unsurprisingly pose the highest risk, causing vegetation to dry out and become more flammable.
The worst fires occur when there are strong winds, which fan the flames and push them towards new sources of fuel.
But fires can also create their own localised weather — from thunderstorms that form in the cloud of smoke, known as pyrocumulonimbus clouds, to fire whirlwinds.
In the case of pyrocumulonimbus clouds, strong updrafts draw in air from all directions, causing fires to burn hotter and faster. They can cause unpredictable changes in fire behaviour, making the blaze more hazardous to fight.
Fire whirlwinds are caused by intense local heating generated by a bushfire, which makes the air above the fire become more unstable.
Where heavy concentrations of fuel are burning, fire whirlwinds can form and grow from a few metres in height to tornados several hundred metres high.
The vegetation we have also impacts the way fires burn.
Grassfires burn in a matter of minutes and travel fast, damaging crops, fences and smaller structures, but bushfires burn slower and hotter, and can smoulder for days.
Many of our native plants are fire prone, even using fire to regenerate. In tall eucalypts, fire can spread quickly from tree to tree through the canopy.
And even if you are some distance from the immediate blaze, you might be at risk from embers and burning bark known as firebrands.
Researchers have established these can travel alight vast distances on the wind, up to 40km ahead of a blaze, and ignite spot fires.
Despite the risks, many people believe they don’t live near enough to areas that could catch fire or that any blaze would be quickly contained.
That belief can lead to apathy, and in the wake of the Wooroloo bushfire, 
When disaster struck, many residents stayed — even when advised to leave — despite often being unprepared and lacking a true understanding of the scale of the threat.
Some even expected the incident management team to deliver food and water while they stayed, the review found, creating challenges for those trying to fight the fire.
But it is not just the urban fringe that is at risk.
The Perth’s City of Stirling has 1780 hectares of parks and conservation areas, including bush reserves such as Trigg where past fires have threatened homes.
The coastal Town of Cambridge has Bold Park, frequently the site of scrub fires.
Even the City of Perth has experienced fires that have taken hold in Kings Park.
In the wake of the Wooroloo fire, local councils have increased both inspections and enforcement, requiring residents in potential bushfire zones to prepare properties or face fines of up to $5000 for those who refuse to comply.
All property owners should keep grass around their homes cut to 10cm or less during fire season, and keep shrubs pruned so they are not dense. Gutters should be clean of leaves and debris.
For rural property holders, additional steps are required, including maintaining appropriate fire breaks and exclusion zones around homes, and ensuring there is sufficient access for fire fighters to be able to get onto properties.
Councils also can issue more detailed notices for property owners depending on the specific circumstances of the land and potential risk.
Remaining aware of changing weather conditions is also critical, says the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jessica Lindgren.
“It is important to follow the Bureau's daily weather forecasts, and monitor the fire weather danger throughout summer,” she says.
“As the danger increases, it is crucial to follow the advices from DFES regarding what activities we are, and are not, allowed to partake in on particular days, such as bans on open fires, vehicle movement or when a total fire ban has been called) in order to keep our communities safe.”
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services recommends you:
Create a 20m building protection zone around your home and other buildings.
Maintain a minimum two-metre gap between trees and your home, and prune lower branches.
Keep grass short, prune shrubs and trees and clear gutters and roofs of leaves.
Ensure hoses can reach all corners of your property.
To prevent sparks and embers getting into your home, place a mesh guard on your air conditioner and block any gaps under floor spaces, in the roof and under eaves.
