As New South Wales and Queensland grapple with devastating bushfires which have arrived unusually early, Victorians are getting battle-ready for the predicted emergencies that lie ahead this summer.

Key points: Victorian councils are now inspecting properties and issuing warning letters to anyone whose property poses an unnecessary fire risk

Victorian councils are now inspecting properties and issuing warning letters to anyone whose property poses an unnecessary fire risk Many councils are concerned that rapid population growth means suburbia is encroaching into very fire-prone areas

Many councils are concerned that rapid population growth means suburbia is encroaching into very fire-prone areas Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said Gippsland should expect above-average fire conditions this summer.

While fields in some parts of this southern state remain green, it will not be long before the landscape turns various shades of yellow and brown.

In Bannockburn, a small town located about 30 minutes north of the Geelong city centre, the wind tears across the open paddocks, bending waist-high grass flat to the ground.

It is not hard to imagine what would happen if a fire ripped through here in the dry heat of summer.

But the demographics of this once rural shire are changing fast and the influx of new residents is bringing significant challenges ahead of fire season.

Matthew Sims is responsible for issuing fire prevention notices to property owners who are not meeting their obligations under the CFA Act. ( ABC News: Nicole Mills )

Australian Bureau of Statistics data from March showed Bannockburn had a growth rate of 3.6 per cent, making it the ninth-fastest-growing regional area in the state.

Small residential blocks now line the edge of open farmland.

Golden Plains Shire fire prevention officer Matthew Sims said it was a situation mirrored by many rapidly growing areas on Melbourne's peri-urban fringe.

"We do have a lot of people moving from outside the area who might not know what to do in relation to fire prevention," he said.

Authorities are concerned that not everyone living in houses on the fringes of Victoria's cities are prepared for the bushfire season. ( ABC News )

"There's a lot of lifestyle blocks. There's a lot of people that have come out of Ballarat and Geelong with horses or a couple of sheep, and that do want to live in this lifestyle.

"But they just have to be mindful of the fire danger."

It is his job to inform them of their legal obligations.

Each November, Mr Sims and colleague Lynette Sorgiovanni travel across the large shire, issuing infringement notices to anyone whose property poses an unnecessary risk.

It could be as simple as long grass which needs mowing, but more recently they have noticed an increase in people ignoring their properties' planning permits and opting for cheap plastic water tanks which do not meet the requirements set by the Country Fire Authority (CFA), who need to tap into private water supplies in an emergency.

While the majority of people act on the infringement notices issued by the council, the rest are slapped with a $1,652 fine and contractors are sent in to do the work at the property owners' expense.

Some residents get annoyed at what they view as council revenue raising, but the shire insists it would be happy if it never issued another fine (fines which are mandated by the statewide CFA Act, not local government laws).

It would mean the entire region was safer.

"Earlier this year there was a grass fire within Golden Plains Shire. We lost 1500 hectares of land," Mr Simms said.

"There was a house that was smack bang in the middle which completed all the fire prevention works throughout the fire danger period.

"That house survived even though everything around it was destroyed."

Virtual reality helps preparation

In Colac, about 70 staff and volunteers from various agencies gathered in the incident control centre to respond to a fictional emergency.

Stephanie Ryan was the incident controller in the exercise. ( ABC News: Nicole Mills )

Michael Harper is running the exercise, which is dubbed White Lightning.

This fire and its spread are computer generated, and officers will have to address a public meeting created using virtual reality.

But Mr Harper insists that "in here, it's real".

He knows what can happen when mistakes are made; when agencies aren't prepared.

Victorians are still traumatised by the 173 lives lost on Black Saturday in 2009.

Michael Harper hopes the exercise builds strong working relationships that could save lives in a bushfire emergency. ( ABC News: Nicole Mills )

"Every year we make slight changes, which come out of debriefs from the previous fire season," he said.

"We want people to practice what they're going to have to enact … and more importantly we like people to build relationships between the agencies so that when we have a fire in the landscape, people know who they're talking to and we're able to work together better."

Don't rely on us, CFA warns

CFA South West acting assistant chief officer Peter Creak said preparation was built around worst case scenarios.

He said it was an approach homeowners should take too.

"In a worst-case scenario, we're not going to be able to get a fire truck to every house in a high risk area," he said.

A bushfire that broke out of the Bunyip State Park in March destroyed 29 houses. ( ABC News: Iskhandar Razak )

"What we'll do is focus our efforts on protecting as many of the community as possible and that might mean that there are parts of the community that won't have immediate access to our resources.

"So you need to make a decision as part of your bushfire plan about where you're going to be, and that might be away from your property."

Mr Creak also warned people not to rely on one method of gathering information.

"You need to be continually reviewing the information that's out there because in an emergency, the situation can change very, very quickly," he said.

"You might be very comfortable one minute and then a fire might change or the weather might worsen, and your situation might become more difficult very soon."

Are we getting better at it?

Emergency Management Victoria commissioner Andrew Crisp said above-average fire conditions were expected in the greater Gippsland region.

"What that means is we're more likely to see protracted campaign fires," he said.

And while parts of the state have had some good rainfall, Mr Crisp said there was always a risk of fire.

The outlook is used by fire authorities to make strategic decisions on resource planning for the season ahead. ( Supplied: BNHCRC )

But he said agencies were getting better at bushfire preparation every year and Victoria was "well and truly ready" for this fire season.

"Victorians should be comfortable and confident," he said.

"Yes, we live in Victoria, we're coming into summer, fire is part of our history … however, we have got better at how we actually prepare for those fires."

Mr Crisp warned it was not just up to fire agencies to prepare.

"It's a shared responsibility," he said.

He recommended every Victorian download the Vic Emergency app, know who the emergency broadcaster is and make a plan, including when they were going to leave.

The growing fuel load

Mr Crisp said planned burns were an important part of reducing the fuel load, but conducting them was becoming more difficult.

"Our fire season is longer and therefore the times when they can actually do their planned burns is shrinking," he said.

"So they're looking at other ways that they can achieve the same outcomes. So looking at traditional owner methods like burning in wintertime.

"Forest Fire Management Victoria already use mechanical means so using bulldozers and other equipment."

Are there enough CFA volunteers?

After the Victorian Government passed its controversial fire service reforms earlier this year, some predicted a mass exodus of CFA volunteers.

But Mr Crisp said the numbers were stable.

"I'm very confident in terms of volunteer numbers. They have been stable for a number of years and I've been reassured yet again for this year we basically have the same numbers that we had last year," he said.

"I get out to a lot of brigades and I hear nothing other than that they're committed to keeping their community safe."

Forest Fire Management Victoria firefighters battled the Dargo bushfire with help from many other agencies, in March 2019. ( Instagram: twitch_767 )

He said most of the fires last season were actually on public land, which was the responsibility of Forest Fire Management Victoria.

"Every year they bring on more than 600 project firefighters and they've increased their numbers this year," he said.

"So you've got FFM Vic, you've got Parks Victoria, there's a whole range of other paid firefighters that you've actually got to think about in terms of where the fires actually occur. It's not just about the volunteers.

"Volunteers do an absolutely wonderful job and we need them in terms of their numbers for that surge capacity. But they're one part of the picture."