Tucked away on Western Australia's south coast, wooden chalets and small cabins dot the small riverfront community of Nornalup.

A rare unspoilt town, in the heart of karri and tingle forests, it has proven an irresistible lure for holidaymakers and retirees keen to swap the hustle and bustle of capital cities for a life amongst the trees.

Now, in a cruel paradox, residents fear they could find themselves trapped by the wooded seclusion that draws so many.

"We're sitting ducks," the town's fire control officer Neville Brass said.

"[The problem] is so big that you can't describe it, if a fire comes through, down the river, there's no way as a fire brigade that we can save Nornalup.

"It will wipe out Nornalup."

The Nornalup Area Bush Fire Ready group wants action to save their community. ( ABC Great Southern: Kit Mochan )

Hidden dangers of a tree change for city dwellers

It is difficult not to compare the small wooded hamlet with California's improbably named Paradise, a town almost entirely razed earlier this month by the most destructive wildfire in US history.

The loss of the once picturesque Paradise and 84 of its residents ignited a public debate abroad about forest management which suggestions from US President Donald Trump to rake forest floors to lower fuel loads.

Back in Nornalup, the tiny Australian community is bracing for a summer it fears could spell disaster.

Near a forest that hasn't seen fire since 1937, many residents want the area in the Walpole Nornalup National Park burned back to protect their community — but they've been told it could take authorities years before they are able to.

"There is a build-up of the understorey in the forest that hasn't been burnt for so long. If we could get that burnt by [the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions] that would create a buffer," said bushfire street co-ordinator Gail Guthrie.

"It is a stunning part of the world — the river and the forest. We love the forest, we just want to protect us all as well."

Nornalup has no radio or mobile phone reception. ( ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett )

Compounding their problems, the town has no mobile phone coverage, cannot receive ABC Emergency radio broadcasts and is accessible by one highway in and out of town.

"I suppose if you've got a boat you can go down the river," Mrs Guthrie said.

A community of about 100 people, in summer Nornalup is a holiday haven. ( ABC Great Southern: Kit Mochan )

The population of Nornalup is about 100, but in a story repeated in small bush holiday towns across Australia, this figure swells during the summer holiday period.

"We've got absentee owners that don't know what fire is like," she said.

"They're mostly from the city, they've never seen a fire. The intensity of it, the heat, the roar of a fire. Unless you've been there you don't know.

"They've got no concept. We need to have their houses prepared."

Igniting fires in old forests fraught with danger

Although the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) has earmarked for prescribed burning the area of karri tingle forest that concerns Mrs Guthrie, District Manager Luke Bentley said it could be three years before they are ready to attempt it.

"We are looking at 2021 to complete this prescribed burn," he said.

Douglas Hill, one of the long untouched areas of tingle forests that sits to the north west of Nornalup, has such a high fuel load that the DBCA is working to create buffer zones around it before tackling the ancient woodland itself.

Parks and Wildlife Service regional manager Luke Bentley says igniting a fire in such old forests poses a challenge. ( ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett )

Mr Bentley said the timing of the burn was critical and, if done under the wrong conditions, would put firefighters and the community at great risk.

"If it starts to heat up and we get winds in there it [a prescribed burn] could reignite and we could see an uncontrolled bushfire coming out of there."

In the immediate future the Department is planning to burn along the river to reduce the risk of a fire spreading into the town.

"We are doing an interfaced prescribed burn with the Nornalup community," Mr Bentley said.

Nornalup's fire chief says they are "sitting ducks" in the event of a fire. ( ABC Great Southern: Kit Mochan )

Conservationist questions burning

Not all believe that burning the forest is the answer.

Local conservationist and farmer Tony Pedro believes that there are other ways to reduce the risk of wildfires.

"I think all [controlled burning] will achieve is producing huge amounts of understorey and vastly increasing the fire threat to Nornalup," Mr Pedro said.

"The real opportunity is to have really good equipment with really good surveillance and to be able to get to fires really fast and not have people lighting fires in summer which often turn into wildfires.

Local farmer Tony Pedro says good equipment and surveillance are the keys to safety. ( ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett )

"Some of these trees are 1,000 years old. They've learnt how to live in this environment.

"Flying around with helicopters every seven to 15 years dropping fire bombs, is that the best way of management? I don't think it is at all."

A member of the Nornalup area bushfire ready group, Kath Lymon, said although she could see the value of burning buffer zones to protect the town she was concerned about the effects on the natural environment and native animals.

"I do have some misgivings about what happens with these prescribed burns in terms of how it changes the ecology of the forest," she said.