A bushfire resilience app, funded by the Australian Government and launched late last year, is already delivering results for bushfire-prone communities, with strong early uptake from residents, and a mortgage rate incentive for some users currently being trialled by one of Australia’s biggest banks.
The Australian Government contributed $3 million to support the groundbreaking work of the Resilient Building Council (RBC) who launched their free Bushfire Resilience Rating Home Self-Assessment app in October last year.
NAB is the first bank to pilot mortgage rate incentives, currently available in the Shoalhaven region which was impacted by the Black Summer bushfires.
The incentives encourage homeowners to improve the resilience of their home via the Bushfire Resilience Rating home retrofit programs with RBC by offering a lower mortgage rate for participating customers.
The world-first app helps households assess their site-specific risk, take action to improve their bushfire resilience and help put downward pressure on insurance premiums and mortgage interest rates.
Since the app’s launch in October 2023, over 18,000 households (an average of 1000 per week) from 274 bushfire-prone Local Government Areas (LGAs) across the nation have accessed the app.
LGAs with the highest number of households using the app to prepare their homes are:
- Blue Mountains, NSW – 355
- Sunshine Coast, QLD – 343
- Adelaide Hills, SA – 339
- Colac-Otway, VIC - 311
- Snowy-Monaro, NSW – 321
- Bega Valley, NSW – 290
- Eurobodalla, NSW – 284
- Shoalhaven, NSW – 259
- Hobart, TAS – 234
- Armadale, WA – 206
The Bushfire Resilience Rating Home self-assessment app places decades of science and research into people’s hands, allowing them to assess how well their home would perform in a bushfire event.
The app provides households with a free customised action plan, specific to their individual property and local risk. As tasks are completed, the home’s Resilience Rating is updated – allowing people to immediately see the positive impact on their Rating.
Households wishing to participate in RBC’s home retrofit program can find out more via Bushfire Resilience Rating Certification.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Emergency Management, Murray Watt
“The Australian Government’s number one priority is addressing cost of living pressures, because we know a lot of people are doing it tough.
“By using the Bushfire Resilience Rating self-assessment app, not only are you making your home and community safer, but the program is also enabling interest rate discounts for homeowners taking part in the Shoalhaven pilot.
“Seeing thousands of Australians using the app, especially during this peak period for severe weather, is proof that our nation is serious about preventing disasters.”
Quotes attributable to RBC Founder and CEO, Kate Cotter
“The app has helped more people complete home assessments and take effective action to reduce their bushfire risk in a few months, than we could traditionally achieve in a decade.
“We hope to extend the app to all hazards so we can help every Australian reduce their risk to extreme weather and disasters.”
Quote attributable to NAB Executive, Sustainability, Jessica Forrest
“NAB is working to support our customers to withstand and recover from increasingly severe and frequent natural disasters. We are proud to partner with BCP to pilot incentives for home owners to make upfront investments that improve the resilience of their homes.”
Quotes attributable to community members using the app
“The app is an excellent tool to start the process to make our properties safer, and encourage property owners to be proactive and realistic. It helps to keep our properties maintained and ready for disasters,” says app user Alexandra.
“Our personal experience from protecting our property from two major fires during Sampson Flat and Ash Wednesday, is that landscaping and building maintenance helped us in protecting and ultimately saving our property. The app report has helped us identify things we hadn’t yet considered,” says app user Alan.
“The app is quite fantastic. The report helped us identify some shrubs close to the windows and a wooden attached structure that were a serious threat. We’re feeling better now we know what to do to improve our resilience, and we started taking action the same day,” says app user Dominic.
“We are seriously impressed with the Bushfire Resilience Rating app. We appreciate the handbook and supporting information, and everything you’re doing to help our community. We will be sharing this on,” says app user Andrew.
“I was impressed with the questions in the fire rating app. Having completed the assessment and now understanding the issues with my property, I have increased my planned improvements and feeling I’ve covered more than I would have. Feeling good. Thanks to all involved,” says app user Rod.
“I have carried out an assessment using the Bushfire Resilience Rating app. Very impressed and have been promoting the app to customers in our bushfire consultancy,” says app user Rob.
Additional information
About the Resilient Building Council
RBC is a not-for-profit collaboration of independent bushfire, flood, storm, cyclone, heatwave and energy experts. We translate science and research into practical tools to help Australian communities increase their resilience to natural hazards and work with households, governments and industry towards the common goal of measurably increasing climate resilience.
RBC is funded by federal and state government grants and industry sponsors, and works in collaboration with research organisations, households, communities and industry.
About the Bushfire Resilience Rating Home Self-assessment app
The world-first Bushfire Resilience Rating system and free home self-assessment app developed by the Resilient Building Council (RBC) through Commonwealth government disaster risk reduction funding.
The Multi-Hazard Resilience Ratings Expert Assessor program is being developed by RBC and research organisations, in partnership with the Insurance Council of Australia, to help Australians understand which actions measurably increase the resilience of individual homes to local risks, including bushfire, flood, storm, cyclone and heatwave. The project is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and NSW Governments and will be launched in April 2024.
Learn more and access the Bushfire Resilience Rating app.
This release was originally published on the Ministers for the Department of Home Affairs' website.