Corangamite Shire Council is urging the Victorian Government to significantly strengthen its preparedness for future bushfire seasons.
In a submission to the inquiry into the 2026 summer fires across Victoria, Corangamite details seven key recommendations.
Mayor Kate Makin said the scale, speed and complexity of the January fires had exposed serious gaps in Victoria's emergency management systems.
"While we are incredibly proud of our community's resilience, we need the State to act now so we are not left this vulnerable again," she said.
"The local firefighting effort involved about 190 appliances, including 50-60 private farm units, supported by heavy machinery and volunteer groups.
"The existing equipment is ageing, and volunteer numbers are falling which underlines the need for serious investment in equipment and fleet upgrades, training, and practical support to retain emergency volunteers.
"Our volunteers are extraordinary, but they cannot continue doing more with less."
Mayor Makin said local government carried a disproportionate share of the emergency burden.
"Councils are expected to lead preparedness, relief and recovery with funding that simply does not match the level of responsibility.
"Municipal Emergency Resourcing Program (MERP) funding has not kept pace with growing obligations and more frequent catastrophic conditions. The state must fix this before the next fire season."
The fires also revealed alarming weaknesses in critical infrastructure, including power and telecommunications reliability.
"If phones are down, if the power is out, people cannot receive warnings or protect their families," Cr Makin said.
"The State must prioritise telecommunications redundancy and community‑level backup power systems."
Council's submission also calls for a significant expansion of roadside fuel management, which remains a major concern among residents.
Recovery must be locally led and backed by flexible funding, particularly for fencing, mental health, small business recovery," Cr Makin said.
"Our submission covers pretty much every single one of the Inquiry's 11 topics, but it isn't looking at the impacts of recovery efforts.
"Recovery is resource-intensive, and needs flexible, community-specific funding that reflects the realities of rural communities
"Homes, sheds, fencing, livestock, fodder and essential infrastructure were destroyed, and our affected residents have long and complex recovery ahead.
"Our communities have done everything asked of them. Now we need the State to step up."
Cr Makin said Council will continue advocating through the Inquiry and is requesting an opportunity to speak directly to the committee.
The mayor encouraged community members to put in their own submissions at parliament.vic.gov.au/2026firesinquiry before the deadline of Sunday 19 April.
Council's recommendations
- Fund cross tenure roadside/interface fuel management with seasonal flexibility and joint governance tools for open farmland.
- Create an "ultrafast grassfire" warning modes and enhance predictive spread tools for open farmland.
- Invest in communications/power resilience (redundant connectivity, backup power at hubs, priority line hardening).
- Renew and upgrade CFA fleet and support volunteer retention through practical incentives and training flexibility.
- Prepositioning doctrine and early staging of heavy plant and strike teams on forecast Catastrophic days.
- Flexible, locally led recovery grants for farms, small business and community wellbeing; formalise NGO partnerships (eg, BlazeAid).
- Invest in Otways early detection and Remote Area Firefighting Team capacity to improve initial attack in remote forest.
