Central and Northern Victoria to see 1600 hectares of public land cleared as art of fire prevention

Crews will slash, mow and clear more than 1600 hectares of public land to reduce the chance of bushfire.

Prior to summer FFMVic completed 1050 of planned burns.

FFMVic senior fuel management officer Simon Brown said conditions were now suitable to continue fuel reduction by mowing, clearing and slashing.

"FFMVic works closely with the Bureau of Meteorology to assess weather conditions, such as humidity, temperature and wind speed," he said.

"Mowing, slashing and clearing tracks on public land is part of FFMVic's annual fuel reduction program."

Crews are currently moving through tracks near Bendigo, Castlemaine, Maldon, Echuca, Heathcote, Inglewood, Macedon and Tarnagulla

Avoca, Cohuna, Maryborough, Dunolly, Bealiba, Rushworth and St Arnaud will also be part of the fuel reduction works.

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Mr Brown said a three-year joint fuel management plan between FFMVic and the CFA set out the actions the organisations undertake to deliver on bushfire management strategies.

"In particular, these plans set out where and when activities to reduce bushfire risk will take place, such as planned burning, slashing and mowing, which reduce the leaves, twigs, shrubs and other vegetation that fuel bushfires," he said.

"The joint fuel management plan provides the opportunity communities near public land to provide input around the timing and scheduling of planned burns and other bushfire fuel management activities in their area."

Fuel management includes planned burning, slashing, mowing and clearing vegetation.

"(Fuel management) can assist in reducing the spread and intensity of bushfires, which makes suppression more achievable, and helps keep communities safe and reduce the impact to the environment," Mr Brown said.

"If conditions are suitable, our crews will slash, mow and clear more than 1,600 hectares of public land across central and Northern Victoria.

"Our Murray Goldfields program is focused on creating a strategic network of boundary fire breaks and internal corridors of fuel reduced areas on public land, so that the potential of large-scale bushfires like the Ash Wednesday fire in 1983 and Black Saturday fire in 2009 is significantly reduced."

Mr Brown said more than 1,050 hectares of planned burning has been undertaken near Bendigo, Fryerstown, Kingower, Heathcote, Rushworth, Laanecoorie and surrounding areas.

"We work closely with communities to manage bushfire fuels and ensure people take appropriate action to prevent fires from occurring and are well prepared for them if they do," Mr Brown said.

"We'd like to thank the local community for understanding the importance of our fuel reduction program, particularly in publicly used areas such as state forests and parks."