Description
Chapter 11: Retrofitting for Bushfire Defence
- Seal, shield & strengthen: How to close ember entry points, reinforce roofs, and upgrade glazing so homes withstand radiant heat and flying debris.
- Fire-smart gardens: Use food gardens, ponds, compost, and animal systems to create living firebreaks rather than hazards.
- Water systems that work under stress: Repurpose irrigation networks, tanks, and ponds as firefighting resources that stay functional when the grid fails.
- Neighbourhood scale resilience: Manage shared land, reduce fine fuels, and balance tidy maintenance with biodiversity and practicality.
Chapter 33: Household Disaster Planning
- Stay, defend, or shelter safely: A clear-eyed framework for choosing the right strategy — with “safe house” options for those unable to leave or defend alone.
- Community coordination: Turn streets into fireguard networks where preparedness replaces dependence.
- Psychological resilience: Train your household to act with calm purpose, not panic, when systems fail.
- Beyond bushfire: Apply the same self-reliance mindset to storms, grid failures, and social shocks.
Real stories from Central Victoria, Australia show that self-reliant households and cooperative neighbourhoods recover faster — proving resilience isn’t reaction, it’s culture.
This is a standalone two-chapter extract from David Holmgren’s RetroSuburbia book, available as a downloadable PDF.
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