One lasting consequence of the 1939 Stretton Royal Commission was a revision of the Forest Act in 1939 which handed the Forests Commission the additional responsibility for bushfire protection on all public land including State forests, National Parks and unoccupied Crown Lands, plus a buffer extending one mile beyond their margins onto private land. (A.K.A. – The Marginal Mile).
The land was known as the Fire Protected Area (FPA) and the Forests Commission’s fire protection responsibilities leapt overnight from 6 to nearly 16 million acres, or to nearly one third of the State.
The rural and urban brigades of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) had responsibility for all the remaining private land, or “Country Area”, of Victoria, but it excluded the Melbourne metropolitan region, where the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) took the lead.
The Bush Fire Brigades Act (1939) provided that:
The captain of any bushfire brigade… with or without consent… may enter upon any [private] land and abate or remove any fire hazards.
Similarly, forest officers were given this power in the Fire Protected Area in the revised Forest Act.
The MMBW was deemed a “public authority” under the CFA Act and took responsibility for fire protection in Melbourne’s water catchments. This arrangement changed with the creation of the National Park and fire protection was then managed by agreement between Parks Victoria, DEECA and Melbourne Water.
The SEC had a similar arrangement for the Kiewa Valley.
The FPA was revised in the review of the 1958 and much of the marginal mile, particularly with fragmented public land, has now been excised.
When the Forests Act and Country Fire Authority Act were reviewed in 1958 and clearly enshrined the role of the two agencies and the Chief Fire Officers into complementary legislation.
The CFA took responsibility for fire suppression on “Country Victoria” leaving the Forests Commission to focus on the public land estate such as State forest and National Parks, which amounted for the remaining one third of the State.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 