Emergency Management

Victoria is faced with many different types of emergencies and threats every year. These can range from adverse seasonal conditions causing drought and flood, to natural disasters such as fire, or threats from a locust plague or exotic plant and animal diseases.

DPI plays a key role in managing emergencies promptly and effectively. We advise and implement government's response to a wide range of emergencies, notably biosecurity incursions, drought and energy supply shortfalls. We also play a major role in assisting rural landholders to recover from emergencies.

Emergency Management White Paper

Communities across Victoria will be safer and more resilient, and emergency service agencies will be better prepared with the implementation of changes to the way emergencies are managed.

The changes announced by the Victorian Government on 10 December 2012 are outlined in an Emergency Management White Paper that maps out how emergency management will change to ensure an increased focus on community resilience and involvement.

Further information, including the full Emergency Management White Paper, is available on the Department of Premier and Cabinet website.

DPI's emergency management responsibilities

The department is responsible for managing state emergency response and recovery efforts for:

• Exotic animal, plant pest and disease outbreaks
• Animal welfare in emergencies
• Drought
• Agricultural and veterinary chemicals incidents
• Australian plague locusts
• Plague vertebrate pests (mouse plagues)
• Fisheries incidents (marine and freshwater)
• Mining/quarrying and petroleum related incidents
• Energy related incidents
• Dairy, meat and seafood production or processing contamination/food supply disruption
• Other, such as invasive weeds, forest pests and diseases, and wood product pests.

Emergency planning and support information

Rural landholders can access a range of emergency planning and support information to assist with planning for and recovering from emergencies.

Now is the time to write or update your fireplan. More information on precautions landholders can take is available on the Bushfire Preparation and Plans.

Emergency contacts - A tool to create your own list of emergency contacts specific to your address.