Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) A local government
may from time to time appoint such persons as it thinks necessary to be its
bush fire control officers under and for the purposes of this Act, and of
those officers shall subject to section 38A(2) appoint 2 as the Chief Bush
Fire Control Officer and the Deputy Chief Bush Fire Control Officer who shall
be first and second in seniority of those officers, and subject thereto may
determine the respective seniority of the other bush fire control officers
appointed by it.
(2A) The local
government shall cause notice of an appointment made under the provisions of
subsection (1) to be published at least once in a newspaper circulating in its
district.
(2C) The local
government shall fill any vacancy occurring in the office of Chief Bush Fire
Control Officer or Deputy Chief Bush Fire Control Officer within one month
after the vacancy occurs and if the local government fails or neglects to do
so within that time, the FES Commissioner may by notice in writing require the
local government to appoint a person to the vacant office within one month
after service on it of such notice.
(2D) Where a local
government that has been served with a notice pursuant to subsection (2C)
fails or neglects to comply with the requirements of that notice, the FES
Commissioner may appoint a person who is not employed in the Department to the
vacant office.
(2E) A bush fire
control officer appointed by a local government under the provisions of this
section shall be issued with a certificate of appointment by the local
government or, if he is appointed by the FES Commissioner, by the FES
Commissioner.
(3) The local
government may, in respect to bush fire control officers appointed under the
provisions of this section, exercise so far as they can be made applicable the
same powers as it may exercise in respect to its other officers, under the
provisions of the Acts under which those other officers are appointed.
(4) A bush fire
control officer appointed under the provisions of this section shall, subject
to such directions as may be given by the local government, and subject to
this Act take such measures as appear to him to be necessary or expedient and
practicable for —
(a)
carrying out normal brigade activities;
[(b), (c) deleted]
(d)
exercising an authority or carrying out a duty conferred or imposed upon him
by any of the provisions of Part III;
(e)
procuring the due observance by all persons of the provisions of Part III.
(5A) A local
government may issue directions to a bush fire control officer appointed by
the local government, or to an officer of a bush fire brigade registered by
the local government to burn, subject to the provisions of this Act, bush on,
or at the margins of, streets, roads, and ways, under the care, control and
management of the local government.
(5B) The bush fire
control officer, or officer of the bush fire brigade, may by authority of any
directions issued under subsection (5A) carry out the directions but subject
to the provisions of this Act.
(5C) The provisions of
subsections (5A) and (5B) are not in derogation of those of subsection (4).
(6) In this section
—
approved local government means a local government
approved under subsection (7)by the FES Commissioner.
(7) If it appears to
the FES Commissioner that the standard of efficiency of a local government in
fire prevention and control justifies the FES Commissioner doing so, the FES
Commissioner, by notice published in the Government Gazette —
(a) may
approve the local government as one to which subsections (6) to (18) apply;
and
(b) may
from time to time cancel or vary any previous approval given under this
subsection.
(8) An approved local
government may appoint to the office of fire weather officer such number of
senior bush fire control officers as it thinks necessary.
(9) Where more than
one fire weather officer is appointed by a local government the local
government shall define a part of its district in which each fire weather
officer shall have the exclusive right to exercise the power conferred by
subsection (17).
(10) An approved local
government may appoint one or more persons, as it thinks necessary, to be the
deputy or deputies, as the case may be, of a fire weather officer appointed by
the local government and where 2 or more deputies are so appointed they shall
have seniority in the order determined by the local government.
(11) Where the office
of a fire weather officer is vacant or whilst the occupant is absent or unable
to act in the discharge of the duties of the office, any deputy appointed in
respect of that office under subsection (10) is, subject to subsection (12),
entitled to act in the discharge of the duties of that office.
(12) A deputy who is
one of 2 or more deputies of a fire weather officer is not entitled to act in
the discharge of the duties of the office of that fire weather officer if a
deputy who has precedence over him in the order of seniority determined under
subsection (10) is available and able to discharge those duties.
(13) The local
government shall give notice of an appointment made under subsection (8) or
(10) to the FES Commissioner and cause notice of the appointment to be
published at least once in a newspaper circulating in its district and the FES
Commissioner shall cause notice of the appointment to be published once in the
Government Gazette .
(14) An approved local
government may appoint a committee for the purpose of advising and assisting a
fire weather officer or any deputy of a fire weather officer acting in the
place of that officer under subsections (6) to (18).
(15) Where a committee
is appointed, a fire weather officer, or, as the case may be, a deputy of a
fire weather officer while acting in the place of that officer, may exercise
the authority conferred on him by subsection (17), notwithstanding the advice
and assistance tendered to him by the committee.
(16) The provisions of
subsections (6) to (18) are not in derogation of those of any other subsection
of this section.
(17) A fire weather
officer of an approved local government, or a deputy of that fire weather
officer while acting in the place of that officer, may authorise a person who
has received a permit under section 18(6)(a), to burn the bush in the district
of the local government notwithstanding that for any day, or any period of a
day, specified in the notice the fire danger forecast issued by the Bureau of
Meteorology in Perth, in respect to the locality where the bush proposed to be
burnt is situated, is “catastrophic”, “extreme” or
“high”, and upon the authority being given the person, if the
person has otherwise complied with the conditions prescribed for the purposes
of section 18, may burn the bush.
(18) Subsections (6)
to (18) do not authorise the burning of bush —
(a)
during the prohibited burning times; or
(b)
during the period in which, and in the area of the State in respect of which,
a total fire ban is declared under section 22A to have effect.
[Section 38 amended: No. 35 of 1957 s. 7; No. 20
of 1958 s. 2; No. 11 of 1963 s. 18; No. 67 of 1970 s. 4; No. 65 of 1977 s. 36;
No. 51 of 1979 s. 4; No. 60 of 1992 s. 21; No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 10 of 1998
s. 20(2); No. 42 of 1998 s. 16; No. 38 of 2002 s. 29; No. 25 of 2009 s. 12;
No. 19 of 2010 s. 52(4); No. 22 of 2012 s. 60 and 69; No. 17 of 2014 s. 17(2)
and (3); No. 26 of 2022 s. 7.]