Wildfire plans and tree clearing in Western Australia: Building and Energy and Western Power's bushfire and vegetation programs
What the Western Australian regulator, Building and Energy, publishes on vegetation near powerlines and the code for vegetation workers, and how Western Power describes its bushfire mitigation, clearance zones and 40 day notices.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 10, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It restates four pages as read on October 10, 2026: the Western Australian Government page Electrical safety for vegetation workers from Building and Energy, and three pages of Western Power, a state network operator: Managing Bushfire Risk, Our vegetation inspection program and Vegetation Notices. The side by side with other regions is on the guide to utility wildfire plans and tree clearing.
What the regulator publishes
Building and Energy is described on its page as the state's energy industry technical and safety regulator. The page, first published October 15, 2024 and updated January 31, 2025, says the work is meant for authorised vegetation workers with formal training for low voltage and high voltage powerlines, under the eye of trained safety observers. It lists a Code of Practice for personnel electrical safety for vegetation control work near live powerlines, which it says is to be read with regulation 316A of the Electricity Regulations 1947 and which covers general principles, safe approach distances, vegetation clearances, work procedures, competency and authorisation, and plant and tools. The page calls the code mandatory for work practices.
The page says everyone doing vegetation control work near powerlines must pass an online assessment on the code, with a pass mark of 80%, free and with no prerequisites, and that passing it is one step toward the safety observer role, which comes before the low voltage and high voltage vegetation control worker roles. It says the required training units are drawn from the Certificate II in Electrical Supply Industry, Powerline Vegetation Control. A second document, Guidelines for the management of vegetation near powerlines, clarifies responsibilities for controlling and clearing vegetation around overhead lines, which it describes as pruning, cutting, trimming, removing and disposing. It says the guidelines were developed with network operators and apply to the powerlines of network operators across Western Australia.
What Western Power says about bushfire work
Western Power says every year it applies a bushfire mitigation strategy that combines smart network settings, early work on poles and wires in zones it rates high or extreme for bushfire, and changes to how the network is run in fire weather. Its pre-season work list names vegetation cut back from poles and wires, ground cleared at the foot of poles, asset inspections in high and extreme fire risk areas, pole and conductor replacement, and cleaning insulators. For its 2025/26 summer it says it is investing more than AUD 284 million in targeted upgrades and maintenance, of which AUD 37 million is for vegetation management, and that it is inspecting more than 152,000 poles in the areas it rates high and extreme for fire risk. It says it works with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and local governments on exemptions that let power be restored on high fire danger days.
Clearance zones and notices
| Item | What Western Power says |
|---|---|
| Inspection | An annual check of its powerlines for trees and vegetation within the clearance zone, and of the service wire for encroachment, by an authorised contractor |
| Notice | The responsible party (occupant, owner or local government) is told by a 40 day notice; trees are tagged with coloured ribbon and the notice says whether they are cultivated or naturally occurring |
| Typical distances | Urban areas 2.5 m horizontally and 2 m below the wires; rural areas 4 m horizontally and 2.5 m below the wires |
| Service wire | A safety notice is issued when vegetation is within 30 cm of the service wire; Western Power says it does not cut vegetation around service wires |
| Policy | Its safety policy is a clearance zone that is "clear to the sky", which it says exceeds the authority of the Energy Safety Guidelines |
The inspection page says clearance zones are set by the state regulator and vary with insulation type, voltage, the distance between poles and the fire risk of the area, and it notes that the regulator's brochure puts typical clearance at 2 m. It says responsibility rests with the occupier of the land, and with the local council for planted or cultivated vegetation on the verge, citing section 54 of the Energy Operators (Powers) Act 1979. It says trees allowed to grow until nearly touching the wires are not safe to be cut by anyone except its fault crews, and that after a default cut it may recover the cost where a tree was cultivated.
Sources
- Government of Western Australia, Building and Energy, Electrical safety for vegetation workers, read October 10, 2026
- Western Power, Managing Bushfire Risk, read October 10, 2026
- Western Power, Our vegetation inspection program, read October 10, 2026
- Western Power, Vegetation Notices, read October 10, 2026