The WA Government has allocated $13 million for bushfire mitigation in this year’s budget, as part of nearly $26 million provided to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

It will spend $8 million building a multipurpose fire and emergency services facility at Collie, south of Perth, in an area surrounded by state forests. The facility will provide emergency driver training and fire truck fleet maintenance.

The Government will also spend $1.1 billion replacing key power infrastructure, including poles, conductors, transformers and overhead service connections, to reduce fire risk.

About $22 million is allocated over four years for controlled burns in the state’s southwest.

And funding has been provided for the Bushfire Centre of Excellence research and training facility. It will feature exercise areas for incident management teams and incident centre personnel. The centre will engage with leading scientists and academics, plus state volunteers and firefighters.