Property Scores — 04 of 08
Official bushfire-prone overlays, real satellite vegetation, and terrain slope, combined into one per-address score and an indicative Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) pre-screen. Free for any address in Australia.
Live Example
The burnable vegetation around each address carries a slowly breathing ember glow, its warmth scaled to the score (directionless by design: it shows where the fuel is, not where a fire would travel). Real ESA WorldCover land cover, the 500 m scoring ring, and the official Bushfire Management Overlay where it applies. Illustrative exposure, not a spread prediction.
How It Works
Three independent signals, each visible in the response, combined into an indicative BAL.
We check the address against official bushfire-prone area mapping in every state and territory except the NT: Victoria, NSW, Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT. For most of those states the check runs against our own full copy of the state's overlay dataset rather than calling the state service at that moment, and every response says which basis answered. A designation drives assessment requirements and construction standards, so it anchors the score.
From ESA WorldCover 10-metre satellite land cover we measure the actual vegetation around the address: tree cover, shrub and grassland, and how continuous it is. Not a proxy, the real land surface.
Fire runs uphill. We sample laser-surveyed bare-earth elevation (national terrain model outside LiDAR coverage) in a ring around the address and derive the local slope. Outside elevation coverage the response says not_assessed rather than assuming flat ground.
Those same three inputs (vegetation class, distance to the vegetation, and effective slope) run through the AS 3959 Method 1 approach to give an indicative Bushfire Attack Level with a confidence range. It is a pre-screen for the quoting and shortlisting stage, not a certified assessment, which still needs an accredited assessor on site.
Why Slope Matters
Same fuel, different ground: the score measures the vegetation actually surrounding an address and the slope it sits on, because the same overlay designation can hide very different fire behaviour.
faster spread for every ~10° of slope — which is why terrain is measured, never assumed flat.
ESA WorldCover 10 m fuel · Copernicus 30 m slope · illustrative behaviour
The Problem
The overlay tells you the designation. It doesn't tell you what's actually growing next door, or which way the hill runs.
Bushfire-prone area maps are updated on multi-year cycles. Vegetation grows, gets cleared, and burns on much shorter ones.
Two addresses in the same overlay can face very different risk depending on how much continuous vegetation actually surrounds them.
Fire spreads dramatically faster uphill. Flat-block risk and gully-top risk are not the same thing, and overlays rarely distinguish them.
Data at Scale
Honest by Design
A bushfire score that silently treats missing data as safety is worse than no score. Every component of ours reports whether it was measured or not assessed.
Vegetation fuel comes from real satellite land cover rather than building-density proxies, a distinction that matters most on the urban fringe where risk is highest.
| Signal | Source | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Bushfire-prone overlays | Official state overlay datasets | All states + ACT (not NT) |
| Vegetation fuel | ESA WorldCover 10m | National |
| Terrain slope | GA DEM-H (bare-earth) | National (populated areas) |
Who It's For
Fringe and regional properties carry very different bushfire profiles street by street. Check before you fall in love with the gully views.
Bushfire-prone designation triggers BAL assessments and construction standards that change project cost. Screen it at feasibility stage.
Give clients a bushfire picture that includes actual vegetation and slope, not just the overlay boundary.
Property Scores
Each score uses open government data with transparent methodology. No black boxes.
Further Reading
Official overlays, real vegetation, slope, and the questions worth asking in a bushfire-prone suburb — every way to check before you commit.
Enterprise
Integrate bushfire scores into your platform, reports, or analysis pipeline. Pricing is tailored to your use case.
JSON endpoint for any Australian address. Returns the score, the underlying signals, and honest flags for anything that could not be assessed. Explore the DA Leads API →
Score entire suburbs or postcodes. CSV or Parquet output with all metrics. Suitable for portfolio assessment, market analysis, or academic research.
White-label scores for your platform. Embed bushfire data into property listings, valuation tools, or planning applications with your own branding.
Volume pricing, SLA, and custom fields available. Tell us what you need.
Contact usReady?
Free instant check. Pro unlocks the full breakdown of all 8 scores.