When travelling in Victoria, a handy and free app to have on your phone is the Vic Emergency App. You can set a Watch Zone to receive alerts on Warnings and Incidents in your area. It can also be used to check on the Fire Ban status, not that one would want to light a fire in the bush on any warm day.

We were recently camped in the heavily forested Upper Goulburn area and the app alerted us to a fire downwind of us. Before long fire fighting helicopters were flying back and forth and we were able to monitor the progress of the situation from our phones.

Footnote: Victoria is prone to bushfires in the summer months and you can’t be too careful, so before setting up camp we contacted the local Information Centre and spoke with a DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment) volunteer as to the suitability of where we would be camping.