Before a house sit that runs through an Australian bushfire season, the homeowner and the sitter should settle four things in writing: whether the address is on bush fire prone land, which fire danger rating is the trigger to leave, where the animals go and who drives them, and how the sitter will receive warnings for that address. Every state and territory fire service asks households to make those decisions in advance rather than on the day. While you are away, your house sitter is the household.
A family in the Adelaide Hills, the Dandenongs or the Perth hills has usually thought this through. What is different is that the person holding the plan arrived a week ago. Seasonal risk during a sit recurred as a gap across the seven Australian platforms reviewed on 22 August 2026, and no non-monetary sitting platform in that set covers it.
Leaving early with the animals is the plan, and the sitter needs to be told so
The NSW Rural Fire Service puts it without qualification on its prepare yourself and family page: "leaving early is always your safest option". The South Australian Country Fire Service is blunter on its bushfire survival plan page: "Most people who die in bushfires die leaving their homes at the last moment. Leaving late is a deadly option."
Staying to defend is not a realistic expectation of a house sitter. The ACT Emergency Services Agency survival plan says to stay "only if you are physically and emotionally prepared to defend your home", and only with a well prepared property behind you. A sitter has neither.
Write that down anyway, because sitters feel responsible for other people's houses and one who has not been told plainly to go may hesitate at the wrong moment. One sentence fixes it: on a bad day I want you to leave early with the animals, and I would rather lose the house than have you in it. The CFA adds the matching rule on its pets and bushfires page: "Never try to go back and get your pet once a fire has started."
The trigger is a fire danger rating you choose before you fly out
The CFA's bushfire plan guidance asks one question that does most of the work: "Which Fire Danger Rating is your trigger to leave?" The SA CFS suggests going further and holding two plans, one for a forecast of Extreme and a different one for Catastrophic. Answer that before you travel and your sitter is not improvising.
The Australian Fire Danger Rating System runs on four levels nationally, and the NSW RFS notes on its ratings and total fire bans page that both "are determined each afternoon for the following day". Tomorrow is knowable tonight.
| Rating | The national action | What the sitter should already have been told |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate | Plan and prepare | Check the rating daily, know where carriers and leads are |
| High | Prepare to act | Kit by the door, carriers out, car fuelled, phone charged |
| Extreme | Take action now to protect your life and property | The usual written trigger. Leave in the morning with the animals rather than wait for a warning |
| Catastrophic | For your survival, leave bush fire risk areas | Go the night before or early that morning, as DFES advises, and take the animals |
Warnings run on a separate scale. The Australian Warning System goes Advice, Watch and Act, then Emergency Warning, meaning "You may be in danger and need to take action immediately". A plan that waits for that has waited too long.
Official advice overrides everything on this page
Nothing here replaces the instruction of your state or territory emergency service on the day. If an official warning says leave, the plan is to leave, whatever was written beforehand. Call triple zero for anything life threatening. No property is worth a life.
One page on the bench answers everything a sitter will ask at six in the morning
Write it once and it serves every trip after this. Keep it on paper as well as in the message thread, because a phone runs flat and you may be in the air.
| The question | What to write down |
|---|---|
| Is this address bush fire prone? | Yes or no, and how you know. NSW has an address checker, WA publishes a map, and your council can confirm it |
| Who covers us? | The fire service by name, and the alert service to set up on arrival day |
| What is the trigger to leave? | The rating you chose, in a sentence, with leaving early as the default |
| Where do they go, and by which road? | A first choice and a second, with an alternative route, because one road can be cut |
| Who is on the phone list? | Your number, the hours you are unreachable, a local who can help, the vet |
| What do the animals travel in? | Where carriers, crates and leads live, and how many car trips it takes |
| What if not every animal can be taken? | What you want done. DFES advises leaving pets indoors where possible, never tied up outside |
| Where are the shut-offs? | Gas, power and water, with the note that the house comes last |
The RSPCA's guidance on evacuating animals in a natural disaster says "having a clear, written plan in the case of an emergency saves lives", and asks for more than one destination and more than one route in case either is cut. It treats evacuation centres as "your last resort", worth knowing before you need it.
The animals need a kit, a carrier and a named destination
The RSPCA's emergency preparation guidance asks for "at least one week's supply of food that does not need to be refrigerated" and "at least five days of water for your pets, in addition to any water in your own survival kit", plus carriers sufficient to transport every animal, a registered microchip and an ID tag with a mobile number. If the register holds an old number, the number that gets rung is one nobody answers. Then three things decide whether the plan survives a real morning.
- The carriers have to be findable, not buried in the shed. The CFA advises containing pets early, on a lead or in a crate, before anyone leaves.
- The animals have to be catchable by someone they met last week. That is a real problem with cats, and the RSPCA suggests training animals into a carrier with rewards well before the day.
- Someone has to drive. If your sitter has no car, the plan needs a neighbour or a different sitter, and that conversation belongs before the booking.
Every state and territory publishes the plan, and the sitter should set up alerts on day one
| State or territory | Service | Alerts to set up on arrival |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | NSW Rural Fire Service | Hazards Near Me NSW, set to the property address |
| Victoria | Country Fire Authority | VicEmergency, and the district rating |
| Queensland | Queensland Fire Department | Queensland Government bushfire warnings |
| South Australia | SA Country Fire Service | CFS warnings and the daily district rating |
| Western Australia | Department of Fire and Emergency Services | Emergency WA |
| Tasmania | Tasmania Fire Service | TasALERT |
| Australian Capital Territory | ACT Emergency Services Agency | ESA warnings |
| Northern Territory | NT Government, through SecureNT | SecureNT bushfire alerts |
Send the plan page itself before your sitter arrives: the NSW RFS bush fire survival plan, the CFA's your bushfire plan, the Queensland Government bushfire pages, the SA CFS survival plan, DFES on preparing for a bushfire, the Tasmania Fire Service planning site, and the ACT ESA survival plan. Northern Territory preparation and alerts run through SecureNT.
Two address checks are yours rather than the sitter's: the NSW RFS bush fire prone land checker, valid for the day of the enquiry, and the DFES Map of Bush Fire Prone Areas for Western Australia. Restrictions bind the sitter too. The NSW statutory Bush Fire Danger Period runs 1 October to 31 March, though it "may vary due to local conditions", and the CFA publishes total fire bans by district. A sitter who lights a fire pit on a ban day has a problem, and so do you.
What a sitter should ask before saying yes to a summer sit
Ask on the message thread rather than the phone, so the answers are written and dated.
- Is the property on bush fire prone land, and how do you know?
- Do you have a written bushfire plan, and can I read it before I accept?
- What is your trigger to leave, and do you want me to go earlier?
- Where do the animals go, and has that place agreed to take them?
- Can every animal be caught and carried, and by how many people?
- If I leave with them, who pays for boarding, fuel and a vet, and to what limit?
If there is no plan, ask for one. Most owners have thought about it and never written it down. If the answers do not add up, decline the sit.
Question six is the one people skip, and it is easier settled at a kitchen bench than by text while packing a cat. That wording sits in the Australian house sitting agreement, and the vet authority beside it in who authorises and pays an emergency vet bill. The bushfire page is one part of the wider handover in what to leave for a house sitter, and property sits carry more of it again in the regional house sitting guide.
Common questions about house sitting in bushfire season
- Can I ask a house sitter to stay and defend the house?
- You can ask, but you should not. The fire services describe staying and defending as an option only for people who are physically and emotionally prepared, with a well prepared property and a practised plan. A sitter who arrived last week has none of that.
- What if the sitter cannot take all the animals?
- Decide it before you go, in writing, animal by animal, and give the sitter a local contact who could take a carload. DFES advises that pets left behind be indoors where possible and never tied up outside.
- The forecast turned bad and my sitter left with the pets. Is the sit over?
- That is for the two of you, and far easier if the agreement already says where the animals stay, who covers the cost and when the sitter returns. Sitterly does not manage that arrangement or replace a sitter, so the plan you wrote is what you rely on.
Your next step
Write the page, then find someone who reads it before they accept. Post a listing on Sitterly, free for homeowners, and put the bushfire plan in the message thread while you are still comparing sitters. It doubles as a filter: the applicant who reads it and asks two sensible questions is the one you want in the house in January. If the non-monetary exchange is new to you, how it works explains it. No money changes hands for the sit and there is no per booking commission. Sitterly supports the connection, and homeowners and sitters remain responsible for their own arrangements.
This article is general information about planning a house sit during bushfire season. It is not legal, insurance or veterinary advice. Follow your state or territory emergency service for current advice about your address.
