THERE'S still time to prepare a comprehensive fire plan, according to an expert in the field.
Early fires in the Euroa and Moyston areas showed plans should now be in place, but it was not too late to compile one, Castlemaine author Joan Webster OAM said.
"We've got all of February to get through yet," Ms Webster said.
Her Complete Bushfire Safety Book had been endorsed by the Country Fire Authority as the "essential ready reference" for writing a plan and dealing with fire, she said.
She also wrote Essential Bushfire Safety Tips.
"When Ash Wednesday happened, I could not bear the thought people had suffered needlessly," Ms Webster said.
A Facebook page had also been set up, to update advice on bushfire safety.
"It depends on your own circumstances, the book sets out the pros and cons of each course of action, what's safe and what's hazardous, on whether people decide to evacuate or stay -- they need to shelter safely."
The book and Facebook page covered the core factors required for protection during a bushfire, including understanding fire behaviour.
"You need to have knowledge, whatever you do; you need to know how a bushfire behaves -- it's not the approaching flames which destroy the house, it's the embers."
Beaufort small-holder Kate Blood said she and her husband Rob Pelletier run Glenview Park Farm at Beaufort, near Ballarat.
"At the start of every fire season, we re-read it and learn heaps of stuff," Ms Blood said.
"Rob and I keep tweaking our plan, there's new stuff published each year by the scientist and bushfire practitioners," Ms Blood said.
It was not too late to write a plan.
"It's about scanning social media and seeing how people act during fires and the bushfire season, how they adapt and respond and some of the creative new things they come up with, in the heat of the moment," Ms Blood said.
"It always informs our thinking for the current, and next, season."
The plan was revised in November and early December, with a check list of activities to be carried out "as we have the time and can afford to do them."
"I think people have to make sure it is relevant for them and way up what information they read and absorb. I have little maps of our house in our plan, and arrows of some of the weak points in the house, where embers can enter."