The Victorian author Joan Webster said so many people remained ignorant about thorough bushfire preparation that they should not be allowed to live near the bush until they have "earned a licence to live there".

Ms Webster said investigations would show that lives and property were lost in the Victorian fires because people were not properly prepared. Other people and buildings had survived, she said, and that would often be due to preparedness.

As a journalist, Ms Webster started writing about public bushfire preparedness in 1965. Her most recent book, Essential Bushfire Safety Tips (second edition), published by the CSIRO last year, carries a foreword from a former CSIRO bushfire expert, Phil Cheney, that reads in part: "Large, intense bushfires are indeed terrifying, unstoppable and lethally dangerous. But they are predictable. And with planning and preparation, people can live safely in the fire-prone environment."

Ms Webster said the debate over the "stay or go early" policy had failed to recognise that many people needed to be educated about staying or going safely. Too many, she said, still did not know about the appropriate trees to plant around their house or the safety equipment they needed to have if they decided to flee.

The Mayor of the Blue Mountains, Councillor Adam Searle, said that while it was important for people who lived among bush to be knowledgeable about bushfire safety, he questioned the practicality of a compulsory test.

"What do you do about the 78,000 people who already live here? If you make them sit a test, do you expel them [if they fail]?"

Chris Van Der Kley, another Blue Mountains councillor, said good work was already done on education, but authorities "need to spend a lot more money", with newcomers to bushland areas needing particular attention.

He said an extensive and ongoing education campaign would be better than making people sit a test. "Compulsory education is going to get people really cranky."