Only about 50 people gathered for the meeting at the Daylesford Inn on Saturday afternoon, where residents were given the opportunity to help shape the government's final response to the Royal Commission recommendations.

Residents were disappointed with the state government's poor notification and poor involvement of the community in the meeting.

The shire's most recent bushfire was on February 23, 2009 - two weeks after the Black Saturday bushfires, where 2658ha were burnt at Musk Vale.

Hepburn Shire councillor Bill McClenaghan said Saturday's meeting was "hurriedly called".

"Unfortunately, a lot more people did not attend. Clearly those in the know were here," he said.

Daylesford resident Warren Maloney, a Rotary representative on the community fire committee, said while the meeting allowed those who attended to express their personal views, for a "community meeting" it was a limited forum.

"It was extremely disappointing that a number of senior officers of the council were not present," he said.

"I would not like to think that because it's the weekend or they have greater priorities that they wouldn't attend a bushfire consultation."

Community facilitator on behalf of the state government, Rob Masters, apologised for the meeting's short notice, which was called early last week.

"The Premier wants to get the final responses to the final recommendations out as soon as possible," he said.

"The state government, in its interim response, has already announced in-principle support for 59 of the commission's 67 recommendations.

"The remaining eight require further consultation with the community and agencies, and we are meeting with communities across Victoria to listen to their thoughts on these and all of the recommendations in the report."

During the two-hour meeting, residents discussed refuges, forced evacuations, powerlines, acquisition of property, fuel reduction and local government response.