The Victorian and federal governments were urged to adopt a successful telephone-based emergency alert system seven years before Black Saturday, when wildfires engulfed a number of communities before warnings could be given through the media and over the internet, the Australian newspaper writes this week.

Both governments have since made the establishment of such a warning system a priority following the deaths of 173 people on February 7.

Former West Australian police commissioner and deputy Victorian commissioner Bob Falconer revealed in a submission lodged with the Black Saturday royal commission that he had met Victoria's emergency services minister in June 2001.

His aim was to convince Victoria to adopt a system already successfully operating in Western Australia, which allowed large numbers of telephones in specified areas to be automatically dialled and a recorded alert message played. Mr Falconer said he had also tried to convince the federal government shortly afterwards to take up the Police Community Combined Operational Phone System on a national basis.

He was involved in giving a demonstration of the WA system to federal agencies in October 2001, but after getting little interest he "gave up".

He tried again after the 2002 Bali bombings, eventually receiving a letter from the prime minister's office saying a number of alert systems were "under active consideration".

"In spite of supportive and complimentary remarks about the capability of the WA system, it was never adopted or introduced in any other state or territory," he said.

"The problem is no other alternative system of telephone communication has been implemented either."

Victoria did not attempt to use telephone-based community alert messages until March, a month after Black Saturday, when it sent text messages to mobile telephones warning of a severe weather event.

Victoria's failure to introduce a telephone-based system has been one of the focuses of the first two weeks of the royal commission hearings.

Hearings have been told that Victoria held off introducing its own state-based system because it supported a uniform national system and was waiting for agreement to be reached between state and territory governments.

The royal commission has heard repeated accounts of residents in communities such as Strathewen, where 27 people died on Black Saturday, receiving no warning before fire fronts engulfed them.

The Rudd Government fast-tracked laws after Black Saturday to allow the establishment of a national telephone alert system using the previously restricted Integrated Public Number database.

Access to the database, which holds the telephone numbers of all landline and mobile users in Australia, means the system does not rely on people "opting in" to receive alert messages, as happened in Western Australia.

But Mr Falconer said in his submission that Western Australia's opt-in system was successful and would have worked just as well in Victoria.

"I am confident that, as in WA, many people would have opted in during the fire season in which the emergency services made this service available," he said.

The claims that a national system was essential was a "red herring", because most emergencies such as bushfires, flood and cyclones normally only affected one jurisdiction.

"For over a decade, those responsible have been aware of a working telephone-based warning system in WA," Mr Falconer said.

"While it had its shortcomings, it worked, was evolving steadily and was certainly better than no system at all."