The failure of the bushfire management agencies to implement an aggressive attack to make safe a lightning strike that should have been a 'bread and butter' issue for DELWP cost and continues to cost Victorians dearly, and not only financially. And what was government's response? A naked attempt to cover up failure due to mismanagement that can easily be seen through.
A case of subterfuge?
Or is there more to it? Was the fire started by the lightning strike seen by the land manager as an opportunity to undertake some fuel reduction burning under the guise of work to make safe a going fire, but not really necessary if an aggressive and well-resourced attack had been mounted on the initially relatively small fire from its very beginning on 19 December?
A disturbing thought given the government bluster over the October 2015 breakaway from the Cobaw Ranges fuel reduction burning undertaken north of Lancefield.
At the time of the fire, fuel reduction burning planned by DELWP for the Otways between Lorne and Wye River–Separation Creek had not been undertaken and maybe the lightning strike fire was seen as an opportunity to sneak in some otherwise contentious fuel reduction burning. Is this what the Victorian government is trying to hide?
And what of their future as the Wye River–Separation Creek community face yet another hardship inflicted on them by the emergency management bureaucracy and the insurance industry?
Where will be next in Victoria to be abandoned to the ravages of bushfire under the 'leave and lose' policy: Lorne, Daylesford, Hepburn, Eltham North–Eltham–Research–North Warrandyte–Warandyte and further south as wind-driven embers from house-to-house spread a fire further south with no one at home to save their homes?
When I hear utterances from the Victorian emergency management bureaucracy about the need for "surge capacity", I think of the costly failure to recognise that a potentially enormous "surge capacity" exists in the form of citizens, who with some training, could safely defend their homes from ember attack that if left unattended grow to cause damage and loss as experienced at Wye River–Separation Creek, Vic. And no doubt the same can be said for Yarloop, WA, in the aftermath of the fire that devastated that community.
Unfortunately, in Victoria, and it seems in Western Australia, the bushfire emergency management authorities prefer to frighten people rather than properly resource and implement an ongoing community partnership-based prevention/mitigation approach to minimising bushfire loss, with emergency response one aspect of a balanced approach to loss prevention. Here, I find the following from Mr Lonergan's paper particularly appealing:
It would recommend to the Federal government what conditions should be placed on funding for the States and Territories for their bushfire administrations. It would achieve the application of Force to bring those administrations to heel.
Food for thought, are the public servants who head up our fire and emergency management agencies and those who are supposed to monitor performance suitably qualified and experienced for the positions they hold? Could they lead firefighters at the fire front to achieve the performance we their clients should be able to expect? If they can't then they should go.
Then there’s the Colac Otway Shire Council and the CFA Board when it comes to neglecting statutory fire prevention responsibilities that increased the threat faced by Wye River–Separation Creek.
More to address at CFA than just internal bullying. Will Minister Garrett be up to this on our behalf?
High time for change folks, and it won't come easily from the fire and emergency services industry or the politicians that industry has in tow.
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