Blind Bight, Warneet and Cannons Creek: Crown land management
03-March-2011
Mr BURGESS (Hastings) -- I raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Environment and Climate Change. I specifically seek the assistance of the minister and the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to assist the coastal village communities of Blind Bight, Warneet and Cannons Creek to significantly reduce the fuel load on Crown land in their area. The communities of Warneet and Blind Bight are also very concerned that the Warneet Nature Reserve, which is 30 hectares of Crown land along Warneet Road, is considered to be a fire hazard containing overgrown scrub, bushes and bracken.
Last week I met with representatives from the Warneet-Blind Bight Rural Fire Brigade, the Warneet Foreshore Reserve Committee of Management and members of the Warneet, Blind Bight and Cannons Creek community associations to discuss the need for greater bushfire fuel reduction programs for the coastal villages.
The views expressed were unanimous: over recent years there have been nowhere near enough fuel reduction burns and slashing carried out throughout the coastal villages. The aspect of the coastal villages that leaves them particularly exposed to bushfires, and therefore almost entirely reliant on authorities carrying out effective fuel reduction, is the fact that there is only one road in and one road out of these communities. There is also a serious problem with vegetation overgrowing walking and Country Fire Authority (CFA) access tracks as well as encroaching on the only existing road in and out, meaning of course the opportunity of actually using that road when there is a fire would be dramatically reduced.
Concerns were expressed at the meeting that even given the obvious limitations, during the last 10 years of dry conditions in this state, fuel reduction burns and slashing have not been sufficient to render the area as safe as possible.
The residents of the coastal villages live in this area because they love and care for the environment. These people do not want to remove one blade of grass, one shrub or one branch of a tree more than is necessary to make their families safe. But make no mistake: when the choice is between the removal of excess fuel and the safety of local families, the fuel must give way.
The meeting discussed the need for DSE to focus on a regular maintenance program for the Warneet Nature Reserve and other identified areas, including the burning, slashing or clearing of foliage along walking and CFA access tracks in the reserve. Many of the people present suggested that the overload of fuel had been allowed to build up to a dangerous level over the last 10 years. It was agreed that areas around Balaka, Aruma and Gilgandra streets in Warneet also require a 30-metre border strip slashed to act as a fire break.
The meeting discussed DSE' s practice of placing management responsibility for the areas in question onto the Warneet foreshore committee and the Warneet Recreation Reserve Committee of Management -- on the one hand requiring those committees of management to fire protect their own individual areas and on the other hand refusing to allow effective fuel reduction to be carried out.
Concerns were also raised at the meeting about the Warneet-Blind Bight Rural Fire Brigade being forced to delay the building of a much-needed new fire station on its own land due to an investigation into the presence of bandicoots and orchids in the area. The pendulum has swung too far in favour of environment protection at the expense of the safety of local families. Despite the mood and the initial indications of cooperation going on from Black Saturday, DSE's spirit of cooperation has failed these communities in recent times.