Green revolution

By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Ranges Council will review its green fuel strategies in the face of a changing climate and pressure from ratepayers.
The green fuel load on private properties, roadsides and other public land has been a hot topic at bushfire meetings in Warburton and Healesville since Black Saturday and the pressure continued at the Yarra Ranges Council meeting on Tuesday 23 February.
Ferny Creek resident Kay Bakes called on the shire to put a skip in her street and said she would supervise what went into it while four of five petitions tabled related to removal of potential fire hazards.
In an immediate move to reduce fuel ahead of this week’s worsening fire conditions, and what Councillor Noel Cliff said could be weeks of hot, dry autumn weather, he and Cr Samantha Dunn successfully lobbied their fellow councillors for green waste tipping fees to be waived until 15 March.
A similar plea just a week before had been lost with council opting instead to half the fees.
“We’ve had 10 weeks without rain, plants are dying, ferns are shedding fronts and we have a non-stop dropping of leaves coming from the trees,” Cr Cliff said.
“The shire had granted free dumping in burnt-out areas of the shire, well, yesterday we got it in our neck of the woods,” he said, referring to the fires the previous day that burnt out 150 hectares and threatened Upwey and adjoining Dandenong Ranges townships.
“We have residents new to the area who are almost in a state of shock; they have read all the literature, done all the things they have been told to do, and we have residents who have been here all their lives and never seen anything like this before.
“People are rattled, they’re sleeping shifts to protect their homes,” Cr Cliff said, calling for the council to “help take the pressure off”. “The more rubbish we can get out of these areas, the less damage there’s likely to be in the event of another fire.”
Cr Cliff had the support of Cr Dunn who called for a review of future strategies to help residents keep fuel loads down.
Cr Dunn said she was disappointed that the earlier call for free tipping had not been supported.
“I’m hoping that in the week that has transpired councillors have become far more aware,” she said.
She said residents were doing their bit by clearing but the fuel just kept coming.
She said the fortnightly green bin service was simply not keeping up with the demand and called for a two-pronged approach starting with looking at increasing the green bin service to once a week over the fire danger period. She then moved for a review of the overall approach to the bundled green waste collection in the face of climate change.
“In times of climate change we will need to investigate how we manage green waste and the disposal of green waste. It’s time for a review, to look at what we do and what we could do better.”
Revisiting the days on which residents can burn off pre-season is one of things Don Valley resident Sue Hoffman believes could be done better.
While the shire has increased overall the number of days people can burn off Ms Hoffman says residents who work during the week have effectively had their opportunity to burn off halved.
Ms Hoffman also called for a review of the practice of leaving habitat branches and logs on roadside verges saying it hindered effective slashing resulting in those verges becoming fire fuses.
In response to the call by Ferny Creek’s Mrs Bakes for skips to handle the problem, councillors were told by the shire’s director of environment and engineering, Simon Thomas, that with a large proportion of the shire’s 2000 kilometres of roads in a similar condition as One Tree Hill Road it was not feasible.
However, it was within the realm of the council to work with its contractors to double the picking up of green bins, but as it was a user-pays system, there would be an additional charge to residents.
At the Healesville tip on the weekend the shire’s initiative was welcomed by residents unloading unprecedented amounts of leaves, twigs and branches on to a growing mountain of green.
David Groves enlisted the help of his son Travis to unload a trailer and ute-load of tree clippings.
“I live on a suburban-size block and am just cutting back trees that have become overgrown. I would be up for about $80 for this load and this is about my ninth load. It adds up to quite a bit over the season,” he said.
Green waste disposal will be free at the shire’s Healesville, Wesburn, Lysterfield and Coldstream waste transfer centres until 15 March.