Fire sale

By Kath Gannaway
WARBURTON East resident Linda Damman refuses to get excited about the raft of recommendations proposed in the Bushfires Royal Commission’s final report released on Saturday.
She admits to being cynical when it comes to governments spending even small amounts of money, let alone the billions of dollars it would take to implement the 67 recommendations.
The commissioners, chairperson Bernard Teague, Ronald McLeod and Susan Pascoe, have dealt with issues including the ‘Stay or Go’ policy, leadership, warnings, state and local government planning, fire causes, the fire services levy, refuges, roadside vegetation management and fuel reduction, the need for plain language, and for bushfire history to be taught in schools.
In forming their recommendations the commissioners said the protection of human life and safety of communities was the highest priority, but that came at a cost – and a big one.
“In East Warby we don’t even have basic communications. All the alerts are going to come through the phone and we still don’t have a mobile phone service out here,” Ms Damman said.
“We had a tower put up 48 hours after Black Saturday but because there was no funding to maintain it, it was taken down.
“So how serious are they about improving conditions in these bushfire areas?”
Many Upper Yarra residents were astounded last year when the region was not included in the 52 towns designated as high risk, raising questions about one of the most controversial recommendations – the ‘retreat and resettlement strategy’ for areas of unacceptably high bushfire risk. The proposal would include non-compulsory acquisition of land – a buy-back scheme.
East Warburton housing estates may fit that criteria but Ms Damman, who works in real estate, believes that given the housing shortage and the disparity in the value of houses down the line, many will opt for having a roof over their heads.
“It’s not always a lifestyle choice (to live in the bush) it’s also an economic decision,” she said.
“My biggest concern is that there is no recommendation for bunkers, which I believe may offer the best hope of survival,” she said.
She says evacuation is too risky, and may be impossible, past Millgrove and leaving home and work on days of extreme to catastrophic risk is unsustainable.
She supports recommendations which calls for a scrapping of the fire services levy (currently paid with insurance premiums) in favour of a property-based levy, increasing fuel reduction burning from 1.7 per cent on public land each year to a minimum of 5 per cent and strengthening state and local government planning processes to give greater recognition of bushfire risk. Continued on page 3