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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (30 January) . . Page.. 11 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Secondly, I believe that for a long time there has been a strong case to establish what I would call the bushfire museum of Australia. As far as I am aware, there is no single site in Australia that serves as a bushfire memorial or provides an education function in respect of bushfires and their enormous impact on life in this country. A museum would bring together information on the many facets of bushfires in Australia, including the locations of the many major and not so major events that have occurred across the country, the consequences of those fires, the roles of volunteers during bushfire emergencies, the responses of communities to the losses, approaches to preventing and minimising the impact of bushfires, and methods of responding to bushfires. It would also include an education centre as well as appropriate memorials.

Many attributes could be incorporated into such a centre. The location, design and displays would have to be worked through. The centre might be sited in a park in Weston Creek, if that were agreeable to residents. I would throw such a centre up as a challenge to Australia as a nation and to the Commonwealth in particular. One of the constants in the life of Australia is fire. I think it would be possible to obtain funding from the Commonwealth and the business sector for such a museum.

My third suggestion is an appropriate memorial for those who have died in this disaster. The saddest aspect of any disaster is the loss of human life. On Sunday we lost four of our friends, our relatives, our fellow citizens, each in most tragic circumstances. I pray for all families affected by these deaths. I believe an appropriate memorial to these four people and their community, which has suffered so much, should be located somewhere in Weston Creek, perhaps on a ridge overlooking Duffy. It would commemorate their lives and all the lives that were changed irrevocably on that Saturday.

Suggestions are floating around. Other members will speak about what residents have said to them. One Duffy resident said to me that they would prefer a simple park. A resident of Chapman, Ron Forester, said to me that he would like to see something more practical. He feels, as many Weston Creek residents do, that Weston Creek does not have the level of government infrastructure it should have. His idea is to have a library as a tangible reminder of these four people and what the Weston Creek community, indeed all Canberra, went through. Again, there would need to be considerable consultation with the community about such a proposal. But I would like to think that we as a community can come up with something together so that we will never forget.

Mr Speaker, this bushfire emergency should and will provide us with a great deal of learning on how bushfires start and progress and on how communities recover from such a disaster. There is much for us to learn, if we have the time and the inclination to do so. It is sobering to note that the current bushfire season has not yet ended. Indeed, it is only nine months until the next one starts. So it is vital that we learn the lessons from this disaster before the next fire season.

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