Page 3928 - Week 11 - Thursday, 26 September 2019
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1 October 2019. Snowy Monaro to our south declared the start of their season one month earlier on 1 September 2019.
An ACT annual preparedness brief held on 6 September 2019 involved representatives from across the ACT government; the Security and Emergency Management Branch, or SEMB; Emergency Management Australia; defence; Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council; the Bureau of Meteorology; and the local utility providers. This briefing helps ensure that each of these services understands the forecast environmental conditions and risks as well as understanding each other’s preparedness and capabilities available in the event of a bushfire or emergency.
The ESA through the ACT Rural Fire Service, the ACT Fire and Rescue, and the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, or EPSDD, has highly skilled, experienced and qualified firefighters who stand ready to protect the community should it be required. Firefighters in Canberra are a mix of volunteers and employed personnel and are well resourced and well trained.
The ESA assists the land managers from the fire management unit within EPSDD to mitigate the risk of bushfire. The EPSDD bushfire operational plan, or the BOP, sets out the work and activities that ACT parks and conservation service aim to achieve each financial year to help manage bushfire risk across the territory.
Fire preparedness is a year-round function and ACT parks and conservation service crews are continually engaged in implementing required works under the EPSDD BOP. Prescribed burns are implemented when the weather and ground conditions are appropriate and allow a burn to be undertaken safely, and this can happen at any time of the year.
EPSDD delivers a range of bushfire preparedness activities including prescribed burning, strategic stock grazing, management trail upgrades, maintenance and mulching and slashing of fuels. Essential activities such as fire training, seasonal recruitment and establishment of contracts for slashing are currently being undertaken, as is fire trail access maintenance and physical removal of vegetation and other flammable material.
These activities are all outlined in the 2019-20 bushfire operational plan, which also highlights over 700 individual tasks to better prepare the territory for bushfire and will include over 7,000 hectares of proposed prescribed burning subject to appropriate conditions. I note the ACT Bushfire Council’s acknowledgement of the work completed against the 2018-19 EPSDD BOP given the difficulty of decreasing windows of opportunity to safely conduct hazard reduction burns as the climate changes.
The final report on the Potters Hill review, conducted earlier this year by the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council, or AFAC, has also been used to provide valuable lessons and has afforded the opportunity for continual improvement heading into this bushfire season. While the Potters Hill review did not highlight any gaps that impact on the safety of the community or firefighters, it suggested opportunity for improvements in the areas of communication, systems
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