Burnt koala habitat following the Black Summer fires of 2019/20. Photo David Lowe.
We had the Black Summer fires and then the floods and NSW Farmers says time is running out to prevent more mass bushfires at the end of this year.
Former Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins says the summer after a triple La Nina you get major bushfires in NSW and major bushfires would ravage the state by the end of the year.
But the lessons of Black Summer had not been learned, according to NSW Farmers Head of Policy and Advocacy Annabel Johnson, who called for a swift crackdown on public land managers letting weeds grow out of control.
During Black Summer we saw horrific fires as a result of the disastrous ‘lock it up’ approach to land management,’ said Ms Johnson.
Huge area converted into National Park
‘We’ve seen huge parts of the state converted into National Parks and just locked up in the name of conservation, and this is where the next fire risk will come from!
‘The decision-makers need to come to their senses and listen to the people who experience these natural disasters firsthand, and make sure there is an embedded strategy that will effect change in the short and long term.’
Ms Johnson said Australia has a long history of wet years followed by fires that would race from town to town consuming everything in their path. ‘You hear the stories of fires outrunning vehicles, and you just hope it never happens to you.
‘I’ve heard of whole farms being incinerated and the people only barely making it out alive, and that was before we had these huge National Park tinderboxes everywhere.
‘For the most part farmers and private landholders are actively managing their properties, but there simply are not enough resources to do the same on public lands and this will surely lead to catastrophe.’
Here’s the latest LNP crime to corruption ratio report! No matter what it is the LNP are rorting it! ! An audit of a $100m bushfire recovery program found the office of former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro altered the guidelines, resulting in Labor electorates missing out on emergency funding.
The office of the then NSW Nationals leader ignored guidelines and devised its own rules to fast-track money to areas hit by the 2019-20 bushfires — which meant 96% of projects funded were in Coalition-held seats!!
If you rotate your head 180′ to the left, you will see the same thing happening on that side. Watch ‘Rules for Rulers’ to understand why politicians do it. Its not evil, it’s utilitarian.
John Barilaro, he goes from one scandal to the next.
It doesn’t any worse than screwing over victims of disasters.
Maybe Council could think about doing some weed control. It is part of their duties as defined by the Local Government Act.
Absolutely true. The fuel load on my land is staggering. Lot of work to clearing it all. Everyone needs to start clearing now, including the state and national forests.
Barilaro belongs in the Lock Up. The squib’s beyond anyone’s knowing.
Would be beneficial to clear lantana more effectively I have recently moved to the region from down South and experienced the fires firsthand, the rural fire brigades will tell you Lantana is a a disaster in a fire and creates huge issues!
Goonengerry national park is a fire bomb waiting to go off, it contains very very deep litter layers, last time around it luckily avoided the fires spreading from Nightcap National park.
Controlled burns need to happen this winter or that entire place will burn down soon enough in a high intensity fire, but there are a bunch of people up there who don’t want controlled burns because of the negative impacts on wildlife…just wait for the big one and it’ll all be gone and all of the nearby private residences too.
They are whinging about muh carbon. So they wait until the whole thing burns down then whinge about muh lots of carbon. But I agree with you about the animals. They know how to walk out of the way. They evolved in Australia, it’s not their first rodeo, it’s the cost of doing business here.
Except for the minimum 3 billion animals that died in the 2019-20 fires… not much walking out of the way there