Bundarrah Days

TODAY was our National Day of Mourning for Black Saturday. It was a dignified and impressive service, I thought, and it brought Australians together in sorrow in a way that made everyone who saw it feel part of the occasion.

I was particularly touched by the Aboriginal contribution. It was a day that should not have dawned any differently to any normal day. It was an occasion we should never had have had to have.

Just as bad generals lose soldiers and wars bad government and bureaucracies lose citizens to needless tragedies. We can trace the tragedy of Black Saturday back to the premiership of Steve Bracks. Four times in six years Victoria has suffered major bushfires causing deaths and massive property and asset losses.

This is due to the mad green policies of the Bracks Government and the ignorance of its leader. Steve Bracks was, to put it mildly, the most stupid man ever to lead Victoria. Was there ever an issue he actually understood? It is John Brumby's sheer misfortune that this tragedy should take place on his watch because of all the Victorian ALP he was the one most likely to repair the damage caused by his predecessor.

We're still counting the cost of Black Saturday in human terms. 209 people confirmed dead, including many children, and many more to be be confirmed. Our family was contacted by the police again yesterday making sure we had escaped. Before long we will be counting the environmental cost.

Fires are still burning in Melbourne's water catchments and this is yet another tragedy in the making. Burnt forests not only affect water quality - as they regrow they absorb far more more water than mature forests adversely affecting water yield.

Some experts have forecast that a serious burning of Melbourne's catchments could mean a loss of up to 50 per cent in water yield. This in itself is disastrous. Melbourne is already stealing water from north-eastern Victoria.

As I write this the forecast for tomorrow has temperatures in the mid 30's with strong northerly winds. The fire danger is again critical. Around 4 million hectares of Victoria's forested country has now been burnt since 2003 so there is not much left to burn.

But what is left of our neglected forests will burn fiercely in the right conditions. Let hope that communities like Warburton escape the fate of Marysville, Kinglake, Flowerdale, Calignee, Narbethong and the rest.

NEWS of our bushfire tragedy has reached far and wide, even into the virtual world of Second Life.

In this world of animated avatars there are fund raising activities all over the place for victims of Black Saturday. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of Linden Dollars have been raised which represents a very substantial amount in Australian dollars.

Personally we would like to thank Second Life Music promoter, Etierre Bonde and popular Second Life musician, Dave Small Finesmith for their amazing personal efforts. Alone they have raised in excess of $40,000 Lindens which has been paid to the Red Cross Appeal.

We think this is outstanding and is proof of the esteem Americans have for us Aussies. Bundarrah Days would like to take this opportunity to thank Etierre and Dave.

In addition the Australian Bushfire Phoenix Project has an ongoing appeal within Second Life and I'm told yet another group is holding a 72 hour dance marathon to raise more funds.

This is one time that a virtual world had had an impact on reality.

Mark of Moorabbin takes today's award for the World"s Most Ignorant Green. Here's what he wrote on the Andrew Bolt Blog.

How about some more facts instead of emotional outbursts?

Kinglake fire:

Fire started with powerline in cleared farmland.

Then hit pine plantations and jumped Hume Hwy.

Back into farmland.

Hits more plantations.

Back into farmland with pockets of forest.

(all privately owned so far)

Fire enters publicly owned forest that is managed for timber production (featuring lots of clear-fells and regrowth).

Hits Kinglake National Park. Mainly ‘39 regrowth with some old growth.

(back into privately owned land)

Exits park and hits more plantations.

Enters more farmland with scattered trees and pockets of bush scattered with houses.

Hitting, en route, Clonbinane, Wandong, Humevale, Kinglake West, Strathewen, Kinglake and jumping a 150 metre powerline fire break.

So where does the fuel reduction help here?

It’s a beat-up. Fuel reduction will not stop bushfires and, as I have shown with earlier comments on Marysville, is of limited value. Even with fuel reduction burns the bush will still monster up like last Saturday.

The myth and misinformation you are pedalling will only result in a false sense of security leading to more disasters of this kind. That’s more children, women and men who will eventually die if reactionaries gain any purchase over public policy. It’s populist drivel.

As for David “eco-terrorists waging jihad” Packham, Athol Hodgson and Peter Attiwell, they are fossilised ‘39 relics who need to move with the times and stop grandstanding. Once things have settled down, I expect that plenty of experts with both sensitivity to the moment and a more considered approach to the science will make their cases.

Now, how about looking at some of the facts instead of shrill and emotional, ill-informed rhetoric?
Mark of Moorabbin (Reply)

Firstly, there is no proof the fire started on cleared farmland. Secondly, the fires that killed people were not the same fires that burned in cleared farmland. Only a fool would suggest that a fire in cleared farmland is as deadly as a fire in bushand with an almost inexhaustible supply of fuel. A fire can start anywhere but there are different categories of seriousness and firefighting prospects.

Fuel reductions helps because burning bush creates radiant heat which causes a fire to burn even hotter.

Fire enters publicly owned forest that is managed for timber production (featuring lots of clear-fells and regrowth).

For publicly owned forest read state forest which is managed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment. Takes the claims of clear felling and regrowth with the contempt it deserves. Logging coups and regrowth make up a tiny area of the forests in question.

Hits Kinglake National Park. Mainly ‘39 regrowth with some old growth.

Remember Mark asks where does fuel reduction help here? The fuel burden in Kinglake National Park was massive. If the public land had been managed as it should have been Kinglake would still exist. I know what I'm talking about and so does David Packham, Athol Hodgson, Peter Attiwill, Simon Patton, Phil Cheney and many others. They predicted this, as did I. Mark did not and nor did his experts. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the shrill and emotional rhetoric belongs to Mark himself.

As for Marysville I speak now from personal experience. The forest was overdue to burn. The fuel load was incredible. I've run horse tours through it for eight years and there have been several occasions in summer when I have cancelled rides due to the danger of wildfire.

Mark's hasty and ill-informed apologia is a disgrace and a monumental insult to all those who died.

Below is a Bundarrah Days post from December 2006. I've reposted it today because The Bracks Government and it's successor under John Brumby both lied to you. The Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party has the blood of more than 200 Victorians on its hands due to its mad flirtation with radical green policies on our public land and in our national parks and conservation reserves.



12/09/2006
They Lied To You

Contrast the tragic images from these fires with the beautiful pictures that accompanied this government’s expensive advertising campaign last year about a “new start for The Alpine National Park.”

A quick comparison will reveal the truth about their real commitment to the alpine environment.

Contrast the images of the country people desperately fighting to save their homes and properties with those of a few green bushwalkers enjoying a rare sortie into the Alpine National Park. (Or now substitute the image of people saving their homes with the faces of the dead Victorians who died last Saturday)

A quick comparison will show that those greens were enjoying a walk in a fools paradise.

Where are the spin doctors from the Victorian National Parks Association now? Where are the Charlie Sherwin’s and Phil Ingamells? Why have they nothing to say in the face of this tragedy? Could it be that they are nothing more than fair weather friends of the national parks they spend their lives lobbying for and excluding people from?

What were they doing when timber workers and mountain cattlemen were warning about the potential for a massive conflagration in the mountains? They were busy writing news releases telling you all not to worry and that more and more mismanaged national parks and conservation reserves were the salvation of your country.

They lied to you. Steve Bracks and John Thwaites lied to you. The Greens lied to you. That litany of lies was the match that set the flame burning in 2003 and again now.

When this is all over go and look at the tragic landscape, the scarred and exposed ground burnt right down to mineral soils and the sad never ending lines of dead trees crowding the valleys and lining the ridge tops.

And when you get over the feelings of awe at the power that caused this devastation know that it was unleashed by politics, by a religious fervour that demanded that the hand of man be excluded from the management of nature, by a lack of management resources for our massive network of national parks and by a government that took the easy option of excluding people from our parks and pointing to that exclusion as proof of their care for the environment.

The hell with all of them.

Meanwhile the biggest fires we have burning now are the Ovens complex and the Mt Darling-Cynthia fire to the east and south-east of Mt Howitt, covering the Wonnangatta area. Country Voice, now Push For The Bush, warned about this publicly way back in March this year and other bush users had been warning about it as well for years before that.

http://bundarrahdays.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/03/10/wo...

Now, last summer Steve Bracks said the following:

“In 2003, we had probably the closest we’ve ever had to the conditions of ‘39. We had a continual dry period for five years before, and we had temperatures approaching 40 degrees. We had strong northerly winds, and that was occurring regularly. It wasn’t as bad in terms of climatic conditions, but it was very close, and I think we were much better prepared.

The best indication has been the ‘39 Royal Commission report, which showed there was nothing that could be done at that point in time. With the existing laws, we could have prevented those fires occurring. They were the strongest fires Victoria has ever had, but the systems weren’t in place properly and appropriately to deal with them.”

So, Mr Bracks, with your existing laws you could have prevented the ‘39 fires? What a bloody shame you couldn’t prevent the 2006 fires. Your statement above condemns you for your ignorance and your blindness.

HERE are a few extracts about wildfire that have appeared in Bundarrah Days and on the Andrew Bolt blog.
23/2/2006

Reserving land for conservation purposes and public enjoyment is a fine ideal. But this is Australia and we need to develop a process appropriate for Australian conditions. Lock it up and leave it doesn't work here.

There seems to be an impression in the minds of the urban dwelling public that a magical transformation takes place when bushland is incorporated into a national park. Suddenly it ceases being the bush and becomes part of a fragile eco-system with countless communities of diabolically threatened flora and fauna.

The stark truth is that once it is declared a national park and subjected to green management guidelines it becomes more threatened than it ever was before.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and national parks and foreign management has not benefited public land in the least but has worked to its detriment. Enough has been destroyed.

Judge Stretton, back in 1939, recognised the struggle between bush people and imported land managers. He came down on the side of the bush and made recommendations which should have been followed uniformly.

Instead we now find that the mistakes of the past are being repeated over and over again.


3/5/2006 If anyone should think that the danger in Wonnangatta is being overstated they should consider that one of Victoria's oldest horse tour families who have been visiting Wonnangatta for decades will no longer take tours into the valley during February. They describe it as a death trap.

Perhaps there is a hidden green agenda at work. Maybe they would like to see a few tragedies to drum into people the dangers unmanaged bushland presents to the unwary and the inexperienced. Perhaps they think such tragedies might dissuade people from going there.

It's got to a point now where we really have to consider the possibility of such a hidden agenda or otherwise we have to admit that our land managers and those who formulate the policies are incredibly, almost unbelievably incompetent.


15/6/2006 Less than half the control burning schedule for Victorian public land before this winter has been carried out.

Only 49,293 hectares has been set alight by the Department of Sustainability and Environment under its fuel reduction program in contrast to the target of 130,000 hectares.

And to make matters worse it appears the Bracks Government has been trying to cover up its failure by lying. DSE's website was claiming yesterday that 110,000 hectares had been burnt so far this this year. The misleading figures were removed yesterday after the State Opposition exposed them.


6/6/2006 Now the chorus is "lock up the land." Forget about it, let it burn as it never burned before and leave the scarred landscape to be preyed upon by noxious weeds and feral animals.

The sheer hypocrisy of the Bracks Government in the management of National Parks is manifestly obvious. The tragedy is that the parks are the victim. Mr Bracks talks about a new start for the Alpine National Park. That new start is on indefinite hold until he and his government are held to account for the charred, neglected and tragic landscape of much of Victoria's parks.


Does anyone truly believe that "the science" used to justify these crazy policies is legitimate science?


26/7/2006 Thus we have a triple tragedy unfolding in Australia today. Firstly, the loss of a living bush heritage that helped keep us in touch with our national character which we are consequently in danger of losing; secondly a deterioration and loss of biodiversity on public land and thirdly the loss of renewable resources such as timber to mindless conservation policies and ultimately uncontrollable wildfire.


28-12/2006 THE Bracks government is considering a marketing and advertising campaign to bring tourists back to fire ravaged areas of Victoria.

Remembering their last big campaign for the region - A New Start For The Alpine National Park - we here at Bundarrah Days have a suggestion for a sequel.

A New Start For The Alpine National Park - Come See What We've Done!


01/16/2007 Bracks Takes Holidays While Victoria Burns

PREMIER Steve Bracks took holidays with Victoria in the midst of one of the greatest bushfire crises in its history.

The Australian reports that he rushed back to work yesterday after wildfires cut power transmissions.

Rushed is hardly the right word. He wasn't in any kind of hurry until the disaster hit home to Melbourne when up to 100,000 homes lost power, air conditioners shut down on one of the hottest days this summer and hundreds of people were stranded in sweltering conditions in city lifts.

That's how seriously Steve Bracks has been treating the disaster in the bush. If you were Premier would you have taken holidays while much of the state was burning around you?

What an inspirational leader! What an example he sets.

There are thousands of volunteer firefighters who have sacrificed their summer holidays for the good of the community, their holiday pay supporting their families while they risk their lives to divert the flames around homes and townships.

Meanwhile, Steve Bracks takes a holiday! Pity it wasn't permanent.


26/7/2007 Get the picture? The fires of the past four years were not simply a natural occurrence we have to learn to live with. They were an unprecedented environmental disaster from which we might never fully recover.

This is where green inspired land management has led us yet we have a Commissioner For Emergency Services assuring us that all is hunky dory, that feral wildfire is natural and doesn't do much harm and the bush will recover quickly.

Do you think a man who suffers from such delusions should occupy such a vital public position?


02/22/2007 Esplin Should Be Sacked

VICTORIA'S Commissioner for Emergency Services, Bruce Esplin, is a disaster waiting to happen and should be sacked.

His alliance with two of Australia's greenest scientists, Dick Williams and Ross Bradstock, demonstrates a clear lack of objectivity and an intention to align himself with a movement that supports the concept of wilderness and a subsequent regime of feral wildfire.

Far from supporting science that seeks to evaluate the damage caused by such fires to forests and catchments as well as changes to the albedo of the land that may lead to a decrease in rainfall, Esplin has told Victorians they need to "accept" wildfire as a fact of life and as a natural part of Victoria's ecology.

Eminent scientists and bushfire experts were appalled by an article co-written by Esplin, Williams and Bradstock which appeared in The Age last week.

In the article the three conspirators pointed to fire in mountain ash forests as evidence that wildfire was natural and necessary.

Mountain Ash regenerates through fire and forests need to be burnt about once a century.

However, to use fire in ash forests to justify the occurrence of the mega fires of recent years is no more than a deceptive ploy.

While there's no evidence that Aboriginals burnt mountain ash forests they regularly burnt the surrounding dry forests creating a mosaic of relatively clean forest floor. Their efforts were supported by lightning and fuel accumulation at levels seen in our forests today were unknown.

Therefore, the regenerative fires in mountain ash forests were unable to spread into mega blazes capable of destroying millions of hectares in the course of a single summer.


05/18/2007 Rural Fire Volunteers Rebel Over Cattle Evictions

EXCLUSIVE REPORT:

This is a copy of a letter to be sent to DSE Benalla, Region 22 Headquarters, local members of Parliament.

To Whom It May Concern:

We, the volunteer members of the Picola Rural Fire Brigade, have serious concerns in regards to the future management of the Barmah Forest, should the cattle be removed in the future.

Our concerns are as stated:

Lack of management of the undergrowth and fuel loading due to removal of cattle
Lack of consultation with local fire brigade members
Lack of access tracks and bridges
Future maintenance of these tracks and bridges
Reference areas


In regards to the management of the undergrowth and fuel loading should the cattle be removed, the Parks past history, for example the high country, shows us that they do not have a workable plan in action to reduce large fire risks.

Generally, the local volunteer CFA members are first called to incidents in the forest, however, our input into safety and time is not taken into consideration. As locals, our knowledge is invaluable in relation to this issue.

We feel that the tracks are not being maintained adequately to allow fire trucks safe access to and from incidences as CFA policy states that for safety purposes, we need at least two escape routes.

Bridges also are a concern in that they are not being replaced or maintained quickly enough to provide safe access for not only the fire trucks but also the safe exit of campers and tourists. The Bendy Bridge at Hut Lake has not been replaced; Top Island has only two other access points. Also the bridge at Tarmah has been out of action for many years, McDonalds Bridge over smiths creek is in dire need of replacement. This is just to name a few.

At a recent fire where a Reference area was involved, Parks Victoria would not allow DSE to put an access track/fire break in high ground as this was in the reference area, hence sending the trucks through low wet ground causing a truck to become bogged. The CFA need to have unrestricted access to all areas should they be expected to put their lives on the line and fight fires in the bush.

Our members have voiced their concerns that if the cattle are removed from the forest and fuel loadings increase, we will seriously consider not going out there due to increased risks to our safety and accessibility.

We hope these concerns are given high priority when decisions on the forest are made in the future.

Picola Rural Fire Brigade
Secretary Jack Corry




In the past, a chap from the mountains ( Phil McGuire I think ) predicted all of this due to the bush fires we have been having. He seems to know something that others don't and I will listen to him in future.
Suburbanite of Glen Waverley (Reply)
Sat 05 Jul 08 (11:16am)

Phil Maguire replied to Suburbanite
Sat 05 Jul 08 (12:17pm)

I have to say thanks for the vote of confidence.

I've tried to spread the word publicly but other than that my knowledge is no greater than that of any other mountain cattleman or bushman.

I think it's time that those of us with the required experience were listened to over and above those who feign knowledge and tell outright lies such as green academics national parks activists.

If people think that green scientists don't lie or fake studies they're sadly mistaken. I know of many who do and I'd name them here if it was allowed.

IT is believed that one in five people in my old town of Marysville are dead.

SATURDAY, February 7, 2009, will be remembered in Australian history as a day of the greatest infamy - a day that dwarfed the preceding bushfire tragedies of Black Thursday, 1851, Black Friday, 1939 and Ash Wednesday 1983.

The Victorian environment is no longer a game board for political greens and expediency minded politicians with votes on their minds.

It is a killing field where Victorians have been sacrificed on the altar of green environmentalism - a religion that was sold to them as a saviour and turned out to be an executioner.

For eight years I conducted horse tours in the bush around Marysville and I knew it better than most because I didn't stick to tracks - wherever possible I took people directly through the bush, interpreting it and educating them in its ways.

I knew very well that those forests were about to burn and what a terrible toll they would take when they did. So I tried, but obviously not well enough, to change things.

About six years ago I was a shortlived committee member of Marysville Tourism. I resigned because the group adopted an anti-logging stance and aligned itself with a radical green group which later organised a logging blockade in the area. At the time the group president was the manager of a well known guest house which now lies a burnt out ruin in the main street. At least one guest died there.

Around that time I also wrote an article for the local district newsheet, The Triangle, going into the background of the fire regime in Victoria's forests and how it had changed dangerously.

What little things I could do, I did. So did my friends - people like Bob Richardson of Push For The Bush, Graeme and Wendy Stoney, Charlie Lovick and Doug and Christa Treasure.

I put my cattle back on the high plains in defiance of Bracks and Thwaites. I told whoever would listen of the danger. I still have cattle in the Alpine National Park because I am not going to surrender to the negligent malfeasants who have cost us the lives of so many people.

What I and my friends did was not enough. We should have barnstormed Victorian towns and spread the message far and wide. We failed. I promise you we won't fail again.

First on my list is Bruce Esplin, Victoria's disaster commissioner whom I labelled on this blog as Victoria's Commissioner for Future Disasters. Could I have bestowed on him a more accurate title?

His head has to roll along with the decision making bureacrats in Parks Victoria and DSE. They should be charged with criminal negligence.

It's not as if no one knew of the rapidly growing and deadly peril. Anyone with experience of the Victorian bush was aware of the danger that was growing in our forests.

Scientists like David Packham, Athol Hodgson and Peter Attiwill did their utmost to help Victoria avoid last Saturday but the government wasn't listening.

In the final analysis this tragedy has not come without a lesson. Where are the massive fires one would expect to be burning right across the forests of the Victorian High Country right now. There was no lack of ignition factors, particularly on a day that reached 47C and featured heavy northerly winds.

That the vast majority of country that was burned in 2003 and 2006-07 is not burning now is not a matter of luck. It's because there is a reduced fuel load.

Australians have been lied to consistently by radical greens and their political friends. Now, it's no longer a matter of debate over forest management - it's a question of justice for all those who have died and every family who has lost a loved one.

Tomorrow Bundarrah Days will review warnings we have written over the years leading up to Saturday's disaster and invite readers of this blog to contribute to a submission to the coming Royal Commission.