BAD PREDICTIONS FOR W.A.

kiwijims · Guru

BAD PREDICTIONS FOR W.A.

Papou · Senior Member

Nah , Western Australia has always been a tad on the warmside as well as a windy place at times .. Forest plantations , the extreme heat of late plus maybe lack of backburning etc and the odd firebug along the way has helped with these awfull fires .
Beutifull State that should never be missed out on ey:).
We are Australian and we will cope as well as rebuild the areas better than before:)..

frangipani · Guru

I agree Papou, West Aust is a beautiful state, loved every minute of my journey across there., hoping to come back soon...

Bruce and Bev · Guru

Sorry folks. but as a Perth resident and nomad, I agree with Jim.

Landcorp (who owns most public land in WA) is frantically selling off land to make money for the govt. Most of this time, the land and its houses are beside what little public bush area is left. This causes complaints from the new house owners when controlled burn offs are planned. We just had a major fire here which lasted for weeks where there had been no burn off for 50 years. Why......many not to upset householders.

WA is a fire bomb waiting to happen. I live directly opposite about 500H of native bush which backs onto the Yanchep National Park. Neither has been prescribed burned for years and the ground fuel load is huge. When the fire happens (and we've had 2 so far this year), many houses will be burnt down - hopefully no deaths.

Fuel load burn offs must happen regardless of what we think and new housing estates should not be built alongside large bush areas

kiwijims · Guru

On adding to your comments there Bruce and Bev, Yes, there must be more prescribe burns, regardless of what the locals say, it's the only way to keep the bush and any future fires under control,

while I was in the Brigade, we spent a lot of time making householders more aware of their surroundings, pointing out various things, like bush overhanging their roofs, gutters full of leaves, and most importantly, the access to their properties, this subject is a very hot issue with many new estates, How many do you know that have only one entrance and exit, there are hundreds around Perth, a real fire trap if ever there was.

I feel the Authorities must take a much firmer hand with these developers who plonk new houses in the middle of the Bush, sure there are people who want peace and tranquillity out in the sticks but, they should not be allowed to build with-out a minimum amount of cleared land around their properties, they not only put them selves in danger, there are the hard working emergency crews who have to risk their necks to protect these damn fools when the fires come, and they will come keep coming unless something is done real soon, as this season has already proved.

I can-not understand why the forestry authorities haven't adopted the policy of planting Evergreens through the forests like they do in N.Z.

This method of fire control has proved it's self many times in the past over there, they cut a strip of land bare, something like 500m wide, then plant these evergreens in thick rows down the centre, this acts as a fire break and gives Fire crews a chance to jump on the fire and suppress it much easier than having to rely on the expensive use of aerial water bombing,

Well that's my Soap Box stand vacated for now, anyone else like to jump up ??? smile smile

K.J.

Bruce and Bev · Guru

couldn't agree more Jim. We are in a new estate with about 800 or so houses in it and only one exit road out - all the other roads feed on to it and if/when there is a fire it will be grid locked. We have bush to within about 500 m of our place and the Yanchep National Park which hasn't had a controlled burn through it because in doing so it would take out one of the two major roads north - Wanneroo Rd - with the smoke.

I find it disturbing that the compulsory fire breaks around rural properties is so narrow. With large trees - their canopies overhang the break and we know how easily wind blows embers in front of the fire. Either make the fire breaks a decent width or stop this apparent PR exercise and don't bother at all

And as for the pricks that are lighting up so many of the fires and endangering fire crews and property............well............