Page 786 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 29 March 2006
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It is a considerable problem and it is a drain on our resources. We do encourage people to be vigilant themselves and it is really disappointing to see government agencies and instrumentalities undoing the good work in neighbourhoods. I draw the Assembly’s attention to the residents of Fleetwood Smith Street and associated areas in Harcourt Hill, the upper part of Nicholls. There are a large number of houses and battleaxe blocks that back on to Harcourt Hill. The problems that arose there were first bought to my attention in about October last year when the residents were told that the areas beyond their fence, which they had essentially colonised and cultivated, were going to be cleared because they were considered to be a bushfire hazard.
At the request of a couple of concerned residents I went and looked at the area. They have well-manicured and well-maintained gardens. Without exception they are well-maintained gardens. The residents had maintained the area beyond their fences, essentially on public land, essentially as a buffer against Harcourt Hill. There was a space of probably 10 or 15 metres beyond their fence running up to a fire trail that a number of residents had maintained. They had planted evergreens. They had planted mainly vines, which were not woody vines, and deciduous trees that gave a green lush cover to a large area.
In a couple of places I said that perhaps there might be some concerns about a particular woody plant, and at one place there was a small pile of firewood. I thought that if that really is a fire risk it probably should be removed. But, overall, it was a lush green area, and beyond the fire trail was endless seas of grass. When I first saw it in October last year, it was waist high and green but starting to cure. It was also interspersed with Paterson’s curse, which is another issue.
When I went back at various stages to visit other residents who raised issues with me I saw this land cure, month after month. In that time officials from the ACT government—and I am not quite sure which agency it was now; I think it may have been Environment ACT—came along and slashed and cleared every green blade of grass and every green leaf on the residents’ side. They left it denuded in the mistaken belief that this was a way of reducing the fire hazard around the houses. In fact, what they were doing was increasing the fire hazard to these houses. I have been advised by people more expert than I in bushfire fighting that that green area was in fact a retardant to fires and that what the officials had done by taking out that green area was increase the risk of fire in those areas.
They spent all that time taking away areas that were watered and maintained by the residents. Not once was Harcourt Hill slashed, and over the course of the late spring and summer acres and acres of grass cured and cured again until it was tinder dry. There was no reduction of fire risk. The people of Nicholls in my electorate near Harcourt Hill face a considerably increased fire risk because of the actions of officials of the ACT government. They were probably well-intentioned actions, but they were absolutely misguided. They should have spent more time slashing the grass on Harcourt Hill and less time cutting down the trees that people tended, watered and maintained as a firebreak against their properties. This is what is wrong. Not enough thought has gone into it.
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