EYRE PENINSULA BUSHFIRES

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (11:32): I move:

That this house notes the extraordinary efforts of all emergency services personnel and all volunteers in their response to the bushfire near Sleaford Mere.

I will speak to my motion and also include in my contribution mention of the even more recent fire at Coomunga, which occurred just last week. I rise today in two roles: one as the member for Flinders, where these two most recent and significant bushfires took place, and also my new role as shadow minister for emergency services and volunteers. On Remembrance Day, 11 November, I was attending a Remembrance Day service in Port Lincoln, with an obligation to lay a wreath. It was very warm and, in fact, it was the first catastrophic bushfire day declared for this particular summer season.

During the morning of that day, there was ignition of a fire in some scrub country out near Sleaford Mere, which is due west of Port Lincoln and due west of the small township of Tulka. Obviously, many volunteers were mobilised to attend that fire. It ultimately burnt almost 2,000 hectares. There certainly was some damage to property, including the destruction of a number of homes and a number of cabins; certainly, there were losses to sheds and fences. The clean-up of that bushfire is progressing. It took some days to contain. The CFS and SES were mobilised, along with many other emergency services. I understand the clean-up has been delayed somewhat because there has been the discovery of asbestos in some of the cabins that were burnt down.

My original motion was to thank all of those involved in that but, unfortunately, on 20 November, which was just last week, a very similar situation arose, once again just west of Port Lincoln near the railway siding of Coomunga. Once again, it was in native vegetation and, once again, the most likely source seems to have been a lightning strike. Ultimately, that fire was contained after burning 2,300 hectares, and for at least some of the time we felt that the City of Port Lincoln was under serious threat. There was less significant damage in the more recent Coomunga fire than the first fire but, of course, there was still some property damage to fences and crops but, fortunately, there was no injury, or worse, to those people involved in and close to the fire.

My motion looks to thank all those volunteers who were involved, and there were hundreds of them. They came from organisations such as the CFS, the MFS, the SES, South Australia Police, St John Ambulance and SA Ambulance. DEWNR (the department of environment) was involved to the extent that they were engaged to do burn-back operations, I understand during both events. Housing SA and Red Cross set up a disaster management centre in the Kirton Point Bowling Club within the City of Port Lincoln. The Lower Eyre district council was involved: of course, they have staff and machinery that they deploy in these situations. Getting heavy machinery onto a fireground in difficult terrain and heavily wooded country is paramount in an effort to contain a fire, both to push up burning material and also make and maintain breaks.

Of course, the city council of Port Lincoln has been preparing for such events, given that we have had quite a history of significant bushfires in the near proximity to Port Lincoln. The city council has been active in setting up a bushfire committee and also assisting people to develop a bushfire strategy for their communities and their own homes. I congratulate them on that. PIRSA, another government department, was also involved because they were helping out and assisting with stock management after the fire. I understand there were some sheep lost in the Sleaford event.

Of course, in the days following, the Salvation Army swung into gear and set up a rest and recovery area at the Ravendale sports complex in Port Lincoln. The Salvation Army, of course, are famous for doing just that. Their volunteers spring into action and provide food and sustenance to all those volunteers as they come off shift and go on shift out to the fireground. There were literally hundreds of volunteers. The locals in the first instance attend the emergency and, of course, in the days following, CFS, MFS and SES volunteers come from further afield. Indeed, when I was visiting the recovery centre and the fireground itself, I noticed there were trucks and people from all over this great state who had converged on Port Lincoln to assist with the effort.

The difficulty with thanking people is that you always run the risk of forgetting somebody and I am not going to name businesses in particular, but I know a large number of local businesses provided both goods and services in the days following, and it is about sustenance and providing services to those people who volunteer.

I was driving back into Port Lincoln from the north during the Coomunga event and noticed quite a number of people leaving town. They had obviously put in place their bushfire management plan and had decided to evacuate, which, of course, is their prerogative, and they had packed up a few belongings. There were many people heading north towards Tumby Bay; the other roads leading west from Port Lincoln were closed.

What I did notice at that time is that the local media were very good—ABC regional radio and also Radio 5CC—at providing regular updates on the fire situation, which people need. I congratulate them on filling that role. What has come to prominence in this most recent event is the use of the CFS Facebook site.

Many people have access to computers and to Facebook these days, and the CFS was using that Facebook site to provide up-to-the-minute information to those who needed it—those residents of Port Lincoln and surrounding areas who needed that information. Ultimately, the best information is required to come from the fireground itself. There is always going to be a delay, but I congratulate all of those who were involved in disseminating information as well as they possibly could.

There will be much discussion following these most recent events about the preparedness of towns, cities and individuals in the face of a bushfire. I have no doubt that there will be much discussion also around the management of native vegetation in preparation for these events and in our South Australian landscape.

I take the opportunity to thank ministers Rankine and Hunter, who were good enough to visit Port Lincoln and the fireground following the Sleaford fire. I do appreciate the support they gave at that time. There are a couple of people who I will mention by name. First and foremost, I thank Kevin May, the regional commander of the CFS on Eyre Peninsula for his tireless efforts. He was most happy to take calls and arrange visits for me at any time.

He was instrumental in setting up the management of the fire and pulling everything together. I remember calling into the control room one day and seeing CFS, SES, SAPOL and MFS all working quite efficiently together and managing what potentially was a very serious event. Fortunately, the fire was brought under control, and the city was saved once again. There were some property losses, but essentially it is now under control.

The other person I would like to mention and to give thanks to is Therese Pedler, who is the community education officer with the CFS in Port Lincoln. She has done a magnificent job in helping communities and individuals prepare their bushfire plans. Her comment was that people were as ready as they possibly could have been for these events. She was also instrumental, as was Kevin, in organising a community meeting in the Nautilus Theatre in Port Lincoln last Friday night, where some hundreds of people came along to get the latest information. So, my congratulations to her.

I will finish by reading into Hansard a commentary I found in the Navigator College school newsletter. It was written by Diane Moseby of Port Lincoln. I trust that she will not mind the fact that I am including this in my contribution and into the Hansard record because it has already appeared in the school newsletter. I think it describes her experience on that particular day. It is in the form of verse, and it says:

In light of yesterday's Catastrophic Fire Day and the fire that developed under the conditions and threatened Port Lincoln, once again these 'Heroes' were called upon to fight and protect our homes, properties, livestock...and most importantly human lives, including our children. The stamina and dedication of these people, after only a few days have passed since the last fire, is astounding.

I felt so proud to know our students were part of showing their support towards these 'Heroes' by helping to set up 'tent' city over at Ravendale last week and again today in the wake of yesterday's fire—

And that is right. My thanks go to the students at Navigator, too. They swung into action and erected a large number of tents to accommodate the volunteers. It goes on to say:

They would have experienced the true meaning and self reward of service to others, especially to our local community. I know myself I need to tell my children more often about these true 'Heroes', educate them on what these people do, the unselfish service they give and tell them how they are far worthier of the title than our made up cartoon super heroes.

'So how do I show my support?' Mrs Moseby asks. She continues:

I do not place on a fireman's uniform, or fly a water bomber, or man a phone, or provide first aid to those in need, or coordinate a crew in time of emergency or any other jobs that are required to fight a bushfire (yet)...but I will guarantee you that I have a Bush Fire Action Plan for my family. My husband and I have discussed it, my children are aware of it and we have things in place, God forbid, should there be a need to action it. So no, I'm not a hero myself, but I show my support to these volunteers by being prepared and I know they appreciate and applaud those who are.

Thank you to Diane and for that contribution and, with that, I give my heartfelt thanks to all those who assisted in these last two fires.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:45): I move:

After the words 'Sleaford Mere' insert 'and Coomunga'

The government is pleased to support the motion brought forward by the member for Flinders, with the proposed amendment. These fires near Sleaford Mere and Coomunga on Eyre Peninsula were just a week apart. I am pleased, with the agreement of the member for Flinders, to broaden the motion so that the house might also show its appreciation to those involved in both events. As the two fires were in relatively close proximity to each other, many of the same people were fighting both of them. I can only imagine how exhausted everyone felt after the fire near Sleaford Mere only for the crews to do it all over again a few days later.

Over 150 firefighters helped fight the Sleaford Mere fire and more than 370 were involved with Coomunga. Their efforts were magnificent and those on the fireground were greatly assisted by the volunteers and employees of South Australia Police, the SA Ambulance Service, the State Emergency Services, the Salvation Army, St John Ambulance, the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, and the councils that were also invaluable in ensuring that these fires were brought under control.

I know that the Minister for Housing in the other place would also like me to give thanks to the Australian Red Cross and Housing SA, as they were instrumental in coordinating the recovery effort. We all know that in times of emergencies our communities pull together. I would like to put on the record how thankful this government, and I know the people of South Australia, but most particularly the people of those two communities, are to everyone who played a role.

The Eyre Peninsula community has a proud history of rallying together in times of emergencies, and there were many stories of extreme generosity—many stories of extreme but very quiet generosity. I am also told that the team at Port Lincoln Supercheap Auto put relief packages together and rushed them across the road to Housing SA to help anyone who had lost their home. I know there were many stories like this, and I say a heartfelt thanks to everyone who lent a hand.

Whilst there were no reports of injuries or substantial property damage at Coomunga, this was sadly not true at the fire near Sleaford Mere. The fire destroyed 14 cabins, a house (with damage to another), a caravan, a campervan, 300 sheep, four cars, irrigation equipment, fences and numerous sheds. In total, almost 2,000 hectares were burnt with approximately 2,300 burnt during the Coomunga blaze. I understand three firefighters also sustained minor injuries during the first fire. I want to say an extra special thankyou to these men, and I am pleased to advise the house that they have recovered and are ready to continue their work protecting their communities.

One firefighter involved in another fire was injured on his way home. He was involved in the Bramfield fire, as I understand, and he is still in the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and I understand that surgery is planned for him tomorrow. I do understand that he is expected to make a full recovery, but my very best wishes go to Ian Davey and his family for tomorrow. My sympathies and thoughts are also with those who lost property or other assets, and the fact that no lives were lost is testimony to the great work of the men and women involved in fighting both these fires.

I had the opportunity to be at the scene of the Sleaford Mere fire with the Minister for Housing and the member for Flinders, and I saw firsthand not only the professionalism demonstrated in getting things back under control but also the devastation and shock of those who had lost their homes out at the Sleaford cabins. There was, I think it is fair to say, a great deal of confusion and sense of bewilderment, but it was pleasing to know that there was such a great amount of support being provided to them to get them back on their feet.

I also want to pay special attention to two CFS staff who I think did an excellent job during these events. The CFS commander, Kevin May, oversaw both events with the utmost professionalism, and I think that very few of us can understand what stressful conditions Kevin must have been working under. What an enormous responsibility he had, yet he remained his usual friendly self whilst empowering everyone around him to deliver their best under the circumstances, and this is the mark of a true leader.

By deliberately singling out Kevin, I know that his modesty will ensure that everyone deserving of recognition will not be forgotten and that he will pass on our sincere thanks and congratulations to all those involved. I also would like to highlight the work of Therese Pedler, the local community education officer. If we did not have people like Therese working tirelessly to ensure that landowners and residents are ready for the worst, the damage sustained in these fires would be much, much worse.

Through saying a thankyou to Therese I hope that this sentiment stretches to the many property owners who had done the right thing and were ready for the worst. On behalf of both a grateful government and a grateful community, I say a very sincere thankyou. Madam Speaker, the government is very pleased to support this motion.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:52): I rise, also, to support the motion of the member for Flinders, and I suspect that he will also accept the amendment put up by the government without too much whatsoever to argue about. I also think it is important that we do recognise the efforts of those who worked very hard to bring fires under control, get them out and save life and property, but that is what it is all about.

I know that this takes place all over the state and all over Australia and that it is just the way it is in Australia. What does concern me about some of these things is the attitude of the city media. This morning, it seemed to me almost as though they were hoping for some sort of conflagration across the state with the nonsense that was being perpetrated. We live in a hot, dry country; we live in a country where we have hot north winds, particularly in the high rainfall country that the member for Flinders has and that I have plenty of—both on the mainland and across the water—and I know that we also have other areas of high rainfall country like the South-East.

However, the reality is that these things happen, and our increasingly urban population seems to forget about that. At the risk of repeating what I have said before and what others have said before, our volunteers and those who have to pick up the pieces when these messes start face every chance that at some stage in the future we are going to have a major fire up in the Adelaide Hills, and I know that the member for Davenport has talked about this regularly.

But still we allow people to put buildings and houses in places where they are going to get burnt, yet we have foolish legislation that has come out of this parliament in relation to native vegetation, and some steps have been made in this place on trying to fix that up.

We have ridiculous situations where when a fire does start, whether it be by lightning, by accident or by some devious person who lights it, it creates an enormous mess that people have to run around and clean up. It is only five years since a third of Kangaroo Island was burnt out, which brings me to my next point. This is where government departments have failed, particularly the department of environment. They simply do not do enough prescribed burning. They can say that they have met 80 per cent or 86 per cent of their targets, but their targets are pathetically inadequate.

The member for Flinders knows only too well with the national parks in his electorate what they do not do. When these things happen, we come in here and correctly pick up on the motion of the member for Flinders and we support it. We can all stand here and pat ourselves on the back and say that we do a wonderful job in supporting volunteers and emergency services personnel, but, unless we come up with solutions by way of legislation and government departments trying to use some common sense, we will be doing this for a long, long time. I support the members motion, but I put a few warning bells up as well.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:56): I rise to support the motion of the member for Flinders that this house notes the extraordinary efforts of all emergency services personnel and all volunteers in their response to the bushfire near Sleaford Mere and Coomunga. I speak not only as a member of parliament, but also as a volunteer. I note the extraordinary efforts of volunteers all across the state, especially most recently in the Port Lincoln area. The town was certainly under threat. Some buildings did go down at Tulka but, in the main, as far as I understand, there were no serious injuries. Things went pretty well in relation to the firefighting effort. This takes some government activity, but the biggest effort here was by the volunteers, whether they were firefighters, ambulance personnel or SES personnel, and I note the contribution of the schoolchildren in helping set up the camps.

We have to ask ourselves why we keep getting these fires—and we will get them forever in this dry continent. As with the member for Morphett's amendment this morning in regard to the Native Vegetation (Road Verges) Amendment Bill 2012, we need to seriously look at how we handle native vegetation in this state, whether it is on private property or on government land. Certainly in the Port Lincoln area and in other areas of the state, this is absolutely essential. Too many times in recent years we have seen these fires flare up in scrub areas close to towns, especially in Port Lincoln, and I note that a lot of the native vegetation there was on private land.

We need to give people the opportunity to put in place decent breaks so that when these fires happen we can get far better control. We just cannot keep risking the lives of the people fighting these fires. It will happen again and again, as we have seen in history. Going back to 1983, we lost many people in the terrible Ash Wednesday fires. In recent years on the West Coast, sadly, quite a few lives were lost. We have seen terrible eventualities of fire in this country. Everyone needs to wake up, certainly everyone in this parliament. We need to amend laws to give people better rights, better access and better opportunities for clearing appropriate firebreaks—without going overboard—to make sure that people can manage fires.

There was a fire incident recently in Ngarkat in my electorate. The firefighters on the scene wanted to burn back, but they were all too concerned that they could be charged with something if it went pear-shaped. As the winds were about 90 kilometres per hour, they all knew that the fire would come out anyway, but the powers that be in the CFS decided that the break would be the Mallee Highway. Before the Mallee Highway and between Ngarkat and the Mallee Highway there is plenty of farmland, so that land was going to be sacrificed.

So CFS volunteers on the ground need to make sure they know the full aspects of their authority. They need to know, and it is quite legal if they need to light a burn-back. But people get jittery on the ground; they are frightened of legal consequences when these things happen. I think there needs to be some education to make sure people are on the right track and to make sure that people will not be under any legal responsibility if they do have to do a burn-back in these situations.

While we are debating about the volunteers over on the West Coast, I would like to digress a little and thank the volunteers right throughout the state recently with the lightning strikes, and especially around my area and further down the South-East. Our farm lost only a few acres, thankfully, due to prompt neighbours who turned up and put the fire out quickly and we only lost a few acres of wheat. They were all out fighting fires all around the place and they put in a magnificent effort, as people have done on the West Coast.

So, I certainly commend all of our volunteers, all our firefighters, all our ambulance people, the schoolchildren, as I mentioned earlier, and everyone who gets involved. I note that there has been better use of aircraft in recent years in fighting these outbreaks. I commend everyone for their involvement and I commend the member for Flinders for bringing this motion to the house.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (12:01): I wholeheartedly endorse the member for Flinders' motion and also all the comments that have been made so far and I will not repeat them. I would like to add to the debate my appreciation for the CFS volunteers who go on strike teams. Without any doubt whatsoever the people from Lower Eyre Peninsula and other parts of Eyre Peninsula performed remarkably well fighting these two fires, but I think that it is important to note that CFS crews came on strike teams from other parts of the state as well.

I remember very, very well in January this year, when we had hundreds of firefighters fighting the Wilmington fires, people from all over the state came, and I know that there were many people from all over the state, including from my local area who went to Lower Eyre Peninsula very recently. I would like to add praise and thanks and support for them as well. It is a big thing to be in the CFS, it is a big thing to leave your home, your business, your job, your family, to go and fight a fire in your own area, but it is an even bigger thing to do exactly that, to go and fight a fire in another area, in another part of the state.

While I appreciate all CFS volunteers and all those who worked very, very hard locally at Lower Eyre Peninsula, I think it is important to recognise the people from all over the state who regularly go to other parts of the state to fight fires and thank them.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (12:03): I would also commend the motion. I think it is one opportunity where we have the ability to show how city supports country. I say that particularly because it is the first time that my son has been deployed. He recently bought a home on Yarrabee Road for some reason, but his experience was terrific, he has been trained really well, and while I know some members have concerns about decisions being made and who is doing what, I know that everyone does their best in a situation like this and we just have to keep working together.

Mr BROCK (Frome) (12:04): I wholeheartedly support and congratulate the member for Flinders for bringing this motion forward and also endorse the amendment by the minister. I will be very brief and I will not repeat what everyone else has said, but from an emergency services point of view, it is not only the CFS people we have to thank, but also the SES and also the ambulance people and others like that across the whole of the state.

Just referring back to the clearing of vegetation, I will be very supportive of and speaking on the member for Morphett's bill to amend the Native Vegetation Act. In my travels I have been very fortunate as I have not had to be involved in a bushfire. The severity of bushfires is hard to comprehend. As part of the Natural Resources Committee we did have the opportunity, with the member for Davenport, to look at an inquiry into the Adelaide Hills bushfire, and we had the opportunity to view, firsthand, a video of the Canberra fires. Just sitting there watching that video was traumatic enough, and we were sitting in an air-conditioned office.

Certainly one of the issues I have is clearing sufficient firebreaks across not only regional South Australia but in very close proximity to Adelaide, and one of the things I do find is that the local councils that are responsible for this seem to leave it to the last minute and we can see, even with this season here, how the seasons have changed very dramatically, and I think we need to look at the road verges being cleared not only once but maybe two or three times leading up to it, because once the temperature gets like today they cannot use any equipment to actually start clearing.

Also, I think the other issue is, and I had this issue with my own local council for a household block in Port Pirie, some residents requested vacant blocks belonging to the ARTC to have notices served upon them to actually have their blocks cleared and they were told very clearly the local councils cannot enforce those or put notices out until such time as the total fire bans are declared and, again, that is one of the things I will be taking up later on.

I, as with others here, support and congratulate the member for Flinders for bringing this up here, and I certainly am very appreciative of all the volunteers of all the emergency services across South Australia and, in particular, the CFS, because they do take their lives in their hands to save somebody else's life. So I certainly, again, congratulate the member for Flinders.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (12:07): I thank all of those members, from both sides of the house, who made a contribution in support of this motion and, once again, I congratulate all those on a fine effort in controlling the latest bushfire outbreaks around the city of Port Lincoln.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.