Bushfire Preparedness

Ms COOK (Fisher) (15:20): I rise today to speak about a fantastic event hosted in my electorate during the past week. I was honoured to attend the Aberfoyle Community Centre's Bushfire Ready forum on Thursday evening last week. I would also like to offer on their behalf my thanks to the newly-appointed emergency services minister, the Hon. Peter Malinauskas MLC, for his attendance.

The Aberfoyle Community Centre is really the community heart of Fisher. It is managed and run by 85 dedicated volunteers and, during 2015, had 28,000 community visitors. They are very connected to the local community and put on a great range of events. They also run many classes. The community development officer, Ellen Jezierski, really is the powerhouse of the centre. She leads its programs with such innovation, drive and energy, and really sets a cracking pace. I quickly also want to send my thoughts to her today as she undergoes surgery—hurry back, Ellen!

As a CFS volunteer in the past, Ellen knows only too well the risks and dangers that fires can pose, so it is no surprise that she sees bushfire awareness as a priority. The community centre was incredibly hospitable and, along with volunteers from the Happy Valley CFS (no strangers to the community barbecue), they put on a fantastic sausage sizzle for the attendees. Their enthusiastic support for the event was great to see. It is really good to see the extent to which they will go to help the community and support giving residents the information they need.

There are some parts of my electorate of Fisher which are really quite obviously bushfire-prone areas. However, information I heard on the night, as well as some reflection on my observations of the Pinery fireground, really opened my mind to the question of: 'What does it actually mean to be high risk in terms of bushfire regions?' As I witnessed on the way home from a Riverland trip through the Pinery fireground, it really does not have to be full of vegetation and trees, it can actually just be a fairly flat, grassed area. That really confused me in terms of what the high-risk terminology meant. It was also a bit of an eye-opener for the people there that night to talk about this.

We were honoured to have Laura Gemmell from the CFS community engagement team come to give the presentation. I have heard Laura speak several times in the past when she was in a previous role working with very high-risk youth in detention. She is a very skilled presenter and really engaging. The residents at the forum found it very useful to hear what they need to do to ensure that their house is bushfire ready. Some of the key points that she shared included: ensuring that long grass is mowed, clearing flammable undergrowth from their properties, pruning overhanging branches from their homes, cleaning up everything that will burn from around the home, as well as cleaning out flammable leaves and debris from the gutters.

They used a very confronting piece of vision that was taken from inside a CFS appliance. This appliance was moving through quite high-density areas in both suburban and non-suburban bushfire zones, and it really did hit home about the dangers. The use of some still shots of burnt areas were helpful as well in terms of demonstrating to the locals how to help clean up around their houses. Vision of things such as doormats that were sitting on decking catching alight, mops leaning on walls and towels left hanging on the stair rails provided some easy reminders. It was pointed out that night that embers not only jump fences, paddocks and streams but they can travel some 20 to 25 kilometres, given the right conditions. They will also start a fire then if they land on items that are readily fuelled and have oxygen.

The reinforcement of the message to leave home early—in fact, leave the day before if you know of the impending risk of fire the next day—were vital, as were reminders to have things like fireproof blankets for all passengers in the car and the need to have a battery-powered radio, fire-safe long-sleeved and long-legged clothing, as well as water. This information was handy for everybody, whether they planned to stay or not in the event of a bushfire. Minister Malinauskas and the Happy Valley CFS were very generous with their time and they were available to answer any other questions after the presentation, especially for some people who wanted some local advice.

I would like to thank them for their hard work and thank the team at the Aberfoyle Community Centre, as well as the CFS, for their dedication to our community. I would like to note that some of the members of the Happy Valley CFS have gone to fight bushfires in Tasmania recently. I thank them for assisting those who are in need, wherever they are. It was a great event to attend and I would like to thank everyone finally who has helped make that happen.