FIRE ACCESS TRACKS

The Hon. A. BRESSINGTON (15:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations questions about maintaining fire access tracks.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. BRESSINGTON: Mr President, as you no doubt recall, last Tuesday some 31,591 lightning strikes hit our state, causing numerous fires of varying intensity from Port Lincoln to the South-East. Several of these were in the Adelaide Hills where, as I have previously raised in this place, fuel levels are high and farmers are being prevented from clearing near-surface fuel considered to be native vegetation because it is claimed to be habitat.

Three fires just outside of Strathalbyn could easily have threatened homes if landowners were not on hand to restrain them until the Country Fire Service arrived. In the subsequent editorial in The Southern Argus,one of these farmers is reported as expressing his concerns that the Country Fire Service could have been delayed by the disrepair of the fire access track, called Dog Trap Road, which the CFS used to access these fires. This fire track was so neglected and would be so dangerous in the event of a fire that local residents have suggested a name change to 'Death Trap Road'.

I have taken photos of the track, and it is beyond me how a CFS truck could have navigated the eroded trenches (some over half a metre deep), the boulders blocking creek crossings, the dense overhanging branches—where a person fire-spotting on one of these fire trucks could absolutely sustain serious injury—and also surface fuel assessed by experts to be hot fuel.

Residents had previously reported their concerns to the Alexandrina Council, but these went unheeded. In fact, one resident was reportedly told that the council had made a decision that it would only take responsibility and maintain the first 500 metres of the much longer fire track. One resident reported going to NRM about the issue of clearing near-surface fuel and was told that they were just way too busy.

It was only when the state of Dog Trap Road was published in The Southern Argus newspaper that the Alexandrina Council hurriedly attempted to repair the track. However, dense gravel was not used and the soft soil pushed into the trenches will wash away in the next downpour. As yet, the creek crossings and overgrowth is yet to be addressed. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is it the responsibility of local government to maintain fire access tracks like Dog Trap Road and, if so, what minimum standards must local government meet?

2. How does the decision of the Alexandrina Council to maintain only 500 metres of the track sit with these standards?

3. What recourse would residents have if the Country Fire Service was unable to access a fire due to the disrepair of a fire access track?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:38): I would like to thank the member for those three very important questions. They do cut across a number of portfolios, I believe: emergency services, NRM boards and maybe local government, so I will take those questions on notice and find out the answers.