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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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Parliamentary Committees

NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: BUSHFIRE TOUR 2012 CASE STUDY, MITCHAM HILLS

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. S.W. Key:

That the 65th report of the committee, entitled Bushfire Tour 2012 Case Study, Mitcham Hills, be noted.

(Continued from 5 September 2012.)

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:35): I commend the Natural Resources Committee for their role in highlighting bushfire issues in the Mitcham Hills.

Mr Pegler: The best committee in parliament—hard working.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: The member for Mount Gambier says it's the best committee in parliament. I think that is a conflict of interest. You're on it, aren't you?

Mr Pegler: Yes.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: It highlights once again the importance of committees in our parliament. I think they do some excellent work and continue to do so. I live in the Mitcham Hills, and I have lived there all my life. The chaplain to the parliament (I did not realise that we had one) asked me yesterday whether I was born there. I told her that I was actually born at Walford. I am the only male to go to Walford, because that was the private hospital. That was the private hospital where I was born, but I have lived in the hills all my life. The reason I was not born in the hills is that we did not have a hospital then.

It is a very important issue, and, obviously, I do not think there is any way that you can completely bushfire-proof the Mitcham Hills; and there are a couple of issues that come to mind. One is road access, egress. If there was a significant, catastrophic, fire there is no way that anyone who was still hanging around would get out of parts of that area—no way in the world. The roads could not cope and some of the roads are very narrow. The emergency services would have trouble accessing some of the roads because of the size of some of the vehicles they use and the narrowness of the roads.

Growing up as a youngster in Hawthorndene it was not uncommon to have the area full of smoke—you could hardly breathe. That was before the days of evacuation warnings and so on. I was a youngster in the Blackwood CFS which, ironically, is based at Hawthorndene. The CFS Blackwood started off with someone called Laurie Moore, who started off with a vanguard ute and 44 gallon drums in the back of a trailer, and it has progressed to what we see now, a much better equipped CFS.

However, even with the best intention and the best commitment of the CFS, there is no way that you could, in my view, contain a major fire in the Mitcham Hills area. It raises some issues. I believe that councils have been negligent in allowing people to build in certain parts of the Adelaide Hills, including the Mitcham Hills.

There are some areas where I think it is reasonably safe to build, but there are some areas, particularly parts of Upper Sturt—Ironbank and those areas—where there would be no way in the world you could defend a home in a significant fire. Yet we see even today—and it is not just the Mitcham Hills but further into the Adelaide Hills Council area—new homes going up where they would not have a hope in hell of saving the house, and if there was anyone in the house they would not be saved either.

I think the planning law as it exists has been lax in allowing people to put themselves in areas which in my view border on suicidal. I love the bush, I love bushland, but to allow people to build in some areas, some parts of Upper Sturt, is absolutely suicidal. My rellies back in the 1840s settled in Upper Sturt close to where the Evans clan has established itself. In those days, back in the eighteen hundreds, I think in some ways they were a bit more bushfire conscious and sensible than we are.

For example, the old Upper Sturt primary school, which is just on the border of the Mitcham council area and the Adelaide Hills, was a solid stone construction, whereas the newer (not brand new) Upper Sturt Primary School is essentially made out of tin and modern materials which would not last very long in any bushfire. They also often built away from the north face so that any buildings and houses were less likely to be burnt in a fire, yet we see that the Upper Sturt Primary School is right next to the Belair National Park, on the north face.

As a child, one of the things that impacted on me strongly was the death of two police officers in the Upper Sturt area. They were advised not to go down a gully to look at a fire, but they went down and never came out. So I am well aware of what can happen as a result of bushfires. I think anyone who lives in the Mitcham Hills and the rest of the Mount Lofty Ranges in particular should make sure that they take adequate precautions.

We have a new neighbour on the southern side, a lovely lady who is a midwife with a young son. When she bought the house it had branches on the roof and I said to her, 'Look up there; that's not a good idea,' so I removed them for her. Some people have no understanding, particularly people who come from interstate or overseas. They have no understanding of bushfires and how quickly they can spread and the fact that when a fire is really on you can barely breathe from the smoke.

People often put those sorts of issues in the back of their mind, especially at this time of the year. If you go up through the Mitcham Hills today, it will look lovely and wet and cool and calm, but in summer and parts of spring and autumn it can be quite different, as we saw recently up around Houghton and those places. The Mayor of Mitcham recently suggested that there should be mandatory inspections of properties leading up to the bushfire season and when a house is sold. I do not think we should have mandatory inspections.

I think if someone has a brain they should realise that you have to make sure your gutters are clean and that you do not have vegetation too close to your house. However, despite all those warnings, some people continue to ignore them and, as I say, are still building in areas which I regard as suicidal. What can be done about this? It is fine to have a study. I think the only way, if it is a significant fire, is not to be in that area. That is my approach. Do not hang around. If you are not there, you will not get burnt to death.

I have raised the issue of schools with the government in the past, not just the schools in that part, but also into the City of Onkaparinga. I do not think that the provision for minimising fire risk is as good as it should be. With the new developments as a result of the Building the Education Revolution, I know that a lot of schools now have fire tanks and so on, but in a catastrophic fire that will not save the school. There are areas that are bushfire prone.

I think we have learnt now from what happened in Canberra years ago and elsewhere that a lot of so called urban areas are bushfire prone as well. The risk may not be as great as it is in some of the other areas, for example, in the Adelaide Hills, but fire could easily sweep through not only Blackwood, Belair and those areas, but also the adjoining Onkaparinga areas of Aberfoyle Park and Happy Valley, which are in the heart of my electorate.

I hope what has been highlighted in this report is that the advice and concerns should be taken note of. You cannot rely on the goodwill and the good effort of CFS people who put their lives at risk. They did a fantastic job last week in the Adelaide Hills, but people should not rely on them. The planning laws need to be sensible. I think the use of CFS experts in advising on bushfire prevention and assessing for property developments and so on should be continued and intensified.

I think there needs to be an even better defined approach to what to do if there is a significant fire in the Mitcham Hills because at the moment it would be a death trap. People are living in areas like Craigburn Farm where the council has decided not to allow them to leave that area quickly, and those people will be a sitting target for any fire that comes up the Sturt Gorge.

There is still a lot of work to be done to be done to ensure that the people who live in the Mitcham Hills—which is a beautiful area—can live there safely without not only the threat of bushfires but the actual bushfires themselves. I commend the committee for the work they have done.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.

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