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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-26 Daily Xml
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Motions

Sampson Flat and Tantanoola Bushfires

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (10:47): I move:

That this house acknowledges with gratitude—

(a) the awe-inspiring efforts of the emergency services staff and volunteers in fighting the Sampson Flat and Tantanoola bushfires which resulted in the declaration of a major emergency on 3 January 2015;

(b) the dedication and professionalism demonstrated by South Australian emergency personnel and their colleagues from New South Wales and Victoria, over the six days before the fire was contained, prevented much worse destruction and any loss of life;

(c) the work of the many agencies, community groups and individuals involved in establishing and running the relief centres at Golden Grove, Sandy Creek, Willaston and later Gumeracha; and

(d) those now still involved in the recovery phase, led by the State Recovery Office, and the wider community for their enormous generosity during and after the emergency.

Like many people, on Friday 2 January I watched the smoke coming from the direction of Sampson Flat—a place I had really only heard of but never visited—signalling the beginning of a fire. I was outside my electorate office in the safety of Modbury North, near Clovercrest Shopping Centre. At first, it seemed, despite the intense heat of the day, not to be growing so much, and I hoped that all would be well, having faith in the knowledge that emergency services would swing into action and get things under control.

How lucky are so many of us suburban dwellers to feel, rather than know, as we were later to discover, that we are out of harm's way and that others who are trained for just these sorts of events are responsible. We very soon had a new appreciation of all things to do with bushfires, as it drew all too close to the leafy suburbs of the north-eastern part of Adelaide.

Going home that night, like so many others I watched the unfolding emergency on TV news reports and heard updates during the night. I woke up listening to radio reports that things on the fire front were actually escalating. Given what we now know, had luck not gone our way the conditions Mother Nature had dealt us may have led to greater disaster and misfortune had she not given us the weather to get the upper hand before fire spread uncontrollably southward through the Hills Face Zone and beyond into the Greater Adelaide area.

In introducing this motion, my contribution will not contain the full technical data already on the record in this place and elsewhere; rather, it will be a personal account of observations and experiences from my local community, which acted superbly in a really difficult situation.

This was the Christmas and new year period, when many people were away or on leave and people were in holiday mode. Without any specific role, I felt the best course of action would be to open the electorate office and be available to pass on information and do whatever else I could. Raising the flags that morning felt strangely defiant and was the only sort of control I could exert in this situation. It also let people know that the office was open and able to help. Should any calamity ever come again, I hope to be able to do much more than I did that day.

My son and his young family live at Yarrabee Road in Greenhill, and as such he has been an active member of the CFS. Like so many of our wonderful front-line volunteers, he has stood ready to fight fires. This was his chosen role, because of where he lives, and I believe we are all now on notice to find our role for whenever an emergency arises again. Preparedness and organisation are key words, and it would appear the fire plans of Hills dwellers prevented greater loss of property and our worst fear, loss of life.

As CFS units were called out in greater numbers, things really swung into action with the declaration of a state major emergency. The Tea Tree Gully council became involved as the Golden Grove Arts Centre became a relief centre, and this was actually the closest I came to the fire front, staying away for the first few vital days and then visiting to reassure myself that people were being helped and that the staff and volunteers knew how much their efforts were being appreciated.

Other relief centres sprung up at Sandy Creek and Willaston, although all we heard on the news was about the centre at One Tree Hill. Nevertheless, we were all connected to the outstanding and heroic efforts, not only here in Adelaide but also at Tantanoola in the heart of decades-old pine plantations in the South-East. I heard progressively over the battery-operated radio that became my friend and I carried around with me for days on end about how the event was escalating, how the Red Cross had swung into action, and how Housing SA and other government agencies operating both inside and outside the relief centres were in place with volunteers in all sorts of capacities.

Chaplains and service clubs and their barbeques were all there to assist the people affected by the fire, people who had their homes under threat and were so forced to flee, often with their pets, and nowhere else to go. Calls soon went out for donations, with the flood of community support with all things for personal needs, food for humans and pets and every other need arriving in huge numbers.

Another call had to go out pretty quickly; the need was to find a place to coordinate all these donations, and the Clovercrest Baptist Church opened its doors as a collection point. Their volunteers swung into action and soon their premises (actually under renovation) became a supermarket. That was not to change for many days and, as far as I know, still has some remnants in their community service which they deal out to the public through the Pathways program.

Then the Salvation Army geared up and the familiar voice of Tea Tree Gully Modbury Corps captain Howard Trendell was on the radio. I have spoken to Howard since all of those events happened and he gave me some interesting statistics. His own corps had members swing into action: 40 Salvation Army members with 31 of their own volunteers and a further 81 local volunteers who they have on call when they need them. They served 8,369 meals—I feel this was probably from the very large Salvation Army truck that can go to disaster areas—more than 8,600 sandwiches, and he even knew there were 3,794 eggs used for hamburgers and things. I am amazed, but they knew it.

Another sleepless night for so many people and, as I recall, this was the night the equine community moved into overdrive and transported horses out of the danger areas in the local Hills Face Zone. Tea Tree Gully council gave permission for Civic Park, opposite Tea Tree Plaza, to become a staging point. The Salvos tell me they went up there to supply food and drinks that night to the remarkably self-sufficient horsey people. The magic of social media, something that played a major part in coordinating bushfire efforts, really came into force, and agistment or stabling for all those horses was found and Civic Park was quickly cleared and returned to how it was before, with practically no after-effect at all.

While CFS, MFS and water bombers were hard at work in weather that was continuing to cause grave concern, the days seemed to pass fairly quickly, but the time really dragged I am sure for everyone on the front line. It seemed that life was going on as usual for most of us in the suburbs, those untouched directly by the unfolding dire situation, but in reality few of us were actually untouched.

Visits to the relief centre showed obvious forward planning working well, not designed to have people actually stay on-site, which in turn would have created a Hurricane Katrina type of outcome. Centre staff identified the needs of people and then found accommodation for them so they could move out and on. It was a valued place of contact and a site for the community's first information meeting. We know police, ambulance, RSPCA, Animal Welfare League and Fauna Rescue people were busily involved, making sure community needs were met in those few terrifying days when we were all watching and hoping that things would go our way.

During all of this, my son and his family and their cats evacuated Yarrabee Road and came to Modbury Heights, and it seemed we all held our collective breaths as we waited for a miracle. Interstate contingents arrived to relieve our exhausted firefighters and, in the darkest moments, facing unmitigated disaster, the wind changed and rain eventually came, creating other issues but it seemed not as bad as what might have been had the sorts of problems people faced until then came to pass. Needs changed and the relief centre changed, now with a national Centrelink truck in place, and began to move to the next phase of the unfolding crisis.

In the days after the weather broke, it became apparent that many people wanted to express their gratitude and admiration for the emergency responders in whatever role they had but primarily and understandably to the firefighters. For those of us who have never been involved in that role, we can only imagine the discomfort endured while acting in a situation that requires total concentration and clear thinking, something that would become harder as fatigue set it. To put your life on hold for so many days is something that is truly selfless. To say 'thank you' seems so totally inadequate. So many others also put their life on hold and, while in less dangerous circumstances, they put in an heroic effort too.

Around that time, I had the idea of putting something together to thank people, and the idea of 'A4 for Fires' came to be. I hoped that we could provide an avenue for people to express their feelings and thanks in a lasting way, allowing people with no front-line role a way to show how much they really cared about what had been done. Through the relief centre grapevine, I was able to join forces with a dynamic group of young women who had harnessed social media in an amazing way for all sorts of outcomes. They were making links for lots of people in lots of ways.

I helped them at one point to try to work out how best to shift dead animals from properties without causing too much problem for the people who owned the properties, yet not causing trouble, such as digging the trench in an area where there was obviously no way of finding out what was going on and it was too dangerous to even get the equipment into the area. I was privileged to facilitate work, primarily to allow the children of the area to put their feelings into pictures and words; the children really found the emergency hard.

On the Houghton Oval, we had a big community day. It was moved from the Inglewood area because so many people wanted to be involved. It really came home to me to see so many people coming together to give each other support. There are all sorts of things the community can do when they act together. I would like to mention two people in particular: Tara, who is a social worker in our area; through her links, she was able to put all sorts of groups together to produce all sorts of remarkable outcomes; and another young woman, Lili, who was involved with her local childcare centre. They came into the Florey electorate office and showed us how to get things done through social media, and I have a great respect for them and the work they put together at that time.

Now that we had reached the recovery phase, I was able to go up and speak to Karlene Maywald, in her new role. Again, I kept out of things because I am sure that Karlene and the others involved in all of that have things well in hand and know exactly what they are doing. I sincerely hope that, when we get to the stage of reviewing what went on during the Sampson Flat and Tantanoola bushfires, we can be involved in perhaps feeding into the process the ideas that might have come to us because, while bushfires is the thing we are thinking about today and we are thanking everyone involved with the events, which I hope we never have to face again but all logic tells us that we will, there are other sorts of natural disaster which we may have to face and which will affect all of us differently. I think that it is really important that we can harness as much community assistance when these things come to pass so we are not doing things twice. I am really looking forward to taking part in the debriefing after the reports from the various agencies come forward.

Obviously, I would like to place on record my sincere appreciation and admiration for everyone involved in the bushfires. In moving this motion, I really look forward to hearing the contributions of other members who, of course, will have different views and different ideas and different perspectives of what went on and how their communities reacted. I commend the motion.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (10:58): I rise to support this motion from the member. I think that it is a very good thing that we do give personal observations of what actually happened during the period of the fire and after the fire—it is still going on now; there is a briefing on in parliament today from Karlene Maywald about some of her activities.

I would like to give two perspectives of this, one as a rural property owner south of where the fire was, at Meadows, watching the smoke in the north, knowing that the warnings were there, having to shift cattle and machinery, watching neighbours loading up floats, loading up properties—and phoning my brother, who lived at Oakbank, and getting him out of bed and telling him to start thinking about what was going on.

It is a very salutary experience to be in the front line like that, and unfortunately it is not the first time it has been my particular position and it certainly would not have been the first time for the hundreds of South Australians who have been through fires all over the place, because it is a natural part of the environment, but when it really does start to hit home like that, you know that you had better be prepared. The message that goes out all the time is: be prepared. You have to make those decisions a long time before the fires start to impact on your property or your district.

I should remind members that, while Sampson Flat is a long way from Meadows and even Woodside, they had live embers impacting on Woodside from this fire. People do not understand that the suburbs of Surrey Downs and other areas around there could well and truly have been another Sydney or Canberra. If it was not for the fantastic effort of many, many people and organisations, some of which I will name in a moment, this could have been an absolute disaster, far worse than South Australia has ever experienced.

That is why I am very proud to be a member of the Country Fire Service. On that day they did a terrific job and they kept going. It was the CFS, the MFS, the SES, St John, the Ambulance Service, the police and many other government departments. There is a new organisation, and this was really their first time in action, called SAVEM, which is the Veterinary Emergency Management team. Let us not forget the Salvos—God bless the Salvos, because they are always there. We had hundreds of people volunteering from Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, churches and other service organisations.

The best part and probably the most emotional part for me was seeing the mums, the dads and the kids—everybody pulled together. It made you really proud to be a South Australian. It was one of those times when things really impacted upon me as a member of parliament, to be more proud than ever. I am always very proud of being a South Australian, but I was even more proud under these circumstances to see how the community pulled together and is still rallying behind not just the volunteers and the CFS and thanking them for what they have done, and the many others, but also the community members who still need help.

It is a wonderful position to be in that we have a community that is as resilient and reactive as it is. Words cannot praise enough the effort that was put in by the emergency crews, plus the rest of the community. As the member for Florey said, it is those personal reactions and these personal observations that really brings home to us where we want to go with emergency services in South Australia.

As a member of the CFS, I was up there on the Sunday and on the Tuesday. We were supposed to go up there on the Monday, but the crews from New South Wales came in and they gave us a day off, which was my wedding anniversary, so my wife was very happy about that. The members of the crew that came up with us on the Meadows truck were John Morley. John has been in the CFS for over 40 years and what he has not seen and what he does not know is not very much; he knows a lot and it is great to have that sort of experience.

At the other end of the spectrum we had young Aaron Harrison and Ben Haynes who had only been in a matter of months. It was good for them to experience this fire with people like John who have experience, as well as Adrian Matthews, Barnaby Barber, Katherine Coombe and Reece Lord, the more experienced members, as well as myself. It was good for them to be there with these younger members, because we know that these younger members are the future of the CFS. Without the volunteers in the CFS we could not have achieved what we did during that campaign to save lives and to save properties.

The member for Colton would know, having been a career firefighter with the MFS, that you hear stories about people running away as the firefighters are going to a fire. We want people to evacuate if necessary, but for us as members of the CFS the biggest reward is to know we can get there, do the job and have no loss of life. We can rebuild properties, but to have no loss of life was one of the most important things that we could have achieved.

Unfortunately, there were some stock losses and certainly a lot of property losses. We went to homes where people had not even locked their doors, they had just left, they had just got out, hopefully with a few personal belongings such as photographs and things like that. They took with them what they could take, but everything else was gone. What was once a beautiful home with a beautiful vista was just charred remains of what was once their whole life. It can be rebuilt. The memories will be there. Perhaps the reminders of those memories are gone but the memories are still there because the people are still alive, and that is due to good notification by the CFS, the alerts by the police and the ABC, many people there. That is a terrific result and something we should all be very proud of.

The need to make sure that we are prepared for these events in the future is something that we should all be very aware of and take the Sampson Flat bushfire as a very pertinent reminder to all of us personally so that we can get out there and talk to our constituents, whether they are in the city or further out in the country, that they should be prepared.

This will happen again. Sampson Flat is one of those things which serves as a good reminder. It is a terrific result to have no loss of life and it is a terrific result to see the communities pull together as they did. I will not take any more time in the house because I know there is a number of members who would like to speak, but may I congratulate all the emergency workers and all other people, and the South Australian community for making us very proud of what they did.

Mr GEE (Napier) (11:05): I stand today to support the motion moved by the member for Florey. It was 12.33pm on Friday, 2 January, a very hot afternoon when the One Tree Hill CFS brigade was called to a grass fire on Sampson Flat. Firefighters from One Tree Hill who were on stand-by at the station were at the blaze within seconds and, within 30 minutes, water bombers were on site.

The firefighters did a fantastic job in the first hour before the fire jumped into the Kersbrook forest. Then off it went, doubling in size every two hours that evening. In total it burnt nearly 13,000 hectares and destroyed 27 homes, including one in Napier. Thankfully, the fire did not reach the suburban areas, as it had threatened to do on the first night. Hundreds of residents, including my family, received texts and phone calls advising us to leave and head to the Golden Grove Recreation Centre. Many residents did leave and although I am sure they were concerned about the fate of their homes, at least their families and pets were safe.

Humbug Scrub, One Tree Hill, Sampson Flat and Yattalunga were affected in my electorate; thousands of hectares of native bushland, farmland and forest were burnt. Trinity College lost its outdoor education centre which had been utilised for over 100 days each year. Many properties lost stock and outbuildings.

While visiting the recovery centre at One Tree Hill and at various meetings during and after the fire I met a number of people who had lost everything. I express my deep sympathy to all the families who lost their homes in this emergency. My thoughts are also with everyone who lost pets and livestock, sheds and outbuildings and valuable possessions in the fire.

The battles to save homes were monumental. One resident spoke of flames twice as high as her home coming across her paddocks as she tried to save her home. Thankfully, she was successful but is devastated by the amount of stock she lost. If you drive through the bushfire zone, especially from One Tree Hill to Kersbrook, it is amazing to see homes that have survived in an almost totally black and confronting landscape. I cannot imagine the battles that must have been fought to protect these homes.

The work undertaken by our CFS volunteers, along with their interstate colleagues from the CFA and RFS was brilliant, heroic and definitely saved lives. In addition, many hundreds of other volunteers did whatever was needed to be done to support the firefighters and the local communities. This effort is beyond value.

I want to thank the volunteers from the One Tree Hill and Dalkeith brigades in my electorate. They both had crews at the fire throughout the emergency. As the local member, I am extremely proud of the men and women of these brigades who did a wonderful job, an experience that physically, mentally or through their memories, will be with them for a whole lifetime.

I attended the community information meeting at One Tree Hill on 3 January and I am sure the whole community appreciated the excellent information that was provided. Thanks also to the MFS, National Parks and Wildlife Service and ForestrySA staff who assisted in fighting the blaze along with local residents and farmers. I thank the SA Police for manning the roadblocks to keep residents safe, and all the council workers who made it safe for residents to return home.

I thank the SES and Red Cross for their assistance. Thanks must go to the One Tree Hill Cricket Club for hosting the main staging post for the fire, and the One Tree Hill Primary School for hosting community meetings. I thank the Salvation Army, the St John Ambulance and SA Ambulance Service for their work at the staging posts, and the Golden Grove evacuation centre for looking after the nutritional and medical needs of the volunteers and the community.

I thank the volunteers and staff who worked at the evacuation and recovery centres at Golden Grove, Sandy Creek, Willaston and Gumeracha. I met with the volunteers at Willaston, who had started at Sandy Creek and then moved to Willaston, including chaplains, Red Cross and service club volunteers—a great group of community-minded people.

I must sincerely thank two local legends—Pat Jones and June Owens—who kept the One Tree Hill Institute open almost 24 hours a day for eight days with assistance from the progress association members and members of the community. They provided food, shelter, comfort and information for everybody in a safe and caring environment. They are selfless, dedicated and caring people who will long be remembered for their efforts during the emergency. I and my staff visited the centre on several occasions to provide comfort and practical support. It was fantastic to see the amount of donated goods and resilience of people who had lost everything but who were volunteering to assist others.

Many people and businesses in my community assisted the locals during their time of need. I must mention the Bonanza Pizza Bar, for feeding the evacuees on Friday evening and into Saturday morning; JB Hi-Fi, for the loan of the TV for the centre; Nicola and Lachlan from Officeworks, Elizabeth, for donating whiteboards; all the businesses in One Tree Hill; and local supermarkets and food producers, plus SecondBite, for food donations.

I also thank the Playford Rotary Club, Apex Club of Gawler, Clovercrest Baptist Church, Sue and Connie from Housing SA, and the pastoral care workers from the Uniting Church, who provided comfort and counselling. I thank every individual who assisted with donations of cash and goods, including Damien Lynn from Blakeview, whom I met on one of my visits to the One Tree Hill centre.

The Premier, minister Bettison and minister Piccolo deserve thanks for their efforts during the emergency, along with the senior leaders in our emergency services. I also thank the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars MLC; member for Wakefield, Nick Champion, and his staff; and Lee Odenwalder, the member for Little Para, who visited the One Tree Hill community recovery centre and provided valuable assistance.

Thanks must also go to every South Australian who donated goods, money or time—from the local churches, community organisations and the Port Adelaide Football Club to the offices of Frances Bedford (member for Florey) and Nat Cook (member for Fisher), who collected donations, all of those people who donated to the official appeal, the CFS Foundation or a charity assisting the fire, and the people who organised or attended the Parafield ute muster.

Many animals would not have escaped or survived the fires without the efforts of many animal welfare groups, including the Animal Welfare League, the RSPCA, Fauna Rescue, Adelaide Zoo, the Adelaide Koala and Wildlife Hospital, many equestrian organisations and many local vets, especially the Para Hills Veterinary Clinic. It will take a long time to forget all the koala mittens that was sewn by people from across South Australia and the world. It was a real community effort to support everyone, including the animals, affected by the fires.

Thanks must go to the forgotten people in the bushfire: the wives, husbands, children, parents, siblings and friends of everyone who gave their time to volunteer in the emergency, whether it was a family of firefighters hoping they returned safe or the families of other volunteers taking on extra tasks while they supported the volunteer to go and assist others. Thanks must also go to employers who made their employees available for the emergency.

Although the fire has now been out for more than a month, the hard work is certainly not over and, in fact, the next stage has just begun. I am very pleased that Karlene Maywald is leading the recovery effort. Karlene seems a woman who is no-nonsense, striving to get the best for our community.

Funds are starting to be distributed from the appeal fund. People are getting new driver's licences and documents to replace those that were destroyed in the fire zone, and tanks are being cleaned and refilled. Volunteers have flooded the community to assist BlazeAid and a number of other organisations. I note the large contingents of volunteers who have turned out from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to assist with the recovery.

Many families are coping with the stress of the impact of the fires on their lives, their homes and their communities. Habitat for Humanity is just one organisation that has been meeting with these families personally and evaluating their needs and how best to assist their clean-up. They will have teams of volunteers in the fire-affected area in coming weeks to help with the clean-up, repair and rebuild through their Brush with Kindness program. The community spirit shown during and since this disaster makes me very proud to be Australian. I again thank everyone involved with the firefighting and recovery efforts and commend this motion to the house.

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (11:14): I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this motion as the member for Morialta. Morialta was, of course, impacted significantly by the Sampson Flat fires of early January, and on 24 February in this house I took the opportunity in my Address in Reply to use my full half an hour to identify the thanks, on behalf of the community—and the community on their fences and on their posts have in many ways identified their thanks—to all the volunteers, in particular the CFS, the staff and services, who did such a magnificent job in fighting the fires, ensuring that no lives were lost, ensuring that as many houses as possible were saved and that property damage was kept to the minimum that was feasible and recovery services were provided.

In that speech, I outlined a number of challenges and concerns facing constituents of mine and others who have spoken to me both during the fire experience itself and in the recovery phase, and I direct the casual reader of Hansard,government officials and ministers to that speech. I will be sending it to the relevant ministers to ensure that those experiences are captured in the investigation to come.

The experiences of those who, subsequent to the fires, were willing to welcome me into their living rooms, walk me around their properties and show me the devastation and the loss they had suffered to their personal properties and their personal histories through what had been lost and what was burnt—sheds burnt down, with extraordinary financial loss, and personal effects lost—was very harrowing. I must say, though, that we are grateful that no lives were lost.

I would have liked to contribute more to the debate this morning; however, we have a briefing, which my staff member at the briefing now assures me is actually 15 minutes late in starting so, hopefully, by the time I wrap up it will just be starting. But I know other members who would like to be there would also like to make their comments now and then get away to that briefing, so I will take no further time this morning, but I commend the motion to the house.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright) (11:16): I also want to recognise and thank the many people from so many agencies who worked so hard to protect lives, protect property and, importantly, support and assist those who were under threat as a result of these dreadful fires. Agency personnel, the CFS, MFS, SES and SAPOL, all put themselves at the front line and put themselves at risk, and to them I want to say a heartfelt thank you. To the Housing SA staff, Health SA, Red Cross, Salvos, the service clubs, and the many other community clubs for their timely and generous support of those who lost their homes and those whose homes were under threat, a big thank you.

Many homes were lost, many loved possessions were lost, but it is of great credit to our CFS and MFS firefighters and great credit to the controls that the South Australian police put in place that no lives were lost. In January 2002, I was in the Blue Mountains when those dreadful fires were wreaking havoc throughout New South Wales. Volunteers from across South Australia were over there supporting their comrades, including my local brigades of Salisbury and Tea Tree Gully. A big thank you to those firefighters from interstate who on this occasion came to our aid.

I have spoken in this place before about the risk we face in relation to fire. Fire is a natural phenomenon and we need to prepare for it. We need to be able to deal with it when it occurs, and there is much we can do to prepare. If anything brought this to the forefront of my mind, it was that 2002 fire experience when I was at a property on the border of the Blue Mountains National Park.

I happened to be on the phone at one stage to the then leader of the opposition, and he wanted to know what the huge roar was muffling my voice on the phone. I said to him, 'It's the fire and it's heading this way.' He used an expletive when instructing me to leave. There was nowhere to go. What kept us safe throughout the night was the amazing preparation that family had put in place to protect their home and the fact that the volunteer firefighters recognised that they had a chance to save that property and so they were there to assist throughout the night.

I have held around 14 fire safety days in my electorate since I became the member. The first was at a local park with just the local CFS. Now they have elevated it to include not only the CFS, MFS, but also SAPOL and the Red Cross, and they are an annual event at the Village Shopping Centre. My aim has been to raise consciousness in Golden Grove that is a high fire risk. All we needed was the right weather conditions to see a Canberra-like fire sweep through that area. I want to thank the Village centre management because they have every year allowed me to do this. I am told that at the last event they were alerted to some considerable noise down in the mall. They found that to be the locals engaged in conversation with these agencies.

Our area is hilly, it is full of natural scrub, and most concerning for me is that it is connected to brush fences—kilometres and kilometres of brush fences. Golden Grove is at risk, and this January it was definitely at risk. I am told that at 10.30pm on Friday evening, fire could be seen from the front yards of local people. At 2am on 3 January, the messages went out to people in my electorate in Golden Grove, Gulfview Heights, Wynn Vale and Greenwith, to evacuate. From all reports, this generally worked very well. I was alerted to this as I was not at home. My home at Golden Grove was in the evacuation area, but I had only a day or two just landed in northern Borneo. I was constantly updated by my staff about what was happening, but was incredibly anxious and planning on hopping on the next plane back. However, within a relatively short time I was pleased to see that the threat to Golden Grove had passed, but many other communities remained under threat.

I want to thank my colleagues for their support and obvious care for all of those involved. There were some issues that needed to be dealt with, and I understand that there were many sightseers parking their cars on both sides of the roads in Golden Grove to get a good observation point of the fires. There are many small courts in Golden Grove coming off larger streets, and I understand there was quite a deal of traffic bank up, and that is clearly something that we need to deal with. By 3.30am, the Golden Grove Recreation Centre was open for evacuees as an emergency relief station. People from Housing SA, led by Roman Kowalski and SA Health and emergency services were there to provide support for these people.

The recovery phase is what we are in now, and it certainly is not easy. Everyday people are reminded of the trauma they went through. It was wonderful, on the first day of school, to be able to go to Kersbrook Primary School to see the great work that people from the department of education had done to prepare that school for first day, so that the trauma was significantly lessened for any of the children coming there. The vista at the back of the school had changed enormously with the removal of many, many trees, and I think they lost a sports shed; but the clean-up had been absolutely magnificent and there was a great turnout of parents. I was apologising to them for the fact that I had not been there during the fire. They were incredibly gracious, incredibly strong, being led by a very dedicated principal and dedicated staff, giving parents the assurity that their kids would be fine, they would be caring for their kids, and also the Red Cross people who were on hand and had been on hand throughout the entire event.

We do face challenges in relation to our communities that are fire prone. What this has shown, I hope, to many people who had not been hearing the message is that you may live in a metropolitan area but that does not mean you are not at risk of a bushfire. We need to be aware of those risks. Our planning needs to be addressed so that developments like Golden Grove no longer have great swathes of brush fencing abutting natural bushland.

We need the people who are living in those areas to be aware of and understand simple things. Even though you have underground sprinklers, etc., you still need a long hose that will get you to your fence and help you fight a fire should it come your way. You need to plan to evacuate. Even though you are living in a metropolitan street, you need to have the important documents, your most important and precious possessions, located in a place where you can grab them, leave and go to a safe place until the danger passes.

The communities and families who have been affected by this fire have a long road ahead of them to full recovery. Every home was full of precious memories, precious items, situations that occurred in their lives that resulted in them obtaining each special thing in their home, and I can only imagine how difficult that is to have that completely wiped away. As so many have said, the most precious things in their lives remain intact—and that is their family members. I extend my very deep appreciation and thanks to everyone who has been involved from those on the front line through to those who are providing daily support in the recovery phase today.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY (Kavel) (11:26): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank you as the member for Florey for moving the motion. If somebody on the government side of the house had not moved such a motion, I think we on the opposition side of the house certainly would have. I, like the member for Morialta, made significant reference to these fires in my Address in Reply, so it is not my intention to talk at length this morning because I want to go to the briefing being held by Ms Karlene Maywald in her role as the recovery coordinator.

I want to reinforce some of my observations in relation to this fire and other fires that I have had some involvement in over the years, and that is that the emergency part of a fire passes relatively quickly compared to the recovery process. In this instance of the Sampson Flat fires, the emergency went for six days which is a long time. Usually a fire burns for two to three days before it is contained or brought under control.

This was a particularly difficult event to manage, and we were certainly made aware of that through the advice of the senior officers from the CFS and SAPOL and the like. The observation is that the recovery process lasts for days, weeks, months, years and even decades. Obviously those of us who represent electorates that have been impacted by the fire—and there are quite a number of us in this place—are getting strong representation from constituents who are facing losses and the like and who are working through this recovery process. No doubt as other members of this place have done, I have visited quite a number of properties that have been impacted by the fires and lost properties.

I know that Ms Maywald is working through this, but one of the key points is the issue of returning home after people have evacuated. They have made the decision to evacuate their property and face the issue of return to home once the emergency has passed. The fire front has moved through and the situation is somewhat stabilised.

The feedback I am getting is that people perhaps may be reluctant to evacuate in the future when a fire is threatening their property because it is difficult to return home once the fire front and the peak of the emergency pass. That is a serious thing that I think we need to consider: that in future people will be more reluctant to evacuate if they are being threatened by fire. I know that there is considerable work being undertaken in relation to the return-to-home part of the situation, which is important.

I also again want to, as I did in my Address in Reply, give my sincere thanks to all the volunteers, particularly our magnificent CFS volunteers, our SES volunteers and the St John Ambulance volunteers, and also those salaried people who work in our emergency services: our police, our MFS, and others who support any emergency situation. I also particularly want to thank those people in the community that volunteered their time, their assets and their firefighting equipment to assist with the emergency and the recovery.

I want to talk about the need for the government—any government of the day—to focus heavily on the matter of cold burns. I encourage the government to actually carry out more cold burns, because that is a significant area that reduces the ferocity of any fire event if it gets into national parks or any forest in the country. So, the issue I want to reinforce today is that cold burns are vitally important.

The other matter I want to finish on is a comment that the leader of the Greens, Ms Christine Milne, made during the emergency situation. Ms Milne came out publicly and raised the issue of climate change. I think it is absolutely appalling that—

Mr Pederick: Disgraceful!

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: —and absolutely disgraceful, as the member for Hammond stated, that while this state is gripped with a major fire emergency incident, we have got the leader of the Greens coming out, wanting to make some political mileage out of that. I think that is appalling and disgusting. With those few words, I am happy to conclude my remarks and commend the motion to the house.

Ms COOK (Fisher) (11:32): I rise today to speak in support of the member for Florey's motion acknowledging the efforts, particularly of the CFS and other agencies, during the recent Sampson Flat bushfires. I worked as a retrieval nurse out of the Intensive and Critical Care Unit at Flinders Medical Centre, and also as part of Adelaide Airport-based MedSTAR Retrieval Service for seven years, between 2004 and 2011. I have been to many critical accident scenes both in the rural and urban settings.

At these scenes, it was the CFS who provided additional hands to our medical teams, while ensuring our safety and also expertly assisting to extract patients who were often severely traumatised. As is the nature of volunteering, especially in rural settings, it is often the case that the Country Fire Service members know the victims. It takes a very special kind of person to be able to volunteer under such circumstances.

During the Sampson Flat fires, many of the CFS members were fighting fires on land owned by others while not knowing if their own homes were safe. They responded to the call for help without hesitation. They put their heart and soul into fighting these fires along with their brothers and sisters and alongside their mates. It takes a very special kind of person.

Over 700 volunteers were involved in the efforts that brought the Sampson Flat fires under control from 2 January to 9 January. Our South Australian volunteers were supported by crews from both the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and the Victorian Country Fire Authority. These people left their homes and families behind during severe heatwaves to assist their mates such a long way from home. Because this is what we do as Australians; we answer the call and help out those who need it. It takes a very special kind of person.

In the seat of Fisher we have the Happy Valley and Clarendon brigades under the command of Mawson Group and the Cherry Gardens brigade under the command of Sturt Group. I would like to express sincere thanks to all the volunteers from those brigades who train every week to ensure that they are adequately prepared to provide assistance to our community in an emergency. All brigades provided support at the Sampson Flat fireground. All brigades had appliances and crews active from Friday night 2 January until Monday morning, and then again from Tuesday morning until Wednesday afternoon, with one appliance and crew replacing the other for 12-hour shifts at a time. In addition, the Cherry Gardens brigade provided assistance at the Gawler airstrip for the aerial services provided by 31 aircraft—a record number for any fire in South Australia.

I have spoken to and visited members from our Fisher brigades in recent times and have committed to making regular visits and supporting their needs, assisting them to access necessary equipment and advocating on their behalf. I recently observed the Cherry Gardens brigade on a training night, and was again reminded of their professional approach and commitment to the tasks at hand.

I am a very one-eyed Australian and very proud resident of our wonderful community. In a region where one of our biggest threats during summer is bushfire, it is of some comfort to know that we have the world's finest group of volunteers ready to defend our properties and put their lives on the line for us. It takes a very special kind of person. That is our CFS. Thank you.

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (11:36): Again, I will keep my remarks brief in deference to those who are trying to make contributions. This is the third time in 12 months that my community has experienced a significant bushfire, from the Eden Valley bushfires over 12 months ago to the Angaston fire around Hutton Vale and surrounds in December and now to Sampson Flat, the biggest fire that my community, certainly, has seen since Ash Wednesday.

We are getting pretty good in our response to dealing with these, and on that point I would like to thank not only the CFS and volunteers but also the backup support that goes with that. There is an entire community's worth of empathy that exists and tries to support those on the front line and those who are affected. There is overwhelming generosity. As a local member I had a number of people coming to me asking how they could help and how they could get involved, and we directed them to the places of highest need.

In my maiden speech I mentioned volunteerism and the community spirit, and the fact that it underpins so many of our communities, and very much so in Schubert, where we have a strong culture of looking after ourselves. Once again that kicked into action, and I would like to commend my community for the work its members have done.

My family was affected very significantly by these fires. I have grandparents at Humbug Scrub who, without the work of four anonymous CFS crews, would have lost their house, their home of the last 35 years. As soon as the fire was out these crews whisked off to the next hotspot, and my grandparents did not have the ability to say thank you. My aunt and uncle at Kersbrook had a similar experience with a couple of CFS trucks, as the fire came across the top of the hill from Checker Hill Road.

The way the community comes together and deals with these things is rather extraordinary, but the biggest thing I want to do today is commend the work done after the fire. During the fire, as a politician I tried to keep out of the way of anything that looked like it had flames because I figured I would very much get in the way. However, after the fire, and once the TV cameras were gone, I figured that was when the real work starts.

One practical way I have been able to get involved is through BlazeAid. For those who have stock the burning down of sheds and houses is one thing, but in order to maintain your business you need to be able to keep your stock from wandering all over the place, and fences are extremely important. BlazeAid, as a group, is so remarkable because it is ready to go almost as soon as the fire is finished. I know they struggled to find a venue, but are now housed down at what was the Flaxley Research Centre.

There is this group of almost grey nomads who appear from across the country and set up camp in this makeshift campsite. They go out day after day after day, giving of their time and repairing fences. They also do quite a bit of pastoral care with the landowners who they go and help; they help to rebuild their lives and their fencing so that they can get back to a sense of normality as quickly as possible. I was lucky enough to spend a day going out with them. I took my politician's hat off and tried to just be another member of the community willing to help. The backgrounds of these people are quite diverse, from backpackers from Europe to a couple who were down from Queensland to some guys out of northern New South Wales.

It really is such a beautiful organisation because it is pure. It is there only to help. It does not seek to get in the way. It gives of itself in a way that the landowner wants to have help. It does not prescribe what people need to have. It really is remarkable. I encourage everybody, if they can, to get involved because BlazeAid will be at the Flaxley Research Centre doing work on the Sampson Flat fire for months and months to come, and I plan to put a few more days in to do my little bit. It is one of those practical ways, when the whole community is saying, 'Well, what can I do to help?' It is after the height of the media attention on the fire when, 'What can I do to help?' becomes a different proposition. I encourage everybody to look to BlazeAid as a fantastic organisation that can help to do that work. With those few words I commend the motion to the house.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (11:41): I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Florey and to add my tribute and my thanks to the South Australian emergency services personnel, who in January faced fire conditions on par with those of Ash Wednesday in 1983. The fire which started on Friday 2 January had a bushfire perimeter of over 240 kilometres, making it a huge logistical task to contain. It rained on Wednesday night (7 January) in many areas of the hills and that rain greatly assisted the firefighters to control the blaze.

Thanks to the skill and dedication of so many people, particularly our emergency services staff and volunteers, there was no loss of human life. The fire raced through more than 12,500 hectares and 27 families lost their homes, with treasured belongings, many of which cannot be replaced. Emergency services staff and volunteers from all over the state and interstate were involved in fighting the fires and assisting people throughout the emergency. They worked diligently, methodically, tirelessly, skilfully and bravely to ensure that they did what they could to minimise the danger and the damage to humans, animals and property. We as a wider community owe them a lot.

For those of us who do not live or work in the bushfire-affected area, we still know that they were fighting that fire on our behalf, as well as on behalf of those people directly affected or threatened. We looked on with admiration at the work that was being done. Their dedication to the work, either paid or unpaid, cannot be faulted and there are people who have expertise in these matters who are really in awe of the skills the workers demonstrated in this particular emergency.

The animals and livestock that were injured in the fires were also helped by emergency services personnel and I have seen some moving images of this. I would like to acknowledge too that there were vets who donated their services to help care for those seriously injured animals. Sadly, many animals died in the fire and from their injuries in the days following and I offer my condolences to those who lost their loved animals, many of them dogs and cats, that were very much a part of their family.

The recovery from the bushfire will be slow and painful for those immediately affected, and it will doubtlessly be different for each of them. I am sure they will be comforted by memories of the emergency services personnel who fought so hard and helped so many and also of those who volunteered their services in different ways. I know that in my electorate of Torrens the response from a Facebook request for donations of cleaning products by the North East Community House was enormous. Hundreds of cleaning products were delivered to the North East Community House collection point by members of our community. Diane Farah and Sue travelled more than 300 kilometres on the Saturday to households affected by the fires delivering bags of these cleaning products. They told me that they came back having had the most humbling experience and that they picked up on the resilience of the people who had been through the fires.

We hear a lot about heroes. Today I pay tribute to our emergency services heroes and, on behalf of the many people in Torrens who have spoken to me about the fires and their concerns, I say thank you to all those involved during the emergency and since.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:45): Deputy Speaker, I rise to make a contribution to your motion as the member for Florey regarding the efforts of the emergency services staff and volunteers in relation to the Sampson Flat and Tantanoola fires. We have certainly seen the best of what can happen in these situations. I think some very valiant efforts were made by our own CFS and other volunteer agencies with assistance from Victoria and New South Wales. It just goes to show that when you throw the right resources at a situation—this was indeed a very touchy situation—you can get the appropriate outcome.

What I was most pleased to see in response to this fire was that many firefighting planes were operational, and viewing platforms and helicopters were also involved in the fighting of this fire. It is a stark contrast to what happened with the Cherryville blaze. I have heard all the excuses why they were not deployed at Cherryville, and I still firmly believe that they were just excuses. I, like all CFS volunteers, understand that the ground forces need to get in there, but there are certain parts of the landscape that ground forces cannot get to and, if you hit it with a water bomber, you can get a far better outcome in a much shorter time.

I want to praise the efforts of the whole CFS in this state, New South Wales and Victoria for their support, the Salvation Army in helping feed people during this process, and all the other volunteers that got on board. Sadly, we did lose some homes but we did not lose any lives, and I think that just shows how, under the current firefighting and emergency services regime, things do work. They do not need to change; everyone operates together and we get the right outcome.

I take note of the member for Kavel's comment that if you do leave your home you may not be able to get back to it. I can understand the reasons for that, but some people who stayed with their homes did save them while homes around them burnt down because resources were not able to get there to save them. That is always the call of the occupant, and certainly some people, for health reasons or age or inability, should not stay anyway. It is something that we will need to look at further because it is obvious that some people can vent their frustration when they are not allowed back into their property.

I heap praise on all the people involved in fighting these fires and other fires around the state. It has been a fact of life in Australia for hundreds of years, thousands of years, that fire is a part of the landscape, and I too was offended by the leader of the Greens relating it to climate change. He needs to go outside and look at the real world.

I understand that we need to be mindful of the time as we have other matters to deal with today. However, in closing, I will just mention that the members for Mount Gambier, MacKillop, Mitchell, Finniss, and possibly others, would have liked to have spoken on the motion but we have other matters to attend to, so I commend the motion to the house.

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (11:49): I will be very brief, Madam Speaker. I want to congratulate you on putting this motion before the house. Of course, it is a motion that is going to be unanimously supported.

I want to pay tribute to and acknowledge the contribution made by all emergency services personnel during both the Sampson Flat and Tantanoola bushfires. Their job was outstanding and their coordination very good. I also want to acknowledge those interstate personnel who travelled to South Australia to assist in the process. Also, as the member for Schubert said, I acknowledge and thank all those good people who are contributing through BlazeAid at the moment.

I think we were lucky on this particular day. There were certain circumstances that changed during the course of the fire that were a contributing factor in ensuring that it was managed well. Whilst I am in no way saying this was not a serious fire, because it was, I say we have missed the big one and the big one is still to come. There will be a time in the not-too-distant future when we will have another Ash Wednesday or a fire similar to what they had in Victoria several years ago and we will see the devastating effects of those fires.

That is why it is critically important that we continue to have, underpinning our emergency services in this state, excellent levels of professionalism from our volunteers and coordination with other emergency services agencies; and that we do the right thing with respect to clearing and making sure that when a fire does come the environment is in a better condition with respect to managing fire than otherwise would be the case.

I am issuing a warning, and that warning is that this was a devastating fire but there is still a more serious fire to come and it will not be that far off. To that extent, I disagree with the member for the Mallee—

Mr Pederick: Hammond.

The Hon. P. CAICA: Hammond, thank you very much, the member for Hammond. At least I didn't call you by your first name. If you stay as you are without ever attempting to improve, you are actually going backwards. To that extent, I commend the Minister for Emergency Services for the work and consultation he is undertaking at the moment to improve our emergency services in this state and to improve the coordination and the way in which they go about doing their jobs. I ask people, in no preconceived way, to go and look at those proposals with an open mind about how it is that we as a government and parliament can continue to properly support emergency services personnel in this state.

The only other comment I would make (and I probably agree with the comment that this fire itself was not necessarily a result of climate change) is that, for those in denial in here, climate is changing and, on any fair assessment, the scientists say that what we are going to have here in Australia is more frequent events that contribute to fire and, to that extent, we have to be not only diligent but ensure that our emergency services are properly prepared to work against the increased frequency and intensity of fires that will be caused by climate change. With those few words, I again congratulate and thank all those people involved in the Sampson Flat and Tantanoola bushfires and commend them on their outstanding work.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (11:53): I would like, firstly, to thank the member for Florey for moving this fantastic motion and thank all the other members who have contributed to the debate, particularly those who come from electorates that were affected in the fires. I would also like to add my thanks to all the volunteers, both CFS and other service organisations, involved in the heroic effort of fighting the Sampson Flat bushfires. There is something amazing and truly heroic, I think, about those who put their hands up to go out and put themselves in harm's way, without any scent of pay, to protect the lives and properties of other people. I think that really sums up what a great community we have in South Australia.

I know in my electorate there were lots of people who put their hands up to help out, certainly from the CFS units in my electorate. We had the Aldinga CFS contributing 23 members to the firefighting effort, and they operated in One Tree Hill, Sampson Flat and Kersbrook. The Seaford CFS contributed 24 members to the efforts, and they operated in Kersbrook, Gumeracha, Kenton Valley and Forreston. I would like to add my thanks to all those people who helped out.

There are many other people who did not help directly in the firefighting effort but committed their time and money to help the people affected. In my electorate, the Port Noarlunga Football Club was turned into a collection point for pet food, as dozens of local residents in the south pitched in to ensure that the huge numbers of pets affected in the fire would be fed.

Also, recently I met some of my constituents from the Aldinga Arts Eco Village, who have been helping BlazeAid. I thank the member for Schubert for his contribution to BlazeAid. They are out repairing fences right now in the Adelaide Hills, helping people put their lives back together. So, to all those people I add my sincere thanks.

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland) (11:55): As a member for an electorate that was affected by the fires, I wish very briefly to place on the record my thanks to the volunteers who undertook the initial firefighting. I spoke a little bit about this in my Address in Reply, so I will not go on here, but I want formally in this motion to thank those volunteers who made a contribution to keeping members of my community safe and who continue to be available to do the same thing again as the rest of the fire season continues. I also thank those people who continue to assist my community: BlazeAid, the Tzu Chi Foundation and so many other organisations that continue to operate in the community, continue to help with the recovery process, and will do for some time yet.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (11:55): I thank all members for their contributions today in support of this motion. As has been said, the aftermath of this natural disaster sees many still hard at work assisting in the recovery effort for the locals who lost homes, property, stock and lifelong memories and possessions. We extend to you our solidarity at this time and for as long as you need it.

To my local first responders: the Tea Tree Gully CFS (if only we knew when we were having those Christmas cakes how soon you would need the support you got on the days of the Sampson Flat fires), the SES (what a great job they have done), the MFS crews, the Holden Hill LSA, and the ambulance and hospital personnel—they were all ready.

We in the community must also be ready, have a plan and give some thought to what we should do and what we can do should we ever be called on to play our part. It is up to us in this place to make sure that we take the lessons from this bushfire to the community, heed the advice of the reports and make sure that should or when the time ever comes again we are all as ready and prepared as possible.

To the hundreds, even thousands, of people who contributed directly and indirectly to the efforts to contain and save the situation, I repeat my admiration and thanks. I have tried not to mention names, particularly because there are so many, but to each and every one of you we are so enormously grateful and proud of all you have done. When we work together, everything seems possible, and the hundreds and thousands of stories from the many disaster incidents that are already part of the history of this state prove just that: when we work together we can achieve anything.

Motion carried.

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