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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-13 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Duck Ponds Bushfire

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:12): My question is to the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services. Can the minister update the house on the recent fires at the bottom end of Yorke Peninsula and Port Lincoln?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:12): I thank the member for Flinders for his very important question and note that he was back in Port Lincoln yesterday to keep an eye on his community, to work with the local property owners and to thank the emergency service workers for the wonderful work they have been doing and their swift action in response to the stubble fire that erupted at Duck Ponds on Monday afternoon. Over on the West Coast, the stubble fire was burning towards 16,000 people in Port Lincoln, and the local crews did a marvellous job to get in there and put the fire out.

As so often happens in South Australia when something like this erupts, volunteers come flowing to help out in our regions, and they came to help out the people of Port Lincoln. Local brigades were approached for volunteers, and I am pleased to say to the house that they responded with 30 firefighters, seven incident management personnel and a SAFECOM IT manager, who were all deployed as overnight crew to help out on Monday.

In addition, there were local resources from the City of Port Lincoln. The CFS deployed 24 CFS appliances and bulk water carriers, eight MFS appliances came from Port Lincoln as well, and Whyalla and Port Augusta were also directed towards that fire. There were 12 aircraft, including fixed-wing bombers and rotary observation aircraft. A total of 10 appliances remain on the ground at this time supporting the people of Port Lincoln.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers who headed over to the West Coast. I know some of the people personally—some of them were quite young people—and it was a wonderful experience for them to get over there and help out where it was needed. I know that the rapid response from Adelaide that came to Port Lincoln was very much appreciated by the locals.

I also want to acknowledge the employers who give people time off to allow them to go and do this wonderful service for our community. They must be recognised and acknowledged because there is a burden that is absorbed by our community. A lot of these people, too, who let their workers go are small businesses, if not people who run a small business themselves. They head off to help out—in this case on the West Coast—and it is greatly appreciated. They are out of pocket because they leave their work if they are a small business owner.

There are also four MFS rapid damage assessment specialists who have been on the ground in Port Lincoln assessing both the conditions and the damage that has been caused. We know that there has been some damage in Duck Ponds, including to one house and a number of structures. Importantly, a significant number of properties have been inspected, as well as the vehicles that remain on the ground, so we thank the MFS crews for that.

While many of us have been keeping an eye on the Eastern States, where we are seeing these fires in New South Wales on our TV screens, our CFS and MFS have also been dealing with several bushfires at White Hut and Foul Bay, near Marion Bay on southern Yorke Peninsula. I know the member for Narungga has been keeping a very close eye on these fires. The CFS have deployed 28 appliances and bulk water carriers as well as four water bombing aircraft and two rotary wing aircraft. Of course, you will note, Mr Speaker, that in last year's budget we put a significant amount of funds into more aircraft within the CFS, some $9 million, to increase this coverage.

As the member for Flinders and many others in our regions know, this work—assessing the damage, helping people who have lost property and preparing for the long summer ahead—will continue for many weeks. It is a good opportunity to remind members about putting bushfire action plans in place. It is a five-minute plan you get on the website. It is very important that you have that set up so that you can help out.

In closing, it would be remiss of me not to mention the work that is happening in New South Wales and the support that is happening there. A further 66 CFS, MFS and SES officers are headed over to New South Wales today, including one of our own local heroes Scott Kennedy, who has come from your office, Mr Premier. It is great that these people are taking the time to help out right across the country and right across our state.

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