Bushfire Opinion

In the Opinion section of today's Age newspaper, a well written article titled 'First we mourn, then we must learn our place', by John Schauble, author and firefighter, makes interesting reading. It has helped me temper the media bombardment of the past week, and my own rampage of thought provoked by the tragic statistics.

Debate and opinion will rage in the weeks and months to come. Should you defend or stay? Should there be more prescribed burning? Or less? Were warning and emergency systems adequate? Should council regulations restricting vegetation removal be relaxed? Who is to blame?

John Schauble says it comes back to some fundamental truths. "The first is that there is only one absolute guarantee in a bushfire. If you are not in the area when a fire occurs, you will not be killed by it. All else is uncertain." I agree.

The second fundamental Schauble gives, "is that Australians -- even those in bushfire-prone areas -- have largely lost contact with their environment." Again, I agree. We go from offices and shopping malls in airconditioned cars to air conditioned loungerooms.

John Shcauble's fundamentals crystallize my opinion, which has been developing for some time, that the bushfire-prone mountain ranges of Victoria are no place for residential development. They should be treated as precious water catchment with a minimum of human activity, especially in summertime. Out of bounds in heatwaves except for land owners(farmers) and forest managers.

Towns should be surrounded by cleared, well managed farmland with fire safety a priority. Living in Gembrook, in the fire season I have always taken great comfort from the adjacent potato farms. We had a scare in 1983 when Cockatoo was razed in a firestorm that started in the small Wright forest to its west, and roared through the town on a gale force south westerly wind change. But with the firebreak to our west, the spud farms, the event for us was one of smoke, ash and anxiety, not trauma.

I offer a third fundamental. Forests bring rain. We need more of them.

In the less than two hundred years since serious European settlement began in Victoria, much forest has gone. Fortunes have been made from gold, timber, farming and real estate development, as we tapped into the virgin natural resources on offer. Our thirst for the mythical Australian lifestyle remains unquenched. Population increase has chewed into the foothills and the mountains. Fighting bushfires is part of the culture.

The fundamentals suggest we start a U turn. John Schauble says, "Communicating the risk of fires to those who are most at risk must become the priority. Getting our community to accept the risks in the face of new challenges, such as climate change, involves altering ingrained beliefs about the environment and our place in it." Again, I agree entirely. In 1939, in perhaps our biggest bushfires, about 50 people were killed, mostly mill workers, who were about the only people living in the bush. Now, 70 years on, our Toyotas, Holdens, Fords, Nissans, Mazdas, Hyundais, Suzukis, Mercedes BMWs etc, allow many more people to smell the gum leaves daily.

Where will people live if we can't expand into the bush? Good question. John Schauble says, " The past week has been a test of faith for many of us in the bushfire business." The past week also tests the notion that constant population growth is necessary and good.

The rethink is not only about the deathtoll and the billions of dollars needed to replace infrastructure. It's another step in learning how to live on this continent. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees.