By STEVE GRAY
THE vast areas of state-owned land in Australia would be better managed under local control, a 40-year veteran of volunteer rural firefighting said.
Geoff Hamilton is a Life Member of the Legume Rural Fire Brigade and he says much more needs to be done towards hazard reduction.
“Australia has reached the stage now of being a time bomb ready to explode,” Mr Hamilton said.
His call for more local say in preparations to limit bushfire damage has been backed by the vice-president of the Tenterfield Progress Association Richard Holland.
Mr Holland said most bushfires “seem to originate in crown land, particularly State Forest, Timber Reserves and National Parks”. However government have laws limiting their liability for the damage such fires cause.
Mr Hamilton said most National Parks should revert to State Forests and be grazed to limit the available fuel.
“The (Queensland) Government should change the Rural Fire Act and hand back control to the shire councils,” he said.
“Landowners should be encouraged to do hazard reduction and have the local brigades assist.”
He said hazard reduction when conditions are safe would save much of the destruction caused by severe bushfires.
“The Aborigines are no fools as they burnt often to make fresh grass for the wildlife to eat,” he said.
Mr Holland said the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission into Black Saturday determined there had been a long-term failure to conduct adequate fuel-reduction burning, and most of (Victoria’s) eight million hectares of public land was overgrown and highly susceptible to bushfires.
However governments have statutory limitations of liability for the damage a bushfire does if it escapes state-owned land.
Mr Holland said it seemed that a double standard exists.
“If a private person starts or allows a fire to spread through negligence he is held liable for the damage the fire does,” he said.
“However when the government does the same thing… they get off scott free.
“The (Queensland) Government should stop pretending it can manage these lands if it really cannot, and allow the lands to lapse into commons and subsequently be claimed and divided up into private holdings.
“Or at the very least, allow the communities most affected by these vast tracts of wilderness to go out and conduct their own fire management on those lands without being branded criminals and arsonists,” Mr Holland said.
