Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF has made a late submission to the Bushfire Management consultation [see our previous post], after our representatives attended ‘drop in’ consultations in Castlemaine and Bendigo this month. The substance of our submission is set out below:

1. The poor quality of the maps supplied for this process, both online and in the hard copies available at the ‘drop in’ sessions, was such that we are unable to comment in detail on the three options offered in this consultation.
2. We are quite unclear as to the manner in which DELWP will make up its mind about the three options offered. Discussions with your representatives did not clear up this matter:
3. It’s obvious—we hope—that DELWP could not be running a crude popularity poll, particularly since online consultations like this are not necessarily representative of the public as a whole.
4. In any case, we do not see that this consultation will add much to the dozens of such consultations which have taken place over the years. We ourselves have attended innumerable meetings and submitted dozens of submissions on the subject of the many fire operations plans developed since the 1990s. We do hope that this consultation will not take place in isolation from those previous efforts.
5. In the light of the above, we submit that DELWP should take heed of the findings of the Royal Commission Implementation Monitor, and conduct a carefully conceived risk reduction strategy, not dominated by preconceived notions involving scorched earth strategies.
6. In the light of this, it seems to us that some combination of options B and C might be an appropriate approach to take.

However, as we have repeatedly emphasised over the last 20 years, everything depends on the detail of the implementation:

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Travellers on the Pyrenees Highway east of Newstead will have noticed that work is under way on Vicroads’ wire rope project. A last minute series of meetings between local residents and road engineers has failed to bring any further modification to the project, which will involve significant vegetation removal.

Discussions are ongoing on possible speed reduction changes on this winding stretch of the highway, notable for animal crossings. Vicroads, as in the past, is curiously reluctant to reduce speed limits on its roads. We thought we’d just offer another reason to take the matter more seriously.

The photo below shows an Australian Common Longnecked turtle rescued from the road in Strangways. The mud on the shell suggests that the turtle had just come out of a local dam and was perhaps looking for a better refuge nearer the Loddon.

Australian common longnecked turtle (Chelodina longicollis), Strangways, March 10: these creatures undertake perilous journeys in search of better water body refuges

The Bendigo Field Naturalists’ excellent Frogs and Reptiles of the Bendigo district says of this species, ‘It can live in semi-permanent waterholes and survive summer drought by digging into soil or leaf litter of drying water bodies and aestivating. Alternatively they go in search of a better water body, a behaviour that leads to them being killed on roads and trapped by fences.’

In this case the driver was able to avoid the turtle because he was travelling relatively slowly. As we’ve pointed out before, the animal carnage on our roads is eloquently present in the form of many corpses, most visibly of kangaroos and wallabies. Smaller animals aren’t so obvious, but they are there.

Another reason for slowing down, especially on minor roads.