Nestlé Purina fully laden semi-trailer crash at Medlow Bath, Blue Mountains

 

On Saturday 25th May 2019 at about 7:00 am a truck crashed on the Great Western Highway just north of Medlow Bath spilling all it’s cargo.  The crash occurred on a straight road section.  The driver was either speeding, distracted (mobile phone?) or fell asleep at the wheel.

The truck was carting over 30 tonnes of pet food from the Nestlé Purina processing factory in Blayney to Sydney.  The eastbound truck took down a power pole as it rolled just past Railway Parade, bringing down wires and creating an extra hazard in the area.

No only did the crash cause damage to vegetation and power lines and poles, but the highway was completely blocked for two hours in both directions, causing considerable traffic delays for travellers and locals alike.  Power had to be turned off in the area for two hours. 

Eventually a contra flow was put in place and a large crane and heavy tow truck removed the wrecked semi-trailer.  Local volunteers were called in to remove the pet food strewn along the road and the shoulder.  Perhaps a few Blue Mountains dogs and cats benefited from a free feed for a few weeks afterwards.

Nestlé Purina pet food strewn for 100 metres on the Great Western Highway

Why is Nestlé despatching its truck drivers to drive at breakneck speed on country roads to earn a quid?   The crash site is just short of a 60 kph speed sign on the southbound approach to Medlow Bath.   The truck driver must have ignored the sign and been hooning along at 90kph with his top heavy load.   It is typical of the speeding and tail-gaiting of large linehaul trucks that use and abuse the Great Western Highway.       

Nestlé is ultimately responsible for the crash and damage through the supplier chain of command.   Australia’s Heavy Vehicle National Law was amended on 1st October 2018, to provide that every party in the heavy vehicle transport supply chain has a duty to ensure the safety of their transport activities.

Nestlé must therefore publicly accept its chain of responsibility, announce its financial compensation sum for the impact to the Blue Mountains, and outline of its financial compensation package to the Blue Mountains – the reimbursement cost of involved emergency services, the reimbursement cost of infrastructure damage (power lines and poles) and reinstating the power, the economic loss of causing the GWH to be impassible for 2-3 hours, and to publicly apologise in the Blue Mountains Gazette with an undertaking to review and imprive its logistics safety standards.

Blayney, a small town situated 240 km west of Sydney (130km west of the crash site), has its own rail freight service, so why does Swiss multinational food and drink company Nestlé avoid the perfectly good rail service which has a rail siding right next to the Nestle Purina Pet Care plant in Jarman Crescent, Blayney.

Since 1994, Blayney’s intermodal terminal provides direct import/export rail link to Sydney Ports, replete with cold storage and warehousing.

Nearby Bathurst (Kelso) business Grainforce Commodities freights 250,000 tonnes of product annually into Port Botany (Sydney), the equivalent of keeping 10,000 trucks off the road.  Nestlé  could learn from Grainforce and help keep these dangerous speeding trucks off the Great Western Highway.

The New South Wales state government is encouraging rail freight from the Central West.   In June 2018, Freight Minister Melinda Pavey announced plans to construct two rail loops near Blayney at Georges Plains and south of Rydal to facilitate reduced train turn around times.  “The two loops will ensure the nine million tonnes of freight transported annually along the western corridor moves more efficiently, reducing the cost of getting export freight to port and domestic freight to markets,” she said.

Ms Pavey said the $21.5 million Main Western Rail Line Capacity Enhancement programme will help rail operators to meet the growing demand for freight on the corridor, reducing the demand for road freight without negatively impacting passenger services that run along the line.  The two loops will ensure the nine million tonnes of freight transported annually along the western corridor moves more efficiently, reducing the cost of getting export freight to port and domestic freight to markets.

L to R:  Bathurst MP Paul Toole, NSW Freight Minister Melinda Pavey and Grainforce managing director Derek Larnach at Blayney Railway Station

Nestlé Purina PetCare set up in Blayney in 1989 and in 2014 expanded, creating an additional 100 jobs, but then in August 2018 retrenched fourteen staff in what Nestlé called a ‘lean mapping exercise’ (Activity Based Costing).  Prior to the review the company had performed a similar review within their salaried roles resulting in six positions becoming redundant.

In August 2006, Nestlé Purina cut 44 jobs from its pet food plant, in apparent response to losing export sales of pet food to Japan.  The Blayney workforcer was suddenly cut by 20 per cent.

 

Further Reading:

 

[1]  ‘All-day delays after Medlow Bath truck crash‘, 20190527, by Ilsa Cunningham, Blue Mountains Gazette, Springwood (NSW), ^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/6184627/all-day-delays-after-medlow-bath-crash/

 

[2]  ‘Great Western Highway crash: Long delays at Medlow Bath‘, 20190525, by Murray Nicholls, The Western Advocate, Bathurst (NSW), ^https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/6181576/long-highway-delays-after-pet-food-truck-crashes-at-medlow-bath/

 

[3] ‘Lachlan Regional Transport Committee welcomes NSW government regional rail announcement‘, 20170817, by Faye Wheeler, Daily Liberal (online),  Dubbo (NSW), Australian Community Media network owned by Nine Entertainment, ^https://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/4863132/transport-committee-welcomes-rail-move/

 

[4]  ‘Nestle Purina cut 14 roles at Blayney plant.‘, 20180815, by Mark Logan, Blayney Chronicle newspaper, Blayney (NSW), ^https://www.blayneychronicle.com.au/story/5586628/14-jobs-cut-at-nestle-purina/

 

[5]  ‘NSW Freight and rail customers in the loop with $21.5m project‘, 20180614, by Nadine Morton,  in The Western Advocate newspaper, Bathurst (NSW),  ^https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/5468110/freight-and-rail-customers-in-the-loop-with-215m-works-video/

 

[6]  ‘Blayney Nestle Purina PetCare expansion adds jobs‘, 20141014, by Nadine Morton, in The Western Advocate newspaper, Bathurst (NSW), ^https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/2624657/pet-food-for-thought-expansion-adds-jobs/

 

[7]   National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, ^https://www.nhvr.gov.au/safety-accreditation-compliance/chain-of-responsibility

 

 

 

The Rural Fire Starters (RFS) of New South Wales have set fire to Blue Mountains World Heritage yet again.

They call it ‘Hazard Reduction’ because they deem native habitat to be a hazardous fuel, nothing more.  Government is dominated by men and women in power their sixties (Baby Boomers currently).   Their worldview is anthropcentric if not a contempt for ecology and the survival conservation of Australia’s wildlife fauna.  They consider native forests to be mere ‘parks’ for human recreation.  Their forebears happily shot wildlife as vermin.

So yet again more vast areas of native forest habitat have been incinerated as if it were a wildfire.  The hazard reduction flames reach fully up into the tree canopy in the same way.  Hazard Reduction is government condoned bush arson.  It is a prime cause of local wildlife extinction.

 

Hazard Reduction adversely alters Forest Ecology

Hazard Reduction used to the intensity, canopy height and broad scale of a wildfire is no different to wildfires in ecological impact.   Deliberate bush arson whether by arsonists or government sanctioned, harm native habitat.   The penchant for increased fire regimes out of fear of government incapacity to deal with wildfires, has inculcated a mindset of a ‘burn the bush before it burns‘ mentality.

When applied to moist Closed Forest ecosystems, hazard reduction dries out the delicate moist microclimate.  The complex topsoil chemistry is destroyed.  Only fire resistant flora regenerate; other species die and do not return.  The forest become more bushfire prone.   Wildlife perishes especially territorial wildlife.    The close forests become drier Open Forest Parks – ones you can more easily walk through. 

“Bushfire danger is increasing as a consequence of climate change predicted by scientists.   Heavy logging and burning of forests increases rather than decreases flammability.  Forests permitted to exist in their natural state (with dense shading canopies and intact boundaries) lose less moisture from drying wind and direct sun. An unlogged forest can remain cooler and damper – for longer.  It has been demonstrated that it can slow, and even halt a fire.” – Dr Chris Taylor, Ecologist at the University of Melbourne, in the journal Conservation Letters 2014.

“Fuel hazard is often assumed to increase with fuel age, or the time-since-fire. However, studies on fuel hazard in long-unburned forests are scarce. We measured overall fuel hazard in Eucalyptus forests and woodlands in south-eastern Australia at 81 sites where time-since-fire spans 0.5 years to at least 96 years. Overall fuel hazard was higher in forests and woodlands burned 6–12 years previously than those unburned for at least 96 years.

The probability of high, very high or extreme overall fuel hazard – which is an operational threshold considered to equate with almost no chance of wildfire suppression in severe fire-weather – was highest 0.5–12 years post-fire, and lowest where fire had not occurred for at least 96 years. Frequent burning can maintain forest understorey in an early successional ‘shrubby’ state, leading to higher overall fuel hazard than forests where a lack of fire is associated with the senescence of shrubs.

Protecting long-unburned sites from fire and managing to transition a larger proportion of forest to a long-unburned state may benefit fuel-hazard management within these forests in the long-term.”  (Source:  International Journal of Wildland Fire, 20180723, (Refer Note 1 in Further Reading).

 

Hazard Reduction fuels Carbon Emissions

The toxic wood smoke blankets communities and the entire Sydney basin as the prevaling westerly wind  drives the choking smoke for a hundred kilometres.

Thick smoke from a prescribed arson by the RFS in precious forext habitat around Faulconbridge and Springwood has blanketed the entire Sydney basin just like what happens regularly in Beijing.

The wood smoke is expected to last for days and health warnings have been issued by the New South Wales government who approved the burning.  NSW Health has warned that people with existing heart and lung conditions should avoid outdoor physical activity.  NSW’s Office of Environment has labelled Sydney’s air quality “poor” and warned people with health issues to stay indoors.

Outside the RFS Bushfire Season (September to March), this is the contra Habitat Reduction Season (April to August).  If the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area isn’t subjected to arson wildfire in the on-season, it is targeted by arson habitat reduction in the off-season.  The impact is the same.

“These are important controlled burns which will reduce the risk to people and properties from bush fires,” NSW RFS said in a statement.

Up to 30 tonnes of CO2 per forested hectare is emitted by bushfires and hazard reduction alike, according to Philip Gibbons , Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University; more than coal-fired power stations.

“Burning biomass inevitably releases CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide),  CH₄ (methane), N₂O (Nitrous Oxide) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) to the atmosphere. Emissions from vegetation fires account for about 3% of global GHG emissions.  Bushfires in Australia burn over 500,000 km² annually, mainly in the northern half of the country. They account for about 6-8% of global fire emissions and contribute significantly (about 3%) to the nation’s net GHG emissions.”  – Matthias Boer, Researcher, Western Sydney University.

Bushfire smoke contains particulate matter, respiratory irritants and carcinogens such as benzene and formaldehyde.  These can travel for thousands of kilometres. Hazard reduction burns, which are being conducted more frequently due to climate change, also contribute to increased pollution.

In 2009  bushfires, back-burning and hazard reduction emitted an amount of CO2 equivalent to 2% of Australia’s annual emissions from coal-fired power.  Bushfires burnt an area of forest greater than Tasmania to generate CO2 emissions equivalent to a year of burning coal for electricity.  Bushfires must burn an area of forest the size of New South Wales to generate CO2 emissions equivalent to a decade of burning coal for electricity.

Wildfires and hazard reduction across Australia released millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to more than a third of the country’s CO2 emissions for a whole year, according to scientists.

The climate costs are dire because of the type of forest that burned, according to Mark Adams of the University of Sydney. “Once you burn millions of hectares of eucalypt forest, then you are putting into the atmosphere very large amounts of carbon.”    

Because hazard reduction burns have been increasingly more widespread and deliberately encouraged to blanket a wide landscape , rather than edge low level and mosaic in pattern, hazard reduction burns are litteldifferent in impact that wildlfires.  A high-intensity burning into the tree canopy causes equivalent forest carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

Australia’s total emissions per year are around 330m tonnes of CO2. Adams’ previous research has shown that the bush fires in 2003 and 2006-07 had put up to 105m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because they burned up land carrying 50 to 80 tonnes of carbon per hectare.

This time, however, the forests being destroyed are even more carbon-rich, with more than 100 tonnes of above-ground carbon per hectare. The affected area is more than twice the size of London and takes in more than 20 towns north of Melbourne, so the CO2 emissions from this year’s disaster could be far larger than previous fires.

So ‘hazard reduction’, ‘fuel reduction’, ‘prescribed burning’, or indeed the more honest term ‘government arson’ – must cease because it releases vast quantities of CO2 and other toxic chemicals that pollute the atmosphere.

“The world’s forests are crucial to the long-term future of the planet as they lock away millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide,” said Robin Webster, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “More must be done to protect them – deforestation is having a devastating effect and as climate change takes hold, forest fires like those in Australia are likely to become more frequent.”

The carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires are not counted under the agreements made by countries in the Kyoto Protocol, though it is being considered for inclusion in the successor treaty that will be debated later this year in Copenhagen. The usual reasoning behind it was that, with any fires, new growth of vegetation would take up any extra CO2 that had been released. “That is true to a point, but if the long-term fire regime changes – we are now starting to have more fires – we may completely change the carbon balance of the forest,” said Adam.

He added: “All informed scientific opinion suggests that whatever new protocol is signed [at the UN summit] in Copenhagen or elsewhere will include forest carbon, simply because to not do so would be to ignore one of the biggest threats to the global atmospheric pool of carbon dioxide, the release of carbon in fires.”

“Nature reserves are areas of land in predominantly untouched, natural condition, with high conservation value.  Their primary purpose is to protect and conserve their outstanding, unique or representative ecosystems and Australian native plants and animals.”

NPWS has become more an agent for Tourism than Conservation

The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service is a state government entity and the sole custodian of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, the state’s 870 national parks, and nature reserves.   It’s management has the same recreational mindset of the RFS, that national parks are set aside areas of recreation for humans to play in, not remnant habitat sanctuaries to be protected across Australia’s otherwise deforested landscape. 

Successive state governments have slashed the departments funding to a skeleton service and merged it into other incompatible departments such as repporting to the Department of Planning.     The fraud of the naming this grossly underfunded and mismanaged custodial authority warrants a name change to the ‘Parks NSW’, which hereafter we shall refer to them.  It functions more like a department of tourism and recreation.  Victoria calls its equivalent ‘Parks Victoria’.

It’s logo should better reflect what the Parks NSW actually does in national parks and nature reserves.  May be it should take on manicuring council parks and gardens as well.  A can of petrol and a tourism sponsor logo like North Face should replace its Superb Lyrebird and Boomerang.

RFS ‘hazard reduction’ inflicted upon Mount Solitary world heritage of a scale the same as a wildfire – all wildlife incinerated so that the ‘national park’ becomes a sterile park.

 

Rural Fire Service (starters) and National Parks unnecessarily incinerated Mount Solitary, The Jamison Valley and Cedar Valley by indiscriminate aerial incendiary in May 2018.  What carbon emissions?

 

Ironically, today is the government-sanctioned day of the unpaid wildlife arsonist.  Give generously.

Not a forest ecologist in sight.  Volunteer bush fire-fighters no longer fight bushfires with water, but with petrol.

It is no wonder why they hide their identity?

 

Further Reading:

 

[1]  ‘Blue Mountains landmark burns for first time since 1955‘, 20180509, by Peter Hannam and B.C Lewis, in Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper,^https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/5389332/mt-solitary-hazard-reduction-creates-new-smoky-vista-closes-tracks-photos/

 

[2]  ‘A comparison of fuel hazard in recently burned and long-unburned forests and woodlands‘, by Dixon KM, Cary GJ, Worboys GL, Seddon J, Gibbons G, 2018, in International Journal of Wildland Fire 27, 609-622, ^https://www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF18037.    Note:  Associate Professor Philip Gibbons, currently an Associate Professor at The Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University where he teaches courses related to biodiversity conservation. He has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters, including three books.

 

[3]   ‘Australian bushfires pump out millions of tonnes of carbon‘, 20090214, by Alok Jha, The Guardian online, ^https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/feb/13/carbonemissions-australia

 

[4]  ‘Enhancing Hazard Reduction in NSW Report March 2013‘, >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Enhancing-Hazard-Reduction-in-NSW-Report-March-2013.pdf,  ^https://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/Documents/publications/independent-hazard-reduction-audit-panel-report.pdf

 

Silly Comments Received:

 

“For those who object to the burning of ‘our’ bushland for fire ‘hazard’ reduction, perhaps they could assist by adopting..the method of raking the forest floors.”

– Rod Tuck, Katoomba.

Finns beg to differ and send a message that RFS unpaid slaves are just redneck knuckle-dragging dumb arses..

SOURCE:  ^https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/19/18102613/finland-trump-raking-woods

 

 

Climate Change orthodoxy a red herring of floodplain developers

 

When in doubt and keen to push one’s unjustifiable case, resort to the excuse of notional esoteric ‘climate change’ theory.   It’s the contemporary dominant creed and orthodoxy, as if invoking God’s presence.  One’s stance instantly becomes sacrosanct and any challenge to it is instantly dismissed as heresy.

The New South Wales (Sydney) government’s true justification to desire expanding the city’s drinking water reservoir at Warragamba Dam from 7500 hectares by another 4700 hectares (60%) to basically double the reservoir capacity. 

It has nothing to do with climate change theorised flood mitigation. 

It is everything to do with increasing drinking water storage capacity to cater for doubling the human population of the Sydney Basin from the current 5 million to a ludicrously intentioned plague of 10 million humans by 2036.   Given the forecasters tend to understate for fear of alarming people, the likely timing will be more like 2030, just over a decade away.

Sydney’s Kurnell Desalination Plant of 2010 only supplies 15 percent of Sydney’s current drinking water needs, so as a guide, for  about 750,000 residents.  

Yet, in order to cater for a human plague of 10 million residents, another 5 million residents Sydney would need to have seven Kurnell type desalination plants if Warragamba Dam remained as it is.    The seven would cost about $2 billion each to construct and another $500 million a year each to run, based on current financial reports.   So in order to cater for this dystopian human plague projection, the capital cost of seven Kurnell desalination plants would be at least $14 billion, plus an further $3.5 billion to run them annually.  

The New South Wales (Sydney) government’s 2018 surplus after paying for its expenses totalled $2 billion, and that was an exceptionally good year because it had a windfall of $4 billion from selling Snowy Hydro to the Federal Government.  Yet it retained an $11 billion net debt.

So what this all adds up to is that Sydney cannot afford another 5 million residents financially.  So the New South Wales (Sydney) government’s plan B is to futher degrade the environment by raising the Warragamba Dam Wall by 14 metres and so inundating 4700 hectares of Blue Mountains vital ecology and so annulling UNESCO-listed Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage.

 

All About Underpinning Exponential Urban Growth

 

Building Warragamba Dam was first mooted in 1845 when the population of the Sydney basin was approaching 50,000 people.  A hundred years later, construction began in 1948 post World War II when Sydney’s population was approaching 1.5 million and mass immigration from Europe was in full-swing.  

The Federal Government’s policy was to boost Australia’s population numbers in the interests of economic and military security.   The first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, promoted mass immigration with the slogan “populate or perish” to overcome domestic resistance towards mass immigration.  He coined the term “New Australians” to change Australian public negative perceptions.

The dam was completed in 1960 forming the reservoir artificially named Lake Burragorang with a capacity for 3 million tonnes of drinking water, by which time Sydney’s population had exceeded 2 million people, mainly from the federal mass immigration programme. 

In order to safeguard the purity of the drinking water, a Special Area – No Entry has been extended for three kilometres from the top of the full storage water level in Lake Burragorang.  The surrounding forested hills and rivers of the Blue Mountains were listed by UNESCO on 29 November 2000, cynically not for eucalypt protection, but to protect Sydney’s water supply.

Hawkesbury-Nepean flood risk beyond 1867 is scaremongering

 

Downstream from the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury-Nepean River is a major river system on the western outskirts of the Sydney Basin draining a catchment area of 22,000 square kilometres. Exceptionally heavy rainfall in this area can lead to severe flooding.

In 1867, a major rainfall event led to the river peaking at the colonial pastoral settlement of Windsor at 19.7 metres on 23rd June above the official Australian Height Datum (AHL, or basically mean sea level).    The colonial township of Windsor was sensibly located an a hill rising up to 33 metres AHL, so was unaffected but the flood did however inundated the surrounding floodplain in which much of the farmland was flooded.   Still twelve people died, many dwellings foolishly built in the floodplain inundated and hundreds of settlers made destitute. 

Lessons learned by building on a floodplain in 2019?

 

‘House on the Rock’ parable: 

“Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

— Matthew 7:24–27, World English Bible  (without endorsing religion).

 

Decades before, Governor Lachlan Macquarie had implored people to make their homes not on the river flats but on the high ground of the five ‘Macquarie towns’ he designated nearby. His advice was little heeded over following decades: people did not want to commute to their plots or have difficulty protecting their crops and livestock.

Over the following decades, population growth continued along the Hawkesbury, the area eventually becoming part of Sydney’s perpetuating endless sprawl.

By comparison, the 1961 flood peaked at only 15.1 metres, likely in part due to the Warragamba Dam upstream having been built the year prior.  In August 1990 the Windsor level rose to 13.4 metres, then in 1992 to 11.0 m.

 

Windsor Flood Peaks above Average Height Datum:

Source:  SW SES, 2005, Hawkesbury/Nepean Flood Emergency Sub Plan, NSW State Disaster Plan.

 

In 2005, the Sydney government announced plans to increase the drinking water capacity of Sydney with plans for the future of a city growing by 1,000 people a week, including western Sydney to build another wopping 160,000 houses and flats.    A $1.4 billion plan was devised to secure Sydney’s water supplies for the next 25 years, including adding driving pumps into the deep water at the bottom of Warragamba and Avon dams; raising the Tallowa Dam wall on the Shoalhaven River, and constructing a pipeline to harvest surplus water from the Shoalhaven reservoir into the Warragamba reservoir.

In 2007, the Sydney government initiated a Hawkesbury-Nepean flood mitigation strategy involving building a high bypass bridge above the floodplain between Windsor and Mulgrave, costing $120 million, with its deck at a level equivalent to 17 metres at the Windsor gauge.  The bridge is intended to make it possible to get the potentially trapped people of Windsor and surrounding areas, approximately 90,000 currently,  to safety in the face of a severe flooding event.

In May 2017, the Sydney government then released its Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy – ‘Resilient Valley, Resilient Communities.’

The strategy is designed specifically for the valley as the most flood-prone region in the state of New Spouth Wales.  It is a long-term plan to minimise significant risks to life and livelihoods; damage to urban and rural property; and, the major dislocation of economic activity from rapid, deep flooding.

After four years’ investigation, it recommended that raising Warragamba Dam by around 14 metres would be the best (cheapest) option to reduce the risks to life, property and community assets posed by floodwaters from the extensive Warragamba reservoir.  Water NSW (recently renamed from Sydney Water) is the government agency that operates Warragamba Dam.  It is charged to prepare a business case to raise the dam wall.

In June 2016 the then New South Wales Premier Mike Baird announced the Sydney government’s strategy to reduce the very significant flood risk in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.   

On 26th Oct 2018, the NSW the Berejiklian government passed its Water NSW Amendment (Warragamba Dam) Bill 2018, to amend the Water NSW Act 2014 to make provision with respect to the temporary inundation of national park land resulting from the raising of the wall of Warragamba Dam and the operation of the dam for downstream flood mitigation purposes.

The government has persisted with overstating and deliberately scaremongering the flood risk to the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley’s community and economy.

The option of constructing a large-scale regional road package is estimated to costing many billions combined with significant development restrictions would be the only alternative to the Warragamba Dam raising and would not be as effective.     This is in comparison to the estimated $690 million—in 2015 dollars—for the Warragamba Dam raising proposal. 

Despite the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley being a floodplain, the govermnent has pushed ahead with selling off and subdividing the floodplain with housng over-development as part of its Greater Sydney Region Plan and the Western City District Plan.  The Sydney government will consider the business case for the dam raising in 2020, subject to the success of the environmental and planning approvals.  Construction of the raised dam will take approximately four years to complete.

 

Well-founded opposition to bedamned dam raising obsession

 

Blue Mountains Labor MP Trish Doyle spoke against the bill in Sydney Parliament:

“I do not buy the line that raising the dam wall will mitigate flood risk in real terms for people living in the Hawkesbury region right now. All that it will do is justify a huge amount of new property development on land that should be left well enough alone. There are alternatives to dam wall raising, which this government has refused to consider implementing.” she said.   “In the first place, the government could reduce the maximum allowable limit in Warragamba to provide overflow capacity during times of sustained rainfall and inflows to the Warragamba catchment area. This would require the supplementation of that lost water with the mothballed desalination plant that this government has allowed to fall into disrepair.”

Environmental groups, traditional owners, the Greens and Labor have roundly condemned the passing of legislation to allow flooding of Blue Mountains National Park upstream of Warragamba Dam.   Others talk of threatened species such as the Camden white gum put at risk, as well as food sources and habitat for the Regent honeyeater; a rare bird under threat of extinction.  Gundungurra woman Taylor Clarke explains their creation story will be impacted, as sacred sites will be flooded if the proposal goes ahead.

The NSW Greens have warned of a ‘Franklin Dam’ like campaign.

Greens Urban Water spokesman Justin Field said:   “This will be Sydney’s ‘Franklin’ campaign to save the world heritage listed Blue Mountains and wild rivers like the Kowmung (pictured above); the irreplaceable Aboriginal heritage in the river valleys and the threatened and endangered species that rely on the area.  “Make no mistake, even a temporary inundation of these hugely important, beautiful and sacred areas means the long-term destruction of its environmental and heritage values.  There is little doubt the government will have a serious fight on its hands if it pushes ahead with the proposal,” he said.

 

Secret documents about Dam Raising agenda

 

The Colong Foundation for Wilderness Inc. through its ‘Give a Dam‘ campaign made freedom of information requests for NSW Government documents relating to the dam and the flood plain. They also applied for documents under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation act which revealed there would be “significant impacts” on threatened species in the Mountains, according to the federal environment department.

The secret documents have revealed that the Sydney government did not prioritise “major regional road evacuation options” in a recent flood strategy for the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley, and that federal environmental experts now believe raising the wall will have “extensive and significant impacts” on Blue Mountains threatened species.

Colong’s campaigner Mr Harry Burkitt has said:  “These previously confidential government documents (from May 2018) reveal the the Sydney government plan to place an additional 134,000 people at risk on western Sydney floodplains by not investing in much-needed flood evacuation infrastructure.  The government is fixated on raising Warragamba Dam to justify the over development of western Sydney floodplains. There has not been a single flood expert in Australia who has advocated not constructing additional flood evacuation roads in the valley. The government is also ignoring clear SES advice that additional flood evacuation routes are needed.”

Associate Professor Jamie Pittock of the Australian National University said it appeared “none of the additional benefits of improved evacuation routes have been considered in the NSW Government’s flood strategy”.

In explaining why there were no major regional road options for the flood strategy the NSW Government’s document Resilient Valley, Resilient Communities Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy of May 2017 said road option packages were not found to be as effective as reducing risk to life as the dam-raising options. However road evacuation initiatives are currently being implemented to reduce risk during flood evacuation events.

Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle said the information “just proves what Labor has been saying all along – the Liberal Government is using flood mitigation as a smokescreen to justify raising the dam wall and they will let property developers run wild.”

Minister for Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, has been scaremongering positing that Climate Change could cause a 26 metre high “a catastrophic flood” in the fast-growing part of the city, which he is accelerating.

Yet the latest information uncovered by Colong and Give a Dam shows federal environment department advisors believe that the increase “is likely to have extensive and significant impacts on listed threatened species and communities and world and national heritage values of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area”.  Mr Burkitt said it’s “compelling evidence for the Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price to refuse the dam proposal under federal environmental law … it should be shelved immediately”.

NSW Nature Conservation Council CEO Kate Smolski said the federal government has a responsibility to protect areas of national environmental significance, like the Blue Mountains.  “Time and again it has handed assessment of major projects to the Berejiklian government, which has a record of putting development ahead of the environment. Putting the world heritage listing of an iconic site like the Blue Mountains at risk is unacceptable,” she said.

 

Further Reading:

 

[1]  Warragamba Dam Raising Proposal  (NSW Government – Sydney Water, Feb 2018), >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Warragamba-Dam-Raising-Proposal-Sydney-Water-February-2018.pdf.   Source: ^https://www.waternsw.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/130499/FAQS_February2018.pdf

 

[2]  Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy – FAQ  (NSW Government Sep 2018), Document:  >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hawkesbury-Nepean-Valley-Flood-Risk-Management-Strategy-–-FAQ-NSW-Government-Sep-2018.pdf.  Source:  ^http://www.infrastructure.nsw.gov.au/media/1723/warragamba-dam-raising.pdf

 

[3]  Hawkesbury-Nepean Flood Plan  (NSW Government – State Emergency Service, Sept 2015), Document: >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hawkesbury-Nepean-Flood-Plan-NSW-Government-Sept-2015.pdf.  Source: ^https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/media/1627/plan-hawkesbury-nepean-flood-plan-sept-2015-endorsed.pdf

 

[4]  Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy – FAQ   (NSW Government, Sep 2018), ^http://insw.com/media/1464/hawkesbury-nepean-flood-strategy-faqs-november-2017.pdf.  Source:  ^http://insw.com/media/1464/hawkesbury-nepean-flood-strategy-faqs-november-2017.pdf

 

[5]   ‘Give a Dam‘ Protest Campaign, ^https://www.giveadam.org.au/about

 

[6]  Kowmung River Kanangra-Boyd National Park Wild River Assessment  (Parks and Wildlife Division, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, June 2005, Document: >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Kowmung-River-Wild-River-Assessment-NPWS-June-2005.pdf.   Source: ^https://www.bluemountains.org.au/documents/gbmwha/kowmungwra08366.pdf

 

[7]   ‘Council opposes raising Warragamba Dam wall‘, Blue Mountains Council, 20190131.  Source: ^https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/council-opposes-raising-warragamba-dam-wall

 

[8]  ‘Flooding 4000 hectares of National Park at Warragamba Dam won’t save Sydney from floods, says professor‘,  20181012, by Dominica Sanda, in The Land newspaper, (Australian National University Associate Professor Jamie Pittock claims the plan won’t make nearby residents safer and instead pointed to alternative options).  Source: ^https://www.theland.com.au/story/5696040/flaws-in-nsw-dam-wall-plan-expert/

 

[9]   ‘Water limits hit Sydney again‘, 20190528, by Andrew Clennell, NSW Political Editor, The Australian newspaper. Source: >https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/water-limits-hit-capital-again/news-story/e87f52de8cbe2315e8ad064b8d92c1d6

 

[10]   Water NSW Amendment (Warragamba Dam) Bill 2018 (introduced into NSW Parliament by National Party’s  Paul Toole 20181017 into the lower house, then by Nationals Niall Blair MLC in the upepr house 20180918).  Document:  ^https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Water-NSW-Amendment-Warragamba-Dam-Bill-2018.pdf.  Source:  >https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bill/files/3553/Passed%20by%20both%20Houses.pdf

 

Bushfire Scenario Was Not Rocket Science

 

On Sunday 18th March 2018, the weather in Bega and nearby coastal Tathra was forecast to be a very hot 38 degrees Celsius, low humidity and high westerly gusting winds.  So a Total Fire Ban was appropriately declared the afternoon prior by New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons.  The Fire Danger Rating was set locally to just “High”.

Around midday a fire started on or near the rural property at 580 Reedy Swamp Road, situated about 8km SE of Bega on the western edge of the Tanja State Forest, with the outskirts of Tathra situated on the eastern edge just 4km downwind. 

When will the ignition source be published so devastated Tathrans learn the truth?

It was a simple fire in bushfire terms.  It started adjacent and upwind of state forest bushland in hot windy conditions and kept going in the same direction as the wind blew it until the wind dropped.  It was wholly predicable, not rocket science.  So the circumstances are indeed suspicious, but we expect a cronyistic cover up.

The nearest bushfire brigade is the Tarraganda Fire Shed on Tarraganda Lane about 6km NW of the ignition site, but government expects local volunteers to respond on standby, under-resourced to defend their community last minute with no financial compensation. 

Four kilometres east is the outskirts of Tathra along Thompson Drive across the Bega River.  This is locally referred to as the Tathra River Estate – a Bega Council approved satellite suburb invading remnant native habitat.

 

The Chronically Avoided Questions

 

1. There was no lightning, so what was the ignition source on this day of declared Total Fire Ban?
2. How long did it take the RFS to discover the fire after its estimated ignition time?
   
3. How did the RFS learn about the ignition? Proactive real-time geo-stationary low-orbit satellite with infrared camera or just a reactive public call to ‘000’?
   
4. How long did it take the RFS to arrive on site to suppress the fire?  We’re talking mum and dad volunteers here, apparently arriving on the fire ground at 12:43pm to do squat.
   
5. What is the point of having fire trails throughout the Tanja State Forest if when there is a bushfire emergency, they are too dangerous to use?
6. When did the RFS realise that the gusty winds would spot embers over the Bega River and impact Tathra?  When the embers spotted over the river?
7. What bushfire preparations and asset protection zones had been in place for Tathra, if any?
8. Given that Tathra was obviously bushfire prone, which homes were Bushfire Attack Level assessed and compliant?
9. Where was the RFS Erickson S-64 Air-Crane purpose designed helicopter Elvis with its 9,500 litre water dumping capacity?
   
10. Where was the RFS C-130 Thor with its 44,000 litre water dumping capacity?  It cruises at 540kph, so from its base at Richmond it could have been deployed and effective over the active fire edge imminently set to impact  Tathra within an hour – 360km as the crow flies! – if they were military standard professional.

The under-resourced pre-1939 volunteer model for the bushfire fighting is a repeated failure

 

Another Promised Wildlife Sanctuary Goes Up In Smoke

 

So the fire was left to burn into the Tanja State Forest because, according to the RFS cultural scarce resource mindset, it was not immediately threatening property.  She’ll be right.  A bit of unauthorised hazard reduction wouldn’t go astray.  What habitat?

The fire was only incinerating the flora reserve which provides habitat for one of the last Koalas communities along the Sapphire Coast.  The RFS dubbed the fire the Reedy Swamp Fire or the Tarraganda Fire.  Residents were only advised to “Watch and Act”, whatever that means.

Then mid-afternoon the wind picked up as per the usual diurnal wind variation profile.  So with 38 degrees Celsius and 30 kph plus nor-westerly winds, the fire raced out of control through dense bushland toward the western outskirts of Tathra on the coast.  At no time did the fire front change direction.  It was heading towards Tathra from the outset.

Incident logs from Sunday show Fire and Rescue NSW, a state government agency, offered additional emergency brigades and assistance at 12:34pm in response to a flood of Triple Zero calls from the area.  Those offers were declined before the agency attempted to offer more crews again at 12.58pm – again being rejected.

RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said while the fire was burning in remote mountainous terrain, “it would have been dangerous to have [Fire NSW] there”.

The purpose of fire trails?  Habitat reduction.

 

Rural Firefighting Dysfunction

 

She’ll be right.   It was only at 3.40pm that authorities from the Rural Fire Service did request extra help, issuing a priority request for all available assistance, as the fire front rapidly approached Tathra.

Shortly after 2.30pm the bushfire intensified as winds picked up. By 4pm the fire had hit Tathra and NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers warned residents it was too late to leave. 

But it wasn’t the 7km bushfire front misreported by the media.  The early spread of the bushfire started at around 500m wide and then spread to about a 1500m wide front, spotting ahead as it was fanned by the gusty WNW winds.  The bushfire front tracked from the ignition near Reedy Swamp downwind 7 km toward Tathra Head at the coast.  The only thing seriously stopping the bushfire was the weather or the sea. 

RFS deputy fire commissioner Rob Rogers said the bushfire quickly got out of control after it started yesterday afternoon.  “It jumped very quickly to a place called Thompson Drive and that was where the first home was impacted and it just really quickly ran then into the main part of the town,” he said.

By 4:38 pm the RFS was reporting: “EMERGENCY WARNING – Reedy Swamp fire (Bega LGA) – Fire impacting on #Tathra. Seek shelter. It is too late to leave.”

What is the point of having a Catastrophic rating if it isn’t used?

Deputy Commissioner Rogers said dealing with nature was not always “an exact science”.  “There has been dozens of hazard-reduction activities in that area,” he said. “There was one that was only two or three years’ old and the fire went straight through that burn as well.

This time 65 homes, 35 cabins and caravans destroyed, and dozens more damaged.  Only last January the Tathra Launderette caught fire and destroyed the premises as well as the adjoining Bliss Stylists hairdresser and Little Bottler Tathra Cellars.

But criticism is taboo because the government sends in volunteers, who are automatically beyond reproach.  The politicians are very quick to remind us at every bushfire aftermath.

 

Different Fire, Same Incompetence

 

The RFS in hindsight are reporting it as “catastrophic” and “a perfect storm”.  It’s frankly a bit late Shane Fitzsimmons and are they now furiously shredding their communication records? 

“It will never be the same again,” said Renata Boulter, a Tathra resident of 26 years.

Trust government’s used and abused volunteer force with your livelihood?

The insurance damage bill will be in the hundreds of millions, again, and that ignores the human, livestock and wildlife cost ignored by a sound bite media.  Ina few weeks the ghoulish media filming amongst the ruins in their shiny hi-vis wear will have packed up and moved on.

It’s another Dunalley (Forcett bushfire) (2013), another Yarloop (2016), another Mundaring (2018), another Marysville (2009), Canberra (2003), Cockatoo (1983), Anglesea (1983), Hobart (1967), Leura (1957).  On each occasion, the bushfire had been not threatening houses and so wrongly left to burn in some cases for days, then the wind picked up in the afternoon as it usually does and it was all too late. 

And the lawyers will no doubt be getting in for their pound of flesh, just like Maurice Blackburn profited $100 million in fees out of the victims of Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.  Tathra victims would be well advised to read up on Garry Angus, Kinglake victim, who suffered $4.2 million in economic losses.  But after six years trustful waiting, Maurice Blackburn offered him a compensation cheque for $120,000.  He sent it back to them in disgust.  The lawyers also exposed the victims compensation to a $20 million tax liability – so the government to a cut from the victims compensation as well. 

“The whole thing was flawed right from day one.  The $494m (for Kilmore East-Kinglake victims) that they settled­ on was never going to be enough to help people.  It needed to be three times that amount.”

(Read Postscript below).

 

Disaster Waiting to Happen..again

 

The western outskirts of Tathra, known as Tathra River Estate, bore the brunt of the bushfire.  It was subdivided and developed and built out from 2013.   The NSW Government Department of Planning and Infrastructure and the Bega Council happily approved the ‘Planning Report: State Environmental Planning Policy No. 71 (Coastal Protection) Master Plan: Tathra River Estate, dated June 2012. 

Concerns over the current inadequacies of bushfire access was raised during submissions, as the well as the cumulative impact of additional dwellings and the need for emergency access in the event of a bushfire.  

Many of the residential houses decimated by the fire were built between the 1960s and 1980s, in cheap and nasty asbestos.  No bushfire tolerance.  She’ll be right.

The provision of Asset Protection Zones, connection to the fire trail network and emergency access around the edge of the development apparently addressed many of the concerns.  It was then up to Bega Council “to consider other matters in a bushfire emergency strategy.”  What did Bega Council do or not do?  We suspect cronyistic developer corruption.

The NSW RFS raised no objection to the Master Plan.  Yesterday, Tathra River Estate (Thompson’s Drive or Estate) as well as similarly recently approved housing subdivisions extending into the native bushland such as Wildlife Drive and Sanctuary Place, bore the bushfire frontal attack.  

It’s called ‘Wildlife Drive’ for a reason. 

The residential development encroaches upon Tanja State Forest – established in 2017 to protect wildlife

 

There is shared culpability here, and how did they get home and contents insurance?

Tathra River Estate/Thompson’s Estate (bottom right of image) – juxtaposed next to Tanja State Forest

(This is an old image – more development has been allowed since)

It costs $20,000 a day to keep the Elvis air crane on stand-by and an additional $11,000 a day to operate.  This extrapolates to $11 million a year to have Elvis ready and able to seriously suppress bushfires.   Sounds like a lot of money but the economic loss and emotional cost besetting Tathra residents?  

In 2015, the NSW Rural Fire Service unveiled its latest fire fighting weapons, including a monstrous-sized former RAAF C-130 Hercules converhuman ted water-bombing tanker capable of dropping up to 44,000 litres of water on any bushfire any time.   It costs a bomb, but what cost Australian livelihoods?

The official economic cost of the Dunalley (Forcett) bushfire was $100 million, the Yarloop bushfire $45 million, Marysville $300 million and Canberra $300 million.

Melbourne University’s follow up study into the human aftermath of Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires reported a quarter of survivors still experiencing serious mental health problems six years later, including affected children.  (Read report below under Further Reading’)

“The reality of the disaster and its aftermath formed the ongoing backdrop of children’s daily lives. Children from a very young age through to older youth experienced anxieties and upheavals at home, in school, in sport, in friendship groups and in the community.

“She had so much trouble going back to school.  She couldn’t think, concentrate at all.  Everything seemed irrelevant that she was doing and they tried so hard.  They were very helpful but she had a lot of trouble with just fitting in with the kids that she knew before there.  They weren’t understanding her and she just felt that all their problems were very trivial.”

(Parent)

Photo by Ngaire Walhout

 

Lessons To Be Blocked by Cronyism..again

 

Of course there will be another government enquiry, so the government is seen to given a damn.   There are the same number of government enquiries as there have been bushfire tragedies since the Black Friday back in 1939.  It concluded – “Mistakes We’re Made”, and then the report gets filed and bushfire fighting returns to business as usual and set to repeat history.

The 1939 Black Friday fires in Victoria burned almost two million hectares, claimed 71 lives and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, including entire townships. In adjusted terms, these fires cost some $750 million.

On 1983 Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria and South Australia claimed 75 lives, more than 2,000 homes and over 400,000 hectares of country. Total property losses were estimated to be over $400 million.   Between 1967 and 1999, bushfires in Australia resulted in 223 deaths and 4,185 injuries, and a total economic cost of more than $2.5 billion.   Victoria’s Black Saturday in 2009 cost $4.4 billion and 173 lives.

For Tathra yesterday, it could and should have been responsible, militarily heroic, and quite beautiful – professional fire suppression like Sydney gets, where emergency professionals have proper resources at their disposal, are properly remunerated, and so residents entrust the firies to save their homes and family.

Where was it parked this time?

 

In 2017 the NSW Government delivered a $4.5 BILLION surplus, so they are not exactly struggling. 

Tathra is a microcosm of Victoria’s bush-enclosed Mornington Peninsula coastal residence west of Rosebud; timber and fibro shacks enveloped in a tinder dry tea-tree forest – in a bushfire Forest Fire Danger Index scary scenario – another catastrophic crematorium waiting to happen.

What does the land manager National Parks Service say about Tanja State Forest?   It is part of the Murrah Flora Reserves which encompasses 4 areas covering nearly 12,000 hectares and include Murrah, Mumbulla, Bermagui and Tanja flora reserves along the New South Wales Sapphire Coast.   The Murrah Flora Reserves were created in March 2016 and are significant to the local Aboriginal Yuin People who own neighbouring Biamanga National Park. They also provide an important conservation role, as habitat for the last significant koala population on the NSW South Coast and other threatened species, such as the long-nosed potoroo, yellow-bellied glider and the powerful owl.

Of course it was “overgrown”. It’s called wildlife habitat.  And firies, it’s scarce and valuable and worth defending.  It is not expendable.  yet another 1200 hectares of native habitat set aside for supposed sanctuary has been incinerated.  It was a defacto RFS hazard reduction again gone wrong.

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service:

“The national and state forests within the Sapphire Coast are home to some of the most iconic views and breathtaking landscapes in Australia.   The South Coast’s outstanding national park system offers visitors a wide choice of opportunities to discover spectacular landscapes, from dense forests to quiet, solitary beaches; from cool, silent rainforests to colourful, alpine wilderness wildflowers. The national parks a diversity of unspoiled habitats and ecosystems which offer refuge to unique, and often ancient, plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.”

Hypocrites!

Koala in the Murrah Flora Reserve, probably incinerated. Photo by David Gallan. 

Source:  Far South Coast Conservation Management Network

^http://www.fsccmn.com/?p=2151

 

Footnotes

 

‘Angry survivor returns Black Saturday payout to ‘only winner’, Maurice Blackburn‘, 20170501, by Reporter Pia Akerman published in The Australian Newspaper, ^https://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/bushfires/angry-survivor-returns-black-saturday-payout-to-only-winner-maurice-blackburn/news-story/ea9fe705b2616852235851e62424adea.

“I’ve lost the value of my business, I’ve lost everything.”

Garry Angus and Anne Salmon on a block they own outside Kinglake.   Photo by Stuart McEvoy

‘As cheques from the record-breaking Black Saturday class ­actions finally began flowing to bushfire survivors in December, many of the victims welcomed the payments as the end of another chapter in their emotional and financi­al recovery.

Not Garry Angus. He, with an unquantified number of the thousands of claimants who joined the lawsuits, remained angry about Maurice Blackburn’s handling of the cases.    The accountant from Pheasant Creek, just outside Kinglake, decided to put his money where his mouth is and sent back his cheque for $120,000.

Now he is launching a website for fellow survivors to register their complaints about Maurice Blackburn’s administration of the settlement scheme.   He hopes support from other aggrieved claimants will bolster his bid for a judicial review of the $494 million Kilmore East-Kinglake settlement and the $300m settlement for the Murrindindi-Marysville fire, announced in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

“The only winners out of this have been Maurice Blackburn,” Mr Angus said. “The whole thing was flawed right from day one.  The $494m (for Kilmore East-Kinglake victims) that they settled­ on was never going to be enough to help people.  It needed to be three times that amount.”

Like a number of other bushfire survivors who have spoken publicly, Mr Angus is angry at the fees Maurice Blackburn has stripped from the settlements — more than $100m — and the Australian Taxation Office’s claim that the firm has acted unusually to expose the funds to a tax ­liability of about $20m.   He is also furious at how his case was personally handled, claiming that the firm was lax in communicating with him, and only junior staff dealt with him (even misspelling his name on his formal assessment notice).

Before the February 2009 bushfires, Mr Angus owned and managed an accounting firm that employed eight people. He owned four investment properties around the Kinglake area, losing­ two completely to the blaze. 

He brought a 2000-page tome of his financial records with him to his meeting with assessor Neil Rattray, and says the barrister was clearly overwhelmed and ­admitted he might not be the best person to handle this complex case.

Mr Angus’s claim for $4.2m in losses — largely based on future earnings from his firm, which he closed while struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder in the fires’ aftermath — was dismissed by Mr Rattray.   The barrister did not accept he would suffer from any future loss of earnings or earning capacity, arguing that his business had been struggling and there was “no real suggestion” the company would be successful in the future.

In a submission to Supreme Court judge Jack Forrest, who oversees the Kilmore East settlement scheme’s administration, Mr Angus has accused Maurice Blackburn of failing in its duty of care, and asked for an independent review.

Maurice Blackburn has stood by the assessment, saying Mr Angus missed his chance to formally request a review (for which the firm charges $3800 if the finding is against the claimant).

“Given Mr Angus never objected­ or asked for a review during­ the assessment process, it’s an odd protest to now hand back a substantial cheque because of a desire to obtain more money,” a spokesman said.

Mr Rattray told The Australian he could not comment on Mr Angus’s claims, but in the reasons for his assessment, he noted that Mr Angus had treatment for ­depression and panic attacks ­before the bushfires. Since the fires, he has been suicidal­ at times, needing extensive­ medical ­treatment and occasional ­hospitalisation.

“It has psychologically scarred me for the rest of my life,” Mr Angus said. “I’ve lost the value of my business, I’ve lost everything.’’

 

Further Reading:

.

[1]   ‘Bushfire emergency, houses destroyed in Bega, Tathra area‘ 20180319, by Ben Smyth, in The Land, ^http://www.theland.com.au/story/5290860/bushfire-emergency-houses-destroyed-in-bega-tathra-area/

.

[2]   Murrah Flora Reserves Draft Working Plan 2017, by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and Forestry Corporation (NSW Government), ^http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications-search/murrah-flora-reserves-draft-working-plan

.

[3]  Submission on Murrah Flora Reserves Draft Working Plan, 20180131, by South East Conservation Alliance Inc. ^www.serca.org.au/submissions/2018/thompson1.pdf

 

[4]   Tathra River Estate DOP Assessment Report 2012 >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Tathra-River-Estate-DOP-Assessment-Report-2012.pdf

.

[5]   ‘Tasmania’s Forcett Fire 2013 – 16 questions‘, 20130203, by The Habitat Advocate, >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/?p=21167

.

[6]   ‘Culpable Negligence of Tasmanian Burn Offs‘, 20130105, by The Habitat Advocate, >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/?p=20848

.

[7]   2013 Tasmanian Bushfires Inquiry Full Report, Vol. 1, >www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf…/1.Tasmanian_Bushfires_Inquiry_Report.pdf

.

[8]   Beyond Bushfires: Community Resilience and Recovery, Final Report 2016, by the University of Melbourne, ^http://beyondbushfires.org.au, >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Beyond-Bushfires-Final-Report-2016.pdf

.

[9]   Threats from Bushfire, article series by The Habitat Advocate, >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/?page_id=6954

.

Hikers to the Kosciuszko National Park were presumed to have inadvertently introduced seeds of Orange Hawkweed (also Mouse-Ear Hawkweed) (Hieracium aurantiacum), an evasive and noxious weed that has devastated ecology in New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.

 

Contaminated Hiker Mud

Hikers from around Australia and overseas can readily and inadvertently cause the spread of invasive plant species embedded in the mud and moisture on the soles of their boots and kit.  

Australia’s biosecurity inspections invariably occur during customs checks of arrivals at international airports to quarrantine pest and diseases, and domestically the explicit warnings and occasional checks for fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and Grape phylloxera (Daktulsphaira vitifoliae).   But Australia has no monitoring of hike mud.   Yet hiker mud can carry microscopic organisms – pests, weeds and disease-causing pathogens – that have the potential to devastate Australia’s natural environment.   

Introduced invasive species can quickly contaminate and spread across a prestine ecological community because there is no natural resistence or predators agaist alien species.  A minute amount of moisture or mud with contaminants on a hiking boot, gaiter, raincoat or tent peg can lead to infestation in the wild.

For instance, the African Chytrid amphibian fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) poses a threat to Australia’s native frog species including Australia’s critically endangered Southern Corroboree Frog and the Stuttering Frog.   The alien fungus has been detected at some places in Tasmania.  It arrived into Australia in the early 1990s.

Another threat is the pathogen called phytophthora, which attacks the roots of plants and can destroy entire vegetation communities. It too is already present in Tasmania.

 

Orange Hawkweed Infestation

The noxious weed Orange Hawkweed from southern Europe is believed to have been first introduced to Tasmania as a garden plant early in the 20th Century.

The weed dispersal and infestation is concentrated in Tasmania on the west coast around the mining towns of Queenstown, Gormanston and Zeehan and along the Lyell Highway which passes through the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, notably downwind from the island’s prevailing westerly winds.    

However, Orange Hawkweed was not recorded in mainland Australia until much later.  In ‘Australian Vegetation’ (Keith 2017, 217), “Orange Hawkweed (Pilosella aurantiacum, syn. Hieracium)…was introduced to the Falls Creek ski resort village in Victoria (at 1600m) as a garden groundcover plant (probably in the 1980s).   Orange hawkweed is prone to invade disturbed soil areas (eg roadsides, drains, residential areas), that is, areas of land-use development in which the dug up soil is left exposed to the sun with no vegetation rehabilitation.    Roadmaking, road widening, sewage trenching and housing construction all typically have no interest in vegetation rehabilitation after they’ve done their work.

 

Horticultural Industry Weeds

So how did it get from Tasmania to Falls Creek?  A commercial nursery planting out the weed at one of the ski resorts?  Which one? 

How and why did Australia Quarantine (Biosecurity) let Orange Hawkweed into Australia?  

Surely the cost of Orange Hawkweed eradication ought to be invoiced to the Falls Creek resort village owners for them to recoup from the horticulturalist and recover costs from the wealthy ski tourist holiday makers by way of some surcharge or levy.  Cause befits the massive clean up!

Orange Hawkweed spread to adjoining sub-alpine vegetation (Morgan 2000) , and new populations have been detected at Mount Buller and around Mount Jagungal in NSW (at 2060m) in Kosciuszko National Park. ”

So how did Orange Hawkweed spread from Falls Creek 100km NE to Mount Jagungal as the crow flies?  Contaminated hikers boots?  Cross-country skiers?

“Exotic plants and pathogens introduced into Australia have had significant impacts on species, vegetation communities and on ecological processes. There are more than 2700 exotic plant species that have become ‘naturalised’ within Australia and of those, 250 are considered problematic.   The sources of the introduction have shifted from Europe, Australasia and North America to South America more recently, with the vast majority of introductions associated with the horticultural industry.” (Keith 2017, 207)  [Refer to note in Further Reading below].

The seeds cast by the SW prevailing wind is most likely.  Orange hawkweed spreads by runners over short distances and by seed carried by the wind over larger areas.  The winds in the Victorian alps can be galeforce.  The Victorian Government ignored the scientific advice from the 1990s and subsequent and annual germination and dispersal of Orange Hawkweed seed by strong winds toward the north east tundra grasslands were predicted and happened. 

Now the delayed cost of pest eradication is a hundred fold.

It is well documentated that Hawkweeds are extremely invasive overseas; ten species have already become weed problems in New Zealand and several hundred species are known worldwide.

In alpine areas Orange Hawkweed out competes native grasses and disturbs local tundra ecosystems, by infilling spaces between native grass tussocks so denying seed regeneration of the native species.  Orange hawkweed is on the Alert List for Environmental Weeds, a list of 28 non-native plants that threaten biodiversity and cause other environmental damage. 

Orange hawkweed is a potential threat in the alpine country and the temperate tablelands of eastern Australia.   It has become a noxious weed in Kosciuszko National Park, threatening Australian native plants and biodiversity. The orange hawkweed control programme by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service involves volunteers surveying infestation sites in the park, and then removing flowering heads and applying herbicides to reduce density and help to prevent spread.

Orange Hawkweed – note the furry leaves!

Source:  ^http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/conservation-programs/orange-hawkweed-control-program

 

Further Reading:

 

[1]  ‘Sniffer spaniels get the doggone weeds‘, 20171007, radio programme ‘Off Track’ hosted by Ann Jones on ABC Radio National. (Listen to the audio story on ABC Radio National’s Off Track programme to learn about what the National Parks Service is doing to tackle the threat). Source: ^Sniffer spaniels get the doggone weeds on Off Track

 

[2]  ‘Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) – Weed Management Guide‘, 2003, (website), by CRC for Australian Weed Management and the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage.  Document: >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Orange-hawkweed-Hieracium-aurantiacum-Weed-Management-Guide-Australian-Government-2003.pdf.  Source: ^https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/weeds/publications/guidelines/alert/pubs/h-aurantiacum.pdf

 

[3]  ‘Orange hawkweed: A cautionary tale in Alpine Conservation‘, 20150312, Wild Magazine,  Source:  ^https://wild.com.au/people/opinion/orange-hawkweed-cautionary-tale/

 

[4]  ‘A Dispersal Constrained habitat for Hawkweed on Mt Bogong‘, by the Victorian Government – Parks Victoria (department), October 2007, Document: >A Dispersal Constrained habitat for Hawkweed on Mt Bogong (Parks Victoria 2007).   Source: ^https://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/314502/19_2070.pdf

 

[5]  ‘Hawkweed (Invasive Species)‘, (website), by the Tasmanian Government-Department of Primary Industries, Parks Water and Environment (etc), ^https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/invasive-species/weeds/weeds-index/declared-weeds-index/hawkweed

 

[6]  ‘Plants Banned from Sale in South Australia – List‘, July 2017.  Document: >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Plants-Banned-from-Sale-in-SA-List-July-2017.pdf.  Source:  ^https://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/242715/Plants_banned_from_sale_in_SA_list_-_July_2017.pdf

 

[7]  ‘Improved Detection and Eradication of Hawkweed‘ Oct 2011,  Document:  >https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Improved-Detection-and-Eradication-of-Hawkweed-Oct-2011.pdf.  Source:  ^https://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/11-058.pdf

 

[8]   ‘Australian Vegetation‘, 2017, 3ed, by David A. Keith ed., authors Michelle R. Leishman, Rachael V. Gallagher, Jane A. Catford, Tony Grice, John W. Morgan, and Samantha Setterfield, of University of New South Wales, Ch. 9.2.3.4 ‘Invasive Plants and Pathogens in Australia – Alpine Zone‘, p.217, published by Cambridge University Press.

 

Lynda loved Nature

Lynda Jacqueline lived by herself

In a small flat with a small garden bed

No electricity

Lynda was never poor wearing her straw trilby

Lynda’s tradition was young, young gorgeous young men

Who would steal a kiss

Lynda took life’s chances

Lynda would smile a sad smile

Lynda planted a sampling in her garden bed

Her peace with Nature

But Housing Commission killed it

Lynda was saddened

Lynda tried for wonderful tomorrows

This winter Lynda took a cold bath and never woke up.

 

 

This is a dedication to Lynda Jacqueline of Katoomba who passed away Friday 18th August 2017, aged 50.

The entire Sydney basin is currently blanketed by thick smoke haze as this photo by Nick Moir in the Sydney Morning Herald today shows.   The source of the smoke is trees burning in native bushland south and west of Sydney, this time specifically in at Ripple Creek near Warragamba Dam and the Bargo State Conservation Area south of Picton.

“Bargo State Conservation Area is a great place in NSW Southern Highlands for birdwatching, hiking, and swimming at Little River or Moore Creek.”

But not at this moment, it has been burned out.

The government-tasked arsonists call it “hazard reduction”, because they see native forest only as a hazard.    So in the off season, that is outside the “bushfire season, government arsonists set fire to forest habitat to justify their existence.  They choose a time when the weather is calm and there is a cold air inversion layer so that the smoke is trapped at ground level and lingers around longer.

This year, because there hasn’t been much rain over winter, the Rural Fire Starters (RFS) and their Victorian counterparts the Country Fire Arsonists (CFA) plan to commence their Bushfire Season early.

Proudly on its Facebook page the RFS boats “almost 100 hazard reduction burns are scheduled to take place in the coming week, weather permitting.”

Why?  

“Hazard reduction burns are part of a planned bush fire fuel reduction designed to protect life and property from intense wildfires. These are important controlled burns which will reduce the risk to people and properties from bush fires.”   And to back up their rationale, the RFS calls on Professor Ross Bradstock of the University of Wollongong to support them.   Not surprisingly, Professor Bradstock believes warm temperatures and low rainfall indicate the state should brace for a “significant” bushfire season.

Professor Ross Bradstock’s self-appointed Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires at the university gets funded out of the RFS annual budget.  Why would he not wish to encourage a fully engaged RFS in the off season and on season?

Such wanton destruction of remnant wildlife habitat doesn’t stop the annual bushfire destruction during the ‘on season’.  It’s just that the naming is different – “hazard reduction” becomes “bushfire”.  In fact most wildfires are caused either by  escaped hazard reductions or over enthusiastic head burning to counter a wildfire front , but the head burn then becomes the wildfire.  Most RFS trucks use petrol to start fires than water to put fire out.  The cultural motto is ‘Burn it before it burns, it’s only bush’.  It is a culture of bush arson.

A full list of planned bush arson was posted on the RFS website covering the state of New South Wales (this list is reproduced at end of this article).

Is it no wonder that Australia leads the world in wildlife extinctions and threatened species? 

Bushfire is a threatening process, more so when it is widespread which is what hazard reduction sets out to achieve.   A threat may be listed as a key threatening process under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 if it adversely affects threatened species, populations or ecological communities, or could cause species, populations or ecological communities to become threatened.  Fire kills wildlife.

Yet there is no independent ecological assessment of target burns, no thought given to ecologically threatened populations of flora and fauna, or to threatened ecological communities, to critical habitats or to endemic species.

In the entire state of New South Wales, the only locations officially declared “critical habitats” are that of Gould’s Petrel out in the distant Tasman Sea, the Little penguin population in in a secluded cove in Sydney’s North Harbour, Mitchell’s Rainforest Snail on tiny Stotts Island Nature Reserve in the Tweed River, and a remote grove of Wollemi Pines in the Blue Mountains, with no current draft recommendations being considered.

In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, with the direction of the custodian, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, over the weekend arson crews set deliberately fire “West of Warragamba Dam” inside the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.  This area is called Kanangra Boyd National Park, an iconic wilderness gem within the World Heritage estate, was deliberately incinerated by the very government authority charged with its care and protection.

We know the real reason why this vast wilderness region was listed as the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Are on 29 November 2000 – a drinking water catchment for an ever growing Sydney.

Kanangra Boyd National Park on a clear day

© Photo by Chris Rouen, ^https://isolateyourself.wordpress.com/tag/kanangra-boyd-national-park/

 

And so yesterday and today the thick smoke from the burnt forests has descended over Sydney.  That strong smoky smell has everyone breathing in dead habitat.

Air quality in parts of Sydney have hit dangerous levels with health alerts for people with lung conditions and asthma.

And it’s as if no-one cares about pollution any more.

 

Toxicology of Smoke Inhalation

 

Wood smoke is harmful when breathed in and prolonged exposure can be carcinogenic.  The airborne smoke particles vary in size from PM₁₀ to PM₂₅, which is a fine particulate matter each with a diameter between 1.0 and 2.5 micrometers, which is between 1% and 3% the diameter of a human hair.  It means that wood smoke can be suspended in air and easily inhaled. 

Wood Smoke emissions typically comprise the poisons carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, methane, dioxin, aldehydes (such as formaldehyde), particulate organic carbon, benzene, toluene, styrene, acid gases, napthalene, mould spores, ash particulate, volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), amongst others. 

These are all a toxic cocktail to humans and animals alike.   Fine particles in the air are able to travel deep into the respiratory tract and cause shortness of breath or worsen pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma. Woodsmoke exposure can depress the immune system and damage the layer of cells in the lungs that protect and cleanse the airways.

People who are exercising or doing an activity that causes them to breathe more rapidly and deeply are at a higher risk for health issues – including the volunteer firefighters sent in to do the damage.   The long term health consequences can be serious and latent.  Children, elderly people, others with pre-existing health conditions such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema are also at a higher risk since they are more susceptible to the harmful effects of smoke inhalation. Long term exposure to air with particles has been associated with increases in risks for cancer, lung disease, and cardiovascular disease. Short term exposure typically only causes throat, eyes and nose irritation.

Carbon monoxide present in wood smoke can cause throbbing headaches, nausea and confusion.   Twenty minutes of active burning may be required to develop sufficient concentrations of CO to reach lethal levels.  But once exposed, 40 percent of those with severe poisonings will have long-term neurological impairment, including cognitive (emotional/behavior) dysfunction, short-term memory effects, and sensory motor (vision) problems.

Mix wood smoke in with exhaust fumes from traffic and industry and the dense smog can be lethal with prolonged exposure, such as currently in Sydney.

Wood smoke exposure’s long-term effects are less clear, and scientists say more study is needed.   Firefighters are susceptible to “camp crud,” colds and viruses that attack immune systems.  Wildfire-smoke exposure to mice has been linked to aggressive drops in blood pressure and may cause hardening of the arteries and development of plaque in the arteries.

Firefighters can wear devices called dosimeters that detect high levels of carbon monoxide.  Compare the safety kit the professionals receive to what the cheap volunteers have to put up with.

Wood heaters have been phased out because of the polluting adverse health effects of wood smoke.  But hazard reduction is wood smoke on steroids; government sanctioned.   Are they trying to kills us?

The RFS and CFA pompously dismiss public smoke inhalation concerns saying “consult your asthma action plan”.  It’s the same cop out as them saying “trigger your bushfire survival plan.”  They seem to presume this relinquishes government’s responsibility another notch.  The first notch being government hiding behind volunteers, thinking by doing so somehow provides government with impunity from its emergency performance accountability and public criticism.  Image if that attitude was used in the real professional emergency services like police and ambulance.   Would we be told “trigger your home defence”, “take the law into your own hands”, and “trigger your first aid kit”? 

Air Quality Index of Sydney today

Source: Beijing based group, Air Quality Index China, ^http://aqicn.org/city/sydney/

 

The following Air Quality Index chart for Bargo shows the heightened air pollution on Monday 14th August 2017, caused predominantly by the government’s hazard reduction activities.  Note the pollutants shown being O₃ (ground level ozone), NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide), SO₂ (sulfur dioxide), and CO (carbon monoxide).

Where are those concerned about greenhouse gas emissions?

There seems to be this culturally higher ideal of mitigating bushfire risk which entails burning forest habitat in case it burns.

 

 

Further Reading:

.

[1]  Wood Smoke Tables and Constituents, ^http://burningissues.org/car-www/science/table2.htm

.

[2]  Hazard Reductions, Rural Fire Service of New South Wales, ^http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/hazard-reductions

..

[3]  ‘Toxicology of Smoke Inhalation‘,  20090801, by Gill Hall, Fire Engineering, America, ^http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-162/issue-8/features/toxicology-of-smoke-inhalation.html

.

[4]  ‘Smoke and Ash Inhalation Related to Wildfires‘, 2012, by Kyla Young,  Geology and Human Health course in the Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, ^https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/smoke_ash.html

.

[5]  ‘Effects of long-term smoke exposure on firefighters unclear‘, 20150905, The Seattle Times, America, ^http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/effects-of-longterm-smoke-exposure-on-firefighters-unclear/

.

[6]  ‘Avoid wood smoke‘, Government of Canada, ^https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/air-quality/indoor-air-contaminants/avoid-wood-smoke.html

Snuggle up to your stolen forest fire this winter

“…excellent quality, excellent service. We only source premium sustainable hardwood firewood (Ironbark and Box).”

Yeah sure you do, because it’s stolen from native forests when nobody’s watching.

Which forest for the restaurant industry?  RFS Hazard Reduction for Firewood profiteering?

 

No permit. No certification.  Any claim of sustainable is just lying advertising.

Legitimate Red Ironbark timber flooring retails for $100 per lineal metre.  So if you’re buying ironbark firewood off the back of a truck $140 a cubic metre, it is surely illegally taken from native forests.  Ever wonder why the ex-crim looking delivery driver only takes cash?

Firewood supplied across Australia is a cash black market run by criminal types.  It’s a winter scam.

 

If the firewood is not certified as plantation timber with an Australian Standard AS4708, then the firewood is likely stolen, which means you are in receipt of stolen goods.

And beware of this label photocopied in black and white

 

So snug up to an ironbark wood fire this winter and know you are part of the deforestation problem driving threatened woodland species into extincting. 

Your grand kids will ask why you were so selfish, when they see there’s none left – just like trying to buy Turpentine flooring these days.

Box Ironbark forest in central Victoria dominated by Red Ironbark (Eucalyptus tricarpa)

© Ian Lunt, ^https://ianluntecology.com/2012/01/20/fire-and-rain-2-water-for-ironbarks/

 

Criminal Loggers Caught

 

Pizzas sponsored by RFS commercial Hazard Reduction on the side?