Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Sunday, earlier this week, there was a catastrophic fire event, probably not seen before in New South Wales. It was a perfect combination of 50 days of unrelenting heat, following a very mild winter and spring, which led to a high fuel load and a danger of fire. And the worst possible thing happened on Sunday, with several fires breaking out. The most northern one in my electorate was at Boggabri, which burnt quite a considerable amount of farmland and several houses. It threatened the town of Boggabri and left one of the firefighters, my good friend the legendary drover Robert Groth, now in the burns unit in a hospital in Sydney, awaiting treatment to his very badly burnt hands.

But probably the fire of most significance is what is known as the Sir Ivan fire, which started at the village of Leadville, near the Golden Highway in the Central West. It is still not extinguished. By the time it had had its initial flurry it had covered 50,000 hectares; it had a perimeter of 200 kilometres; it had destroyed 30-odd homes, including the vast majority of the homes in the tiny village of Uarbry; and it had decimated thousands of head of cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock. It has left some families in that area with nothing more than the clothes on their back. They have lost their homes. They have lost all their records. They have lost their sheds, their machinery, their livestock and their fences. It is going to be very difficult to see how these people can recover.

There have been disaster recovery announcements made. Minister Keenan has been speaking with Minister Grant in New South Wales; that is underway. There are several charitable organisations assisting, including the CWA and New South Wales Farmers. The Mayor of Warrumbungle has set up a relief fund, and I would encourage anyone who has a few dollars to spare to donate. Government relief will do so much, but these people have lost everything.

Finally, I would like to commend the firefighters, the volunteers and the community spirit of these towns, where they are rallying together. They are organising within the community the coordination of fodder, coordination of clothes and coordination of accommodation—all done within that very strong and resilient community. I am very proud to represent such strong and stoic people at their time of most desperate need.