Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the wonderful work of the rural bushfire brigades that are in my electorate, and particularly in the Hawkesbury. The Attorney-General and I had an opportunity to visit the Hawkesbury bushfire brigades in December, and we had the pleasure of touring the control room at Wilberforce. Karen Hodges, the incident control captain and a fire control officer, and Captain Rod Grant, captain of the Yarramundi Rural Bushfire Brigade, took us around and showed us what they were doing. At that time there were fires both in the Hawkesbury and in the Blue Mountains and, over the three-month period from November through to January, they were involved in over 230 incidents of various types, including bush, grass and structural fires and motor vehicle accidents, as well as support for other agencies such as the New South Wales fire brigade. Major incidents during this period included providing assistance to the Blue Mountains brigade during their fire known as the Lawson Long Alley fire. It also included the provision of 20 tankers to assist with strategic back-burning along Bells Line of Road and the Darling Causeway.

Remote area fire teams from Hawkesbury also assisted in the Blue Mountains incident management team. They also worked with the communities of Berambing, Bilpin, Kurrajong Heights, Bowen Mountain and Yarramundi to provide community information meetings. They also undertook strategic planning and preparation for the impact of this fire. There was another fire at Stony Waterhole. This fire started on Tuesday, 21 November last year along an isolated stretch of Putty Road north of Colo Heights, some 75 kilometres north of Windsor. The fire spread quickly under severe weather conditions over the next two days, which resulted in a declaration being made under section 44 of the Rural Fires Act.

Given that the fire was burning in remote and rugged terrain, the management of the fire was difficult. A number of the brigades have been involved at Cumberland, Hornsby, Gosford, Blue Mountains and Victoria, and I will list them here: Bilpin, Blaxlands Ridge, Colo Heights, East Kurrajong, Ebenezer, Freemans Reach, Glossodia, Grose Vale, Grose Wold, Kurrajong, Kurrajong Heights, Lower Macdonald, Lower Portland, Mountain Lagoon, Oakville, St Albans, Tennyson, Upper Colo, Wilberforce and Yarramundi. Of course, I also thank the catering and communication services. I congratulate the volunteers and the teams for all that they do by contributing their time and effort to saving lives and homes and protecting our bushland. If they can stop the fire early then, of course, less bushland is affected.