John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take the opportunity tonight to talk to the House about last month's bushfires that affected the Blue Mountains so drastically as well as part of my electorate of Calare. People may recall seeing and hearing about these fires on the news, but at first hand it was something else. During the height of the fire threat, I visited the control centre in Lithgow and witnessed the tireless efforts of all involved in preventing significant loss of property and, most probably, life. We have a great community in Lithgow, a very close community, and I was incredibly impressed by the efforts of the many people wanting to assist with the fighting of the fires.

Obviously it is now time to rebuild, although not in the electorate of Calare, I am happy to say. There were homes lost there, but there were over 200 lost further east across the mountains, and in excess of 500 square miles of land was burnt out. Damage was done to many sheds, fences and community assets. One business which had a particularly tough time was the iconic Zig Zag Railway, which was hard hit by the bushfire that started at Marrangaroo. I visited the site recently with the volunteers Mark Watson and Mark Langdon and saw firsthand the damage they are facing, which is particularly devastating as they were not far away from relaunching what is really the only major tourist attraction in the area. The damage has ruined any hope the tourist railway had of restarting in the near future. To put the iconic Zig Zag Railway back on track will take a lot of hard work. They will need the help of others to recover from their losses, and they would love to hear from anyone who could help with equipment and heavy machinery.

The last month has been very challenging for regional tourism, which suffered losses of up to $2 million a day during and in the wake of the bushfires. I welcome the contribution from the state government to provide funding to help promote the region. It will help put focus on recovering to previous visitor and visitor expenditure levels of four million visitors and $550 million a year. There is no better way to help than to support tourism and the jobs involved with that. Most of all, the people in Lithgow and the wider region want everyone to know that they are open for business and welcome you. I encourage everyone in the parliament to go there. It is a great area, a wonderful area.

I try to stay out of the road when these things are on. I think too many members of parliament get in the road at these times, but, when I visited, I was incredibly impressed by the way the control centre handled things and the way all the volunteers and the professionals went about their jobs. The Lithgow mayor and the general manager were absolutely fantastic in the way they worked with everybody and talked to the general population. It was quite amazing how people who were told that they had to evacuate put up with it, not knowing whether they should or they should not—but they took the advice and it was extraordinarily well handled.

I must make mention of the fact that the local Plymouth Brethren community took it upon themselves to run the place where the volunteers were fed and where they spent their nights—whatever sleep they got. The Plymouth Brethren kept the place tidy and clean and fed the volunteers. Given that the schools were closed in the Blue Mountains while all this was going on, the Plymouth Brethren took their children to go and do this work at the showground, where the volunteers were all fed and housed. They did a fantastic job. The way everyone acted was as cool as it was in Forbes a couple of years ago during their floods. They are all to be congratulated for what they did.

House adjourned at 20:00