Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the wonderful work of the Busselton SES during the recent bushfire in Wooroloo that started on 1 February north-east of Perth. As we know, it burnt up to 11,000 hectares and destroyed 86 houses and two fire trucks. Our Busselton SES volunteers played a very important part in helping to contain the fire. Busselton SES manager Wayne Credaro leads this great group of volunteers. The team had been training in this field since the start of January and had already been involved in controlling a number of fires in WA. Using the local Bussleton Margaret River Airport facility the SES volunteers mixed and reloaded fire retardant for the water bombers involved in that fire. Busselton is over 270 kilometres from the site of the fire. Of the 40 volunteer SES members, men and women, 12 were selected to be part of the fire-retardant mix and load crew. The team of 12 were split into groups of four to work four-hour shifts. They spent five days working 12-hour shifts from 8 am to 8 pm. At the outbreak of the fire the team were able to mix and reload two water bombers within 15 to 20 minutes. What a great effort. Each plane is loaded with up to 45,000 litres of fire retardant so it's no mean effort. When a third bomber was brought in from interstate the team were able to get all three planes loaded and in the air in 45 minutes—just a fantastic effort. This is the first time that three planes were loaded in this way.

Since January the team has mixed and loaded around 390,000 litres of fire retardant with 60,000 litres currently on hand. That is around 330,000 litres that have been unloaded onto those bushfires in WA since is start of January to help control these fire events. I know that Wayne Credaro is particularly pleased with the response he got from his team, that very well trained team, and is hoping to train more volunteers over the upcoming 12 months. I know he really wants to thank his volunteers. He has enormous gratitude to his volunteers, to the DFES, to the pilots who worked with them and to everyone involved in helping to bring the fire under control. I particularly want to thank Wayne for his leadership and the effort he puts in to the training of our local SES people. I recently met and listened to this group at their headquarters and I heard about their work with the fire, their ongoing training and their ongoing work in various emergencies in the community. I can only say that they provide confidence and support to local people and there is great ongoing gratitude in the community for their efforts, often at a time of great stress and trauma to the individual.