Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

notes that:

(a)   Saturday, 7 February 2026, marks the 17th anniversary of the tragic 2009 Black Saturday bushfires; and

(b)   the recent and ongoing bushfires across Victoria have devastated the state, including the heartbreaking loss of one life, the destruction of homes, farmland, livestock and agricultural livelihoods; and

acknowledges the bravery and tireless dedication of local Country Fire Authority crews, emergency services and volunteers who continue to work under extreme conditions to defend Victorian lives and property, including those who met the call and travelled long distances to help support fire-threatened communities.

Debate ensued.

On this Saturday just gone, 7 February, we recognised the 17th anniversary of the tragic 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. It's a day that I remember vividly and lived through, like so many in my community. It was after a fortnight of a long heatwave that our worst fears eventuated, when fires ripped through parts of our community, killing 173 people, injuring 414 and destroying 2,029 homes. That was the physical damage, but the ongoing trauma and mental anguish lives to this day and will continue to live with all of those, including me, who were impacted.

There were over 400 fires recorded across our state that day. Each one was met with courage by the men and women of the CFA, the SES, Forest Fire Management and so many community members as well as the police and ambulance services. More than 450,000 hectares were burnt that day and almost 80 Victorian townships were left completely unrecognisable. We remember the brave men and women who met the call to protect our communities that day and in the weeks and months that followed. I'll never forget the way that our community came together in the weeks and months after the fires. As the ferocity of the fire finally extinguished, our community spirit and resilience rose, and that spirit of looking out for one another is something that lives on to this day. It makes our region the best place to call home. For me, as a survivor, Black Saturday's anniversary is a day when I take a moment to stop, pause, reflect and recommit every year to make sure I live my life in honour of those who didn't get the opportunity to continue their lives.

The dangers that we saw in 2009 are still with us today. As part of this motion, I want to pay respect to all who were impacted by the fires recently, and I want to pay tribute to cattle farmer Max Hobson, who tragically lost his life in the Longwood fire near Seymour in central Victoria, just north of my home and my communities across Casey. My thoughts remain with the Victorians who have been impacted by these fires, which destroyed more than 400 homes and caused mass devastation to livestock, farmland and agricultural livelihoods.

While towns evacuated, adhering to emergency warnings, CFA crews from across our regions turned out in force to support their fellow community members and Victorians. I've since visited local CFA brigades and spoken to many volunteers and captains across the community who were on the fire front. I had a particular conversation recently with the Badger Creek CFA. They helped protect the township of Alexandra from the oncoming fire. What was amazing about the conversation and what we talked about is that they left Badger Creek to go north to Alexandra. They were going to the danger while others, rightly, were leaving that danger zone.

The incredible courage that they showed to protect that community, stationed in front of an aged-care facility, is something we struggle to comprehend. They kept Alexandra safe. CFA volunteers all across the state put themselves in front of the fire front, in towns across our communities, to keep them safe. That is the community spirit at heart. The sight of those local trucks provides support to so many people.

It has also been wonderful to see the community spirit of finding ways to help. That was evident when a 300-strong crowd recently gathered in Seville to cheer on a convoy of trucks and utes donating hay to farmers affected by the Longwood bushfires. A group of locals who call themselves the Cute Ute Crew have been working hard alongside Aussie Hay Runners to deliver hay and stockfeed where it's needed. It was heartwarming to see the convoy of five semi-trailers and 157 utes make its way through the Yarra Valley up to northern Victoria, fuelled by coffees provided by the team at Branded Burgers. These are locals, some with memories of Black Saturday and others with the drive to help out, and they're making a real difference to Victorian farmers, giving up their time after working on weekends to support others.

It's this community spirit that makes our regions the best place to call home. And it's why we love this country. We go through devastation, we support each other during the devastation and we work together as a country—as Victorians, as locals, and as Australians—to keep each other safe and help through those terrible, terrible times.

Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion, with great honour, and reserve my right to speak.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every year on 7 February we stop and remember that fateful day in 2009. Extreme weather conditions, the long-term drought, a record-breaking heatwave—it was a case of when, not if. At 11.47, off Saunders Road in East Kilmore, a power fault between power poles 38 and 39 sparked dry vegetation, which was fanned by 125 kilometre-per-hour winds. Our worst fears became reality.

The day changed our lives forever. The new normal became the reality. The landscape in our communities was scarred. For many members of our community—families and friends—those scars will never leave. The day is a day for personal reflection, to take time and pause to remember those we lost during the fires and the many more we lost post-fire because of the fire. We remember and think of the many people still carrying the pain and the scars from that time, physically and mentally, today. We pay thanks to the thousands of people who came to our aid. The worst of our time brought out the best in our nation. Whatever people choose to do on 7 February, reflect, respect and remember.

The Kilmore East fire spread quickly and crossed the Hume Freeway at 1.58 pm. It burnt through to Wandong and arrived at Mount Disappointment at 3 pm. The fire was then blown towards Humevale and Kinglake. We all stayed together, glued to our radios, listening to UGFM, who kept us up to date as the disaster unfolded across our region. They are vital, informed local volunteers and we thank them for the work that they do every time. Between 3.30 and 7 pm, the fire entered the Kinglake National Park, where it went towards Strathewen, St Andrews, Kinglake, Kinglake West, Chum Creek, Steels Creek, Arthurs Creek, Flowerdale, Broadford, Healesville and Toolangi. At 5.10 pm the wind changed from north-west to south-west, and the kilometre-long sides of the fire became the fire front.

The Murrindindi fire began at 3 pm and spread through Murrindindi state forest and the Black Range. It reached Narbethong at 4.20 pm and Marysville at 6.45, before burning through Buxton and Taggerty. The Kinglake fire complex was the most significant fire, which evolved from the merging of the Kilmore East fire and the Murrindindi fires in the early hours of 8 February 2009. It swept through state forests and national parks, with flames recorded at 30 metres high. Other fires began across the state at Bunyip, Horsham, Churchill, Redesdale, Beechworth, Bendigo, Marysville, Narre Warren and Upper Ferntree Gully. By the late evening, almost 400 individual fires were burning and Victoria Police had to announce the first casualties—fatalities.

The following day, as the Kilmore East fire and the Murrindindi Mill fire around Marysville merged to create the massive Kinglake fire complex, hot, dry conditions continued. Despite the concerted effort of more than 19,000 CFA members, the fires continued to blaze. It would take weeks before weather changes, reduction of fuel load and human intervention would make it subside. A total of 173 people lost their lives that day, 120 in the Kinglake area alone. Strathewen was the single most impacted town across that day. Another 414 people were injured. More than 450,000 hectares were burnt, and some 3½ thousand buildings and 2,000 homes were destroyed.

The RSPCA estimated that up to one million wild and domesticated animals died in that disaster. The Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub talks about Strathewen, saying 'the leaders in Strathewen seem to be able to bring people along with them'. That's one of the reasons they were successful. They invented a way of doing things, and they stuck to it. They were strong enough and cohesive enough to stick to what they knew would work.

Premier Brumby was criticised by the opposition, who said he was being 'melodramatic and over the top' in the days leading up to that fire. I believe Mr Brumby is still owed an apology. He warned us of what was going to happen and he was right. Communities paid a heavy toll, particularly people like Ben Hardman, who suffered the biggest impact of the fires throughout his electorate. Ben was actually on a fire truck all that day, defending Wandong Primary School and the Wandong community while his community around him burned.

The scale and the loss of this distress is tough to grapple with. As we think about all these things that happened, I want to pay tribute to a mate of mine, Cameron Caine. Cameron, as I've said in this place before, is a top bloke, a great police officer—just appalling taste in politics! He was the 2010 candidate against me in McEwen, but he's become a great friend. People like Cameron still deal with the issues today—friends who have been lost and scars on landscapes that are still there. Think about these people who drive through these areas day in and day out. They see the same thing happening. They see the markers of where the signs were and what happened.

We also think about Arthurs Creek CFA volunteer Joe Shepherd, who died in Melbourne's Alfred Hospital on 22 February from the injuries he received on Black Saturday. Joe's son Danny was 32, and he lost his life in the fires that day. ACT firefighter David Balfour also died in the February firefight. David was in Victoria repaying the debt of honour for those who came from our community to the ACT fires in 2003. (Time expired)

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great privilege for me to stand up and back this motion by the member for Casey on the Black Saturday bushfires. It was a day that those of us who were in Victoria will always remember—the worst conditions that you could possibly imagine. And we were warned, but I don't think anyone could have quite anticipated how bad conditions were going to get on Black Saturday. We saw that play out, and it played out in particular around the north and north-east of the state with horrific consequences.

We heard the member for Casey detail what was done and in particular the heroic efforts of our CFA volunteers to try and protect communities. But, sadly, there was significant loss of life and significant damage to property and to livestock. Many of those scars we are still overcoming today. I drove through Alexandra recently, and once again it has been the heart of another devastating fire, which, sadly is part and parcel of living in regional and rural Victoria. That is why it is so important we're doing everything we can to back and support our wonderful CFA volunteers.

What I'd like to do today is put a little bit of focus on one other fire that occurred in my electorate on Black Saturday and just commend everyone who was involved in putting that fire out. There was a fire in Pomborneit in my electorate, and the local CFA did an extraordinary job there. But the fire at Coleraine on Black Saturday was also a significant fire. It burnt about 700 acres. One home and significant livestock were lost and, sadly, one individual was severely burned. For that individual, the scars of that day continue up until this very day. But, if it weren't for the absolute heroic efforts from all the volunteers on that day, that Coleraine fire could have been significantly worse. As a matter of fact, what we saw in the north and north-east of the state very much could have played out in the west of the state of Victoria. It didn't because of the ability of local volunteers but also farmers who were able to bring their own firefighting apparatuses. Many farmers in western Victoria now have their own trucks and their own ability to fight fires. They fund that themselves. This is not a debate where we want to go into politics, but funding our volunteer CFA has never been more important in Victoria. It's something that we need to see happen more and more. What they did on Black Saturday in 2009 was quite extraordinary.

To the east of Coleraine, you have the town of Hamilton, with a population 8,000. South—and it's a fair way south—you hit Heywood and Portland. North, you run into other population bases. So this fire had the potential, if it got out of control, to do enormous damage. Yet the way that the local CFA volunteers were able to hit that fire, protect the community of Coleraine, with a population between 1,500 and 2,000, and also make sure that there wasn't the damage that there potentially could have been was extraordinary.

One of the things with the Black Saturday royal commission that the communities on the west fought for was to make sure there was recognition of what had occurred in the west of the state and, in the end, to be able to point out—because it was a fault with one of the Powercor pieces of infrastructure that led to the fire—the need for us to continue to upgrade our power infrastructure to ensure that these types of fires don't happen again.

The Black Saturday bushfires royal commission handed down important recommendations. One of the things that they pointed to was the need for controlled burning to occur where it can every single year, and yet that has failed to happen. It also pointed to making sure that our CFA volunteers have the fighting equipment that they need, and sadly that is deteriorating too.

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an important motion, and it is important that we commemorate one of the darkest days in our state of Victoria. Black Saturday was a day of terror. It was a day when too many lives were lost. It was a day that many people still deal with the consequences of. It was something that has changed forever how we look at bushfires not just in Victoria but right around this country. On Black Saturday, 173 lives were lost and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed. Whole communities and towns were changed forever. People, families, neighbours, communities and lives were torn apart in a matter of hours. For those of us in Victoria, especially across Melbourne's north and north-east, Black Saturday is still not something that we remember at a distance. It is something that we vividly hold and that many people still carry.

In my community of Jagajaga, many families have direct links to the communities that were devastated—Kinglake, Marysville, Strathewen, St Andrews and beyond. Many people locally were in the CFA crews and the emergency services who were on the front line that day. Some lost loved ones, some lost homes, and some lost the places that of course have shaped who they were. As I said, many are still carrying that trauma today. Today, to the survivors, the families of those who died, the firefighters, the emergency workers, the volunteers and the community members who stood in the face of that unimaginable danger: we as a parliament honour you. We remember not only what was lost but the courage that you showed and what has emerged from the ashes.

The events of Black Saturday have fundamentally changed the way we understand bushfire risk in Australia. We have in fact changed the way we talk about emergency management and the way we build, plan and prepare. As someone who, in an earlier life, was a journalist who spent some time training with our CFA crews and who has spent some time on the frontline on firefighting, I can say that the messages that went out prior to Black Saturday were very different to the messages that go out to communities now. We have as a result of that terrible disaster entirely changed the way that we tell communities to prepare and that we tell people to make sure that they are safe. In all of that, we are having to change the way that we think about climate, the way we think about weather and the way that fires now hit our communities as a result of our climate being warmer and our landscape being drier.

The royal commission into the Black Saturday bushfires made it clear that what happened was a warning of what could happen again if we didn't take that seriously. It gave us a new 'catastrophic' fire danger rating, and agencies across Australia came together to build a new Australian fire danger rating system. Emergency services across Australia built the Australian Warning System, for the first time creating nationally consistent public information for fires, floods, storms, cyclones and severe heat. We have, just this past summer, in Victoria again faced severe heatwaves, faced dangerous fire risks and faced dangerous fires, and I have no doubt that these ratings and these warnings have provided clarity and no doubt saved lives. I do hope for all the people who still carry the effect of Black Saturday that that is some comfort—that, as a result of what happened on that day, the Victorian government and governments around the country took note and said, 'We do need to be very serious and very methodical about how we look at this disaster, how we understand the lessons, how we honour the legacies of those who lost their lives and how we prepare for the future.'

As we do look to a future where we will experience more frequent and severe weather events, we will continue to recognise Black Saturday as a catalyst for change. It is a reminder of devastation, but it is also a reminder of the strength of community. It reminds us of neighbours helping neighbours, of towns rallying together and of the volunteers who drove into danger when others were fleeing. I once again thank our local SES, CFA and FRV crews who not only supported our community that day but continue to support us in the most difficult times and who deserve our deepest thanks. We honour all of those affected, not only with our words but with how we plan for the future.

Debate adjourned.