Two stories on Victor Steffensen feature in our News Roundup this week. Really hope you have enjoyed this series this year. We’ll be back again in 2021.
News Roundup 20th December

Two stories on Victor Steffensen feature in our News Roundup this week. Really hope you have enjoyed this series this year. We’ll be back again in 2021.
Roger Underwood’s outstanding article on the Bushfire Royal Commission’s complete failure to address the root cause of the problem … prpoer fuel management.
It was lucky this car was parked outside the house when it exploded. Happily the house was saved but it was a near run thing. VFFA Secretary Greg Godde reports from Tibbuc.
Defence’s record of starting major fires was again highlighted by the ABC this week in a report that the fire that destroyed 80% of the Namadgi National Park was started by a Defence helicopter. Its failure to report the fire for 45 minutes ensured that the RFS lost the opportunity to contain the fire. This is one of a number of news stories from around the state in this weeks News Roundup.
President of The Volunteer Fire Fighters Association Mick Holton says Australians “haven’t learnt” from last summer’s devastating bushfires as people are quick to blame climate change when really fuel has built up from decades of land neglect. See the full interview on the Paul Murray Show on Sly News.
The bush fire on Fraser Island continues to make the headlines after burning for 6 weeks. A new report into the impact of ‘chewing smoke’ makes interesting reading and shows how dangerous the smoke is to the community. These are some of this weeks stories in the News Roundup.
NSW has experienced a bumper wheat crop this year but harvesting it is not always a straightforward experience with firefighters responding to 30 machinery fires already this season.
This is one of many stories in this weeks roundup from around the state.
The 2019-20 Bushfire History Project was an initiative of the Royal Commission into the National Natural Disaster Arrangements. It provided an opportunity for people to record their personal experience and share photos and videos taken during the 2019-20 bushfires or the ongoing recovery. The Royal Commission received more than 1800 photos, videos and written accounts from people in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria who were affected by the bushfires.
See more … the Commission has published four YouTube videos with photos of the Firefighters, Aerial Firefighting, The Damage and The Recovery.
The Federal Government will create new legislation to permit it to declare a national state of emergency. It will support most of the Royal Commission recommendations but not the creation of a national aerial firefighting fleet. In the meantime Coulson Aviation and Lindsay Fox have got together to do just that! Lots more news in this weeks roundup!
The Executive of the VFFA seeks to appoint a CEO to develop the organisation into a financially independent robust body delivering useful services to RFS Volunteers in NSW, representing their views to government, and acting as an effective agent of change to improve land management and fire management practices in the state.