By Sally Bryant
The NSW Farmers Association is calling on the State Government to adopt all 29 recommendations from the NSW Upper House inquiry into the 2013 Wambelong bushfire near Coonabarabran.
AUDIO: Farmers Association wants action on fire report (ABC Rural)
Rod Young is the NSW Farmers representative on the bushfire management committee of the Rural Fire Service in the Castlereagh Zone. He said there are some recommendations that stand out as essential.
“Like the need for more hazard reduction burns on public land, and the need for greater respect to be shown for local volunteers and their local knowledge,” he said.
“There also needs to be an enhanced network of fire trails in National Parks.”
The Coonabarabran community is still waiting on the release of a report from the coronial inquiry into the fire.
The fire destroyed more than 51 homes near the National Park and damaged many others.
Countless livestock and native animals were killed in the fire, or were so badly injured they had to be destroyed.
The farm infrastructure and fence damage from the fire was extensive, with hundreds of kilometres of fences lost or damaged, hay supplies destroyed and farm structures burnt.