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Image: NSW Coroner’s Court
Sunday 6th October, 2019
The VFFA has been pushing for improved land management practices that include cool burning and other mitigation activities since our inception in 2004.
The objectives of the VFFA are:
Providing a voice and forum for ‘grassroots” representation of volunteers views with the RFS and the State Government.
To lobby for and to advocate for improved bushfire management and mitigation in NSW.
To disseminate information to volunteer rural firefighters on matters that affect their interests.
The following article is being shared as a point of interest, a type of “media watch” so that we can openly debate and discuss the issues.
Summary
It’s been the most devastating September for bushfires in this country on record. Experts are warning of more unprecedented weather events than ever before, and they’re calling for urgent national leadership. In this special collaboration …
You might like to listen to this podcast (Approx. 55min) whilst travelling. Download it to your smartphone and hit the road…
Please consider the following points whilst you’re thinking about the content and context of this podcast.
What do you add to a fireplace when we are preparing a fire? – FUEL.
What do you add to the fire to increase warmth and intensity – MORE FUEL.
Big fires (Wildfires with lots of FUEL) can create their own storms with lightening to ignite more fires.
The only hope that we have is to prevent these larger fires in the first instance.
LESS FUEL = lower intensity fires that are less likely to create a catastrophic chain of fire events.
The title of this post is nothing new, it is also the title from chapter 2 of the report on the inquiry into bushfires that was put together by the House of Representatives, Select Committee into the Australian bushfires in…
The VFFA are concerned that the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action are overlooking key elements of land management practice. Climate change or variability impacts upon many factors relating to wildfire, but we are all at greater risk because we have…
The text in this post is an article written by Clarence Hungerford (1895 - 1958). Clarence was a highly respected bushman who lived in the Blue Mountains, NSW at Mt Tomah and Berambing. Clarence had a thorough knowledge of fire.…
We're putting $30M helicopters in the drink, we're burning houses, and we're destroying the environment. Bring back Indigenous land management for a brighter (and less costly) future.
Burning the bush to prevent catastrophic fires is something that rural fire services all over the country have been doing for decades. But Aboriginal Australians have been doing it for tens of thousands of years—and their "cool burns" are making…
The recent fires in Victoria were driven by big fuel loads, not by the weather. The fire danger index was a surprising low 16-20, but the high fuel loads resulted in predicted rates of spread of 0.5 kph and flame…
I've heard Indigenous Australians talk about upside down country, with loads of foliage on the forest floor and not enough in the crown. The VFFA has been accused of being too political, but it may just take some political clout…
They say that a picture is worth 1,000 words.Here are 3 pictures and a little more than 1,000 words that add some fuel to the climate change debate as published by the Sydney Morning Herald. Flashback, 1939: Sydney’s hottest day80…
It was disappointing to read the article by Greg Mullins that was published in the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday 20th Jan 2019. Mr Mullins is a well respected and long serving Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW. That respect was…
In this video, the VFFA President and Shooters Fishers and Farmers candidate for Monaro, Mick Holton talks to Barry Aitchison about land management. Mick says that the NSW Government has failed to provide appropriate land management. The costs of this…
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that hot fires must be avoided. We have to return to cool burning and other land management practices (including selected agricultural clearing and grazing) if we are going to…
Are modern firefighting agencies inciting fear as a method of risk management rather than applying appropriate risk control measures? Fear is a powerful tool, it sells newspapers, keeps the television ratings alive, gives our radio stations some great material to…
The recent bushfires in NSW are not in "mid winter", where they occurred as suggested by many. The bushfire season in mid-NSW always starts earlier than in southern Australia, with bushfires around Sydney and in the Blue Mountains historically occurring…
This article is being posted to encourage readers to consider that we may be giving hazard reduction burning a "bad rap". There is a tendency to complete large burning activities in a short period because of available resources and pressure…
Vegetation Management Officer Phil Hawkey describes himself as “on a journey” as he increases his knowledge of Aboriginal traditional burning. It began three years ago when Phil attended a traditional burning workshop in Orange, New South Wales. “That was the…
Our ever increasing fuel loads are reaching catastrophic levels and are threatening our people, property and environment. Regardless of your views on climate change, the fuel load issue is the only part of the equation that we can do something about.…
We live in a country that needs fire and what happens is that we've stopped evolving with fire. Our fire culture in Australia is totally flawed to nothing. As before, even if you go back 100 years, pastoralists and people…
