Concerns remain 10 years on for Canberra bushfire experts

Updated January 18, 2013 19:00:00

It's a decade since an inferno tore through Canberra's fringe, claiming four lives and 500 houses. There have been changes to emergency services and bushfire management in the ACT as a result, but some bushfire experts remain concerned that not enough is being done to reduce what they say is a mounting load of fire fuel around the capital.

Source: PM | Duration: 3min 38sec

Topics: bushfire, fires, canberra-2600, australia


SALLY SARA: While bushfires in the south east of Australia present an ongoing threat, the emergency has sharpened the memories of the Canberra firestorm, which happened exactly 10 years ago today.

From the national parks west of the capital, it reached into the city, claiming four lives, 500 homes and injuring hundreds.

Subsequent inquiries highlighted a litany of failures that led to the catastrophe and since then, much has changed.

But for some with decades of experience in bushfire management, all is not well.

Lexi Metherell reports.

LEXI METHERELL: For 10 days before the firestorm a decade ago, four fires were burning in national parks to Canberra's west. They combined, creating an inferno which raged towards the city and tore through suburbs on the fringe.

A few weeks ago, Phil Cheney revisited the origin of one of those fires in the Brindabella Ranges. He was disturbed by what he saw.

PHIL CHENEY: The fuel had accumulated to pretty much the 2003 levels so certainly a difficult fuel to manage and one that really should be reduced.

LEXI METHERELL: Phil Cheney studied bushfires for more than 40 years and led the CSIRO's bushfire research division.

Before the 2003 firestorm he warned ACT authorities Canberra was at risk of a devastating fire. Now - again - he's concerned.

PHIL CHENEY: The mountains are, the mountain forests are accumulating fueI and in my view if they're to be managed properly and to limit the spread of the fire in the mountains and therefore limit the spread that is possible under extreme conditions, we need to do something about it.

I mean, we really should be seeing smoke somewhere up there every year as the authorities conduct routine burning off.

LEXI METHERELL: Phil Cheney was heavily involved in the long coronial inquiry which followed the firestorm. So was Val Jeffery. For many years, he led the independent Bush Fire Council, which was responsible for fire management, until it was superseded by government departments.

VAL JEFFERY: We've got very high runs of fuel into the build up areas, like even coming from Mugga Lane into Queanbeyan frightens me. We're going to have bad town fires and bad destruction in the urban area as well as the bush country and we don't have to have a fire coming out of the bush to burn Canberra next time, it's going to come out of the grasslands.

LEXI METHERELL: How do you think that the Canberra region would fare if we saw another repeat of the circumstances that we saw 10 years ago?

VAL JEFFERY: Canberra will suffer a lot more because of the simple fact the fuel structure and the bush fire organisation's changed that much that if we get that bad day again it's inevitable that we have those big losses.

LEXI METHERELL: Such criticisms are familiar to the ACT's Emergency Services Minister Simon Corbell, but he maintains lessons have been learnt from 2003.

SIMON CORBELL: We burn across our national parks. We burn in our nature reserves. We slash, we graze, we physically remove fuel and this has been a very important program put in place since 2003, which is audited every year and which was never done in a comprehensive way in the years leading up to the tragedy of January 18th, 2003.

SALLY SARA: That's the ACT's Attorney-General Simon Corbell ending Lexi Metherell's report.