Released 14/08/2017
Minister for Planning and Land Management, Mick Gentleman, said the ACT is prepared for the bushfire season with 95.9% of ACT Parks and Conservation’s 2016-17 Bushfire Operations Plan (BOP) completed.
“Thanks to a lot of hard work the vast majority of activities under the BOP have been done, making the Canberra community much safer from the risk of bushfire,” Minister Gentleman said.
The BOP is prepared each year in consultation with the ACT Rural Fire Service, the ACT Bush Fire Council and the Emergency Services Agency. Activities in the 2016-17 BOP included:
- Twelve prescribed burns covering 516 hectares focusing on grasslands and the urban edge area
- 6,041 hectares of strategic grazing across the outer edge of residential areas
- 4,733 hectares of slashing in urban areas
- 542 hectares of physical removal of fire fuels
- 437 kilometres of fire trail maintenance
“Other new initiatives included delivery of three of the latest light unit fire fighting vehicles, the establishment of a smoke management project with the Bureau of Meteorology, the Victorian Government and ACT Health that should lead to earlier and more accurate smoke forecasts.
“A particularly interesting new component is the deployment of four remotely located portable weather stations that provide government and the Bureau of Meteorology with accurate and reliable real time weather data in locations that are directly relevant to fire forecasting and operations.”
Minister Gentleman said work is already underway, and will be finished ahead of the commencement of the fire season, which is generally declared in October each year.
“The remainder of uncompleted activities from last year’s plan will be rolled over as priority items into the plan. These are prescribed burns and some track maintenance that was postponed due to inclement weather. Conditions last autumn in Namadgi were initially too dry and then rapidly turned too wet which limited opportunities for some larger planned burns,” Minister Gentleman said.
“The work done last season has us well placed for the coming fire season. I would like to thank the ACT Parks and Conservation Service and our fire fighting volunteers for their dedication and hard work in making sure Canberra is bushfire ready,” Minister Gentleman concluded.
- Statement ends -
Mick Gentleman, MLA | Media Releases