It’s the beginning of October and two predictable things have occurred: there has been a burst of smoke in Western Australian skies as Parks and Wildlife begin their annual prescribed burning program, and we have been subjected to the usual warnings…
Protecting Towns From Bushfires
The disastrous bushfire that destroyed the town of Yarloop has brought into sharp focus the danger that exists for several towns in the south-west part of Western Australia. Towns at risk include Collie, Margaret River, Donnybrook and Denmark. All these are…
Smoke in Autumn
The skies in South Western WA in autumn usually carry large volumes of smoke from prescribed burning in forests. While there have been some complaints from urban areas about the amount of smoke, the Bushfire Front applauds the efforts of the…
The Usual Urban Panics
It’s another summer again and once again we have almost daily TV accounts of an urban blaze somewhere around Perth in some pocket of urban bush or local bush reserve that goes up in flames. Such bushfires are a real threat…
Cyclone Disaster Remembered
Forty years ago in April 1978, Cyclone Alby brought one of Western Australia’s worst storm and bushfire crises to the South-west and Great Southern regions. Both were severely hit. Five lives were lost in the storm and dozens injured. Hundreds of…
Autumn Smoke
The skies in South Western WA this autumn have carried large volumes of smoke from prescribed burning in forests along the Darling Range. While there have been some complaints from urban areas about the amount of smoke, the Bushfire Front applauds the…
Emergency Services Levy
THE EMERGENCY SERVICES LEVY Each year all landholders in WA pay an Emergency Services Levy (ESL), which is intended to be a fair way of raising the funds necessary for emergency services such as sea rescue and urban firefighting. The…
Bushfire Management Must Be Fixed
A proposal by the Bush Fire Front Inc., March 2016 Introduction The 2016 Waroona/Yarloop fire is the latest in a growing number of serious bushfires in the South west of WA. The graph below demonstrates this clearly. Current bushfire arrangements in WA…
Keelty
The Keelty Inquiry into Bushfires in WA. A submission from The Bushfire Front Inc April 2011 Summary Bushfire management can be looked at in two ways: (i) the efficiency with which bushfires are tackled and suppressed after they start; and (ii)the measures…
Yarloop/Ferguson
The Ferguson Report into the Waroona/Yarloop bushfire Submission to the Inquiry in response to the report, from the Bushfire Front The government is to be commended for the appointment of Euan Ferguson to inquire into the Waroona/Yarloop bushfire, and for ensuring that…