On their guard

By Casey Neill
BELGRAVE South residents are calling on the council to clear a dangerously overgrown reserve.
But Yarra Ranges Council says the area at Kirkham and Retreat roads is not a significant fire risk.
More than 50 people gathered at the reserve last week to support Mervyn Road Community Fireguard Group’s call for the council to remove weeds and vegetation.
“It is a huge fire hazard and must be brought back to its original state,” fireguard member Graham Morgan said. “Not only will residents sleep easier but it will once again become a positive area for the community to enjoy.”
The Wellington Road resident initiated the fireguard group three years ago.
Members raised the state of the reserve at a pre-summer meeting on 26 October.
A council fire safety officer assessed the site on 31 December following several phone calls.
“To be blunt, we were not happy with the response from him, who told us that nobody had complained in the last 20 years about the standard of council maintenance,” Mr Morgan said.“The reserve is totally overgrown. There are two entrances to this area so that residents could walk through and enjoy, but that is now impossible. There is a huge amount of anger locally.”
Retreat Road resident Bob Millership’s property is on the reserve’s north boundary.
“My wife and I have lived in this estate for 40 years, and over this period I have seen and fought many fires including Ash Wednesday,” he said.
“The block in question was burnt out that day, along with many homes. Now there are more homes in the area we need to do more to protect lives and property.”
Mr Millership slashes his property two to three times during the fire season.
“But that won’t help the people living downwind of this block as the fuel load is huge,” he said. “Any fire in that block with conditions like Black Saturday or Ash Wednesday would be disastrous.”
Cr Dunn said the council’s fire prevention officers had inspected the reserve and found it was not a significant fire risk.
She said they found the reserve was small, isolated from other vegetation, and the roads on the southern and eastern boundaries acted as firebreaks.
Cr Dunn said the north western boundary and north eastern corner were adjacent to clear land on private property and the council had constructed a fire break on the northern corner, close to the only nearby structure.
“It should be noted that council’s municipal fire prevention officers are trained to carry out these inspections in accordance with CFA guidelines,” she said.
Cr Dunn said the full length of Kirkham Road was slashed each year as part of council’s annual fire slash program.
“Slashing is also undertaken in the reserve each year at the start of November from the fence line of the adjacent property to three metres within the reserve along the northern boundary,” she said.
“Additional slashing was undertaken at the end of December during the last fire danger period.”
Cr Dunn said works were also recently carried out inside the reserve to control environmental weeds.