Above: Bushfire in Upper Ferntree Gully’s Quarry Road on Black Saturday threatened to wipe out the Dandenongs.
By Russell Bennett
JACK Rush QC has urged Yarra Ranges residents not to let memories of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires fade.
Counsel assisting the Royal Commission Mr Rush, speaking to a packed function room at Marybrooke Receptions in Sherbrooke on 20 September, said valuable lessons would be lost over time if residents didn’t remember the devastation of the fires.
Mr Rush said that there was very little separating the characteristics of major Victorian fires in 1851, 1939, 1983 and 2009.
Mr Rush read aloud a description of the deadly 1851 bushfires. It was as though he was describing Black Saturday.
The lethal combination of drought, heat and fire was common across all four catastrophes and could easily manifest itself in countless future burns.
‘That major fire is inevitable in this state is a lesson of history,’ Mr Rush said.
He warned the performance of emergency services in major fires historically depended on clear and precise warnings given to the community.
Mr Rush quoted RMIT University risk and sustainability professor John Handmer’s report on the controversial ‘stay or go’ policy.
On research that had been undertaken since Black Saturday, 75 to 80 per cent of people indicated they would ‘wait and see’, even on a code red day.
Close to 80 per cent said they’d leave, but only if a fire was in their area.
Olinda man John Ischia asked Mr Rush if an advertising ‘bombardment’, specifically in newspapers and on television, would prevent public complacency around future bushfire seasons.
‘The message inevitably fades and Black Saturday will, in 10 years’ time, not be as graphic and won’t be referred to in the manner which it is at the moment,’ Mr Rush said. ‘We are going to get these major fires more often and all I can say is that in my legal career, I have seen offences for drink driving completely and utterly change over 25 years. No-one went to jail really for culpable driving 25 years ago. Now everybody does. The graphic advertisements in relation to drink driving and motor car accidents ‘ something like that is necessary every fire season so that people again are on notice.’
Mr Rush took a swipe at those in upper command on Black Saturday during his speech.
‘Counsel assisting (the commission) were accused of head-hunting and going after scalps,’ he said. ‘I can only say this – the command and control exercised on the 7th of February in the top echelon was, in my view, unacceptable.’
But Mr Rush was glowing in his endorsement of the state’s volunteer firefighters.
‘I do not think that during 155 days of hearings, one volunteer was the subject of criticism for actions on the 7th of Februrary,’ he said. ‘This was not an oversight or some form of deliberate tactic (from counsel assisting). The fact is that ‘ without exception across the state ‘ the volunteer effort was remarkable.’
