By Taylah Eastwell
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been engaged to assist Dandenong Ranges communities as the storm clean-up continues, but residents will be waiting a while before they see any boots on the ground.
Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp visited Olinda on Wednesday 17 June to announce that conversations had been had with the ADF around assistance with “logistics and planning”.
“We’ve requested five planning logistics officers and my understanding is we will have at least three of those in the State Control Centre today (17 June),” Mr Crisp said.
“The thinking around that is one of the planners will be working in a team focused on people who will be off power for an extended period of time.
The Star Mail understands a regional control and incident centre exists in Ferntree Gully, where ADF planners will be placed to determine the recovery and clean-up process required for the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley communities.
Mr Crisp also said that the state government now has a “better understanding of the impact on roads” and has a taskforce established at state level, with an ADF planner also expected to assist with road related issues following the storm.
When questioned as to why the ADF haven’t been on the ground over the last week, Mr Crisp said the right time is now.
“In my opinion the time is right now for the ADF to come in. It’s no different to the 2019-2020 bushfires or the start of the Covid emergency, you need to assess what you’ve got before you then looking at bringing in the ADF to do the planning that is required.
“I’ve been doing this everyday thinking about the ADF, rest assured I have not been backward coming forward. The catalyst and thinking around this is now we have a better assessment as a result of initial impact assessments that have been undertaken. Particularly, the advice that we got yesterday in relation to the number of people that are going to be off power for an extended period of time, that is a specific operation in itself, so now we look at what support we can call on from the ADF in terms of logistics and planning,” Mr Crisp said.
Mr Crisp said while there are no boots on the ground as yet, it is being looked at.
“That is what we are looking at doing now, particularly with those people who are looking at being off power for a significant amount of time,” he said.
“We have seen the size of trees and what we’ve got here at the moment, I worked very closely with the ADF during the 2019-20 fires and they do not have the capability to work on the trees that you see up here in the Dandenongs. It is beyond the SES, it’s Forest Fire Management Victoria, it’s DELWP, and we need special arborists and tree climbers to do this specific work,” Mr Crisp said.
Mr Crisp expects the state government and ADF “will have something firmed up in the next 24 hours in terms of what further resources are required” for the Dandenongs.
It was also announced at Wednesday’s press conference that Bushfire Recovery Victoria would take the lead in co-ordinating the clean-up for storm ravaged communities.
“The team have been supporting affected communities in the recovery from the 2019 bushfires and they have the experience and skills to deliver the support that’s needed,” Acting Premier James Merlino said.
