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Business and community groups, together with concerned residents, are pressing for a parliamentary inquiry into disaster management in the Hawkesbury.
The Hawkesbury is recognised as one of the most disaster-prone local government areas in New South Wales, with fires and floods that impact not only local residents but the broader population of Western Sydney.
While floods bring financial and emotional distress, and at times loss of life, the air pollution from the Gospers Mountain fire and other Black Summer bushfires had more far-reaching consequences across the Sydney Basin. A Monash University study found a 3.2% increase in all-cause mortality among people over 65 in the days following exposure to smoke pollution. The Menzies Institute for Medical Research has also estimated that premature deaths and hospital admissions during the 2019-20 bushfire season generated around $2 billion in health costs. This is seperate to the financial losses casued by destruction of infrastructure, environmental and socio-economic losses from fire and flood.
“What happens in the Hawkesbury doesn’t stay in the Hawkesbury,” said Phil Bamford, President of the Hawkesbury Business Group. “When our region floods or burns, Western Sydney feels the impact. That’s why the State can’t afford to ignore the failures in local disaster planning.”
Falling Behind Our Neighbours
Neighbouring councils, particularly the Blue Mountains, have invested in stronger mitigation measures. After the devastation of the Black Summer fires, sparked in part by escaped RFS strategic backburns, the Blue Mountains Council worked closely with its community to:
- Install more roadside water tanks, giving firefighters faster, safer and secure access to water.
- Expand Neighbourhood Safer Places (NSPs) to 32 designated refuges, offering last-resort safety for residents unable to evacuate.
By contrast, Hawkesbury Council has not adopted similar initiatives. Instead, through the Bushfire Management Committee it has opposed the creation of any Neighbourhood Safer Places (it has 2) and other evacuation infrastructure, arguing, without providing evidence, that such facilities encourage residents to stay during emergencies.
It has also resisted roadside water installations, relying instead on increased aerial firefighting and bulk water carriers. Both of these strategies proved grossly inadequate during management of the Gospers Mountain blaze.
“Our neighbours in the Blue Mountains learnt hard lessons and acted,” said local resident and volunteer firefighter. “Here in the Hawkesbury, Council has done almost nothing. It’s not just disappointing, it’s dangerous.” This firefighter did not want to be named for fear of disciplinary action being taken by the RFS for talking to the media.
Why an Inquiry is Needed
Perhaps the most concerning issue is the lack of critical evaluation of Hawkesbury Fire Control strategic backburning, the approach that made the Gospers Mountain mega-fire according to a report accepted by the NSW Special Coronial Inquiry into the Black Summer Bushfire (Mt Wilson Case Study). This strategy remains the primary method of bushfire management in the Hawkesbury, raising the risk of a repeat disaster.
Hawkesbury Fire Control has already indicated that the same approachas 2019/20 will be used again. This means residents must make their own preparations to be burnt out by a wild fire and or Fire Control response of fighting fire with fire. Given that the Hawkesbury’s fire and smoke events affect millions across Western Sydney, this is not just a local fear and burden but a Sydney wide issue of safety and resilience.
And that also has to be extended to Hawkesbury's fauna and flora that were devastated by fire during that Black Summer.
“Our rainforests are part of who we are — they protect our water, our wildlife, and our way of life. When fire threatens them, it threatens us too. We need to learn from the past and act wisely, and if that requires a parliamentary inquiry to ensure stronger protections, then that’s a step worth taking so future generations inherit both safer communities and thriving rainforests.” Says Allen Hyde Rainforest Conservancy at Mt Urvine.
A parliamentary inquiry is essential to:
- Examine Hawkesbury’s preparedness compared to similar LGAs.
- Review reliance on outdated fire management strategies
- Recommend reforms in infrastructure and planning to protect residents of Hawkesbury and Greater Western Sydney.
“The people of the Hawkesbury have been left to fend for themselves with inadequate infrastructure ” said Lionel Buckett, foundation member of the NSW RFS, business owner, President of the Kurrajong Heights Bowling Club and lifelong resident. “We need roadside water, we need safer places, and we need them before the next bad fire season—not after people have died and property destroyed because of our lack of preparedness.”
View the link below to see how the State of California America has installed roadside water tanks in its rural areas to assist in fire fighting.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17WBDa9FEb/?mibextid=UalRPS
