Brenda Rosser
The climate in North West Tasmania is noticeably hotter and dryer now. Despite repeated warnings of dangerous climate change West Calder has become a relatively small volatile patch of Eucalypt Niten (with a touch of native forest) in a continuous industrial tree plantation that stretches as far west as Smithton. I know a large fire is unavoidable and will come soon to this rural community. Over the last twenty five years we have gradually expanded our fire clearings, installed more water tanks with pipes connected to a water pump installed close to the house. The grass is kept down. Debris is removed.
On the other side of the fence native forest has been let regenerate against the tree plantation, which is a mere 50 metres south-east of our dwelling. The grass is almost always high. Debris and weeds have kept piling up; every year since 1997. Every year I leave a message on FEA’s anwering machine and/or send emails. Every year FEA’s plantation danger is left to get worse.
Thankyou folks for your (mostly) very kind replies: Here
I’ve been wanting to sit down and write more specifically about the very painful 12 year history our family have had with the forest industry and the so-called regulatory authorities to do with fire prevention in Tasmania.
The fact is that I’ve been too distressed about it to put it into words; though I’ve tried to write a paragraph or two describing small segments of this horrific frustration sometimes on occasions when I reply to co-writers in this forum..
Here’s a very brief overview of the history and our current situation:
Does anyone remember what Tasmania was like in 1984? My husband and I purchased a 23 acre rural residential block at West Calder early that year. It was a time in this state when the words ‘tree plantation’ conjured up nothing more in our minds than a small 5 acre patch of small 3 year-old pine trees that the previous owner had recently planted on the land we had just purchased. However most of this block was still covered in native species that were regenerating from logging operations in the 1940s. My husband and I were not aware of other tree plantations in the region. In the clearings bordered by beautiful mixed-species native forests around us, land was used for animal grazing and traditional (old-fashioned) family farmers also grew organic vegetables for the market.
Land and housing were much more affordable then. The climate in Tasmania was significantly wetter and cooler than it is now and rainforest species were commonly found in the gullies. The thought of fire didn’t often come to mind because it rained for most of the year. The incessant drizzle and downpours became quite frustrating at times. Eventually I got the hang of gardening in the rain.
We settled in over the next decade or so and took out a mortgage to build a small house. In 1997 the world changed. We were woken up early one morning by the sound of trees breaking apart and the mechanical hum of what we discovered, moments later, was a dozer. Our neighbours had leased their one hundred acres to Forest Enterprises and no one had bothered to inform us. Suddenly there were an immense number of issues to deal with. FEA weren’t about to consult us, however.
Most of the Tasmanian Times readers would be familiar with the full range of catastrophes that this neoliberal industry brings to bear. Things such as: personal safety in general (they were literally lopping trees on top of us that morning); timber harvest ‘plans’ (as an immediate neighbour of a PTR, you were not permitted to copy the plan and only had 2 minutes to view them). This plan didn’t mention nor site our dwelling or the numerous water bodies and other important features of the area. There were repeated breaches of the Forest Practices Code. The Forest Practices Board subsequently failed to enforce that code. Waratah-Wynyard Council enthusiastically promoted mass environmental destruction and that same council repeatedly refused to address legal trespass when it clearly came within council’s areas of responsibility. And on an on it went.
Over the following years we discovered that literally EVERY regulatory body in the State was ready to look the other way. Their staff had acquired high-level skills employing an innumerable number of methods to fob concerned residents off with. After a year or so I realised that we were dealing with generalised social breakdown. Although our family provided and also received support (mostly emotional) from hundreds of families in a similar situation in Tasmania, ultimately there was and is no recourse to institutional solutions here because these institutions do not work. They don’t function here to serve the public interest.
The climate in North West Tasmania is noticeably hotter and dryer now. Despite repeated warnings of dangerous climate change West Calder has become a relatively small volatile patch of Eucalypt Niten (with a touch of native forest) in a continuous industrial tree plantation that stretches as far west as Smithton. I know a large fire is unavoidable and will come soon to this rural community. Over the last twenty five years we have gradually expanded our fire clearings, installed more water tanks with pipes connected to a water pump installed close to the house. The grass is kept down. Debris is removed.
On the other side of the fence native forest has been let regenerate against the tree plantation, which is a mere 50 metres south-east of our dwelling. The grass is almost always high. Debris and weeds have kept piling up; every year since 1997. Every year I leave a message on FEA’s anwering machine and/or send emails. Every year FEA’s plantation danger is left to get worse. Until two days ago, that is. Catastrophic bushfires broke out in Hancock’s plantations in Victoria this month. The escaping fires may have already killed up to 500 people and destroyed billions of dollars worth of property. After all these years FEA finally dozed down the pile of debris and the regenerating native trees. A narrow track of sorts has been placed around the edges of the tree plantation. But the trees are still only 50 metres away and they will explode around us like a bomb when the fire comes. The fire will come. We will fight for our lives.
