Bushfire forum

By Monique Ebrington
UPPER Yarra residents had their own unofficial community forum on Monday 27 April, to contribute their thoughts on the recent bushfires to the 2009 Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission.
Although the Upper Yarra wasn’t visited by the Royal Commission, forum organiser Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato said it was important that residents of the Upper Yarra had the opportunity to share their thoughts, experiences and ideas for what should have been done differently.
The Warburton Mechanics Hall was used for the forum with seven of the 10 tables placed around the hall displaying signs with prominent issues during the bushfire period.
The table labelled Leave Early/ Stay and Defend was the first table to be filled with residents.
Warburton East resident Linda Damman, who sat at a table labelled Bushfire Preparation, said that she attend the forum to hopefully be a part of a solution to problems that arose during the danger period.
“I came mainly because of wanting to do things better next time. There were a lot of things that didn’t go well, clearly from the outpouring tonight,” Ms Damman said.
Ms Damman and her family lost their Box Hill residence to fire 14 years ago and don’t want to see another home destroyed by fire.
“I’ve lived through it once and I don’t plan on ever putting myself through this ever again,” she said. “There’s going to be a next time, unfortunately, and I think we learnt a few lessons in this exercise and hopefully we’ll all learn from this.”
Special guest Victorian Treasurer John Lenders said that bushfires would be a large part of the next budget and that he wanted to listen to the experiences of residents during the bushfire threat.
“Obviously a big part of the next budget will be dealing with the costs of recovery from fires,” Mr Lenders said.
Ms Lobato said that residents were happy to have the opportunity to discuss what worked and what didn’t work during the fire threat to the region.
“I think in addition to having that opportunity to provide feedback, people may have also seen it as an opportunity for closure to that particular bushfire season as well,” Ms Lobato said. “Also knowing that their input will be significant in ensuring that problems that were encountered will be rectified by the next bushfire season was beneficial to guests.”
All feedback collected by Ms Lobato will be contributed to the Royal Commission, as part of her submission.
The Royal Commission aims to hear from communities directly affected by fires on issues such as policies, planning and responses to the bushfires. The Royal Commission’s interim report is due by the 17 August with the final report due by 31 July 2010.