Farmer warns council grass could spark fire where Black Saturday ended
A Whittlesea farmer who lives two properties away from where the Black Saturday fires ended says he will sue the council if a fire breaks out on an unmaintained nature strip.
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A WHITTLESEA farmer whose land is just two properties away from where the devastating Black Saturday fires ended says he will take legal action against Whittlesea Council if a fire starts in five-foot high grass beside his land.
Humevale Rd resident Anthony Dickens said the council had let a 300m x 30m nature strip beside his 10.5ha farm grow out of control.
The tower of grass and the council’s lack of management of it, had been an “ongoing issue” for the past two years, he said.
Mr Dickens said he had contacted the council about it 12 times in that time.
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“It’s annoying considering we are coming up to 10 years since Black Saturday and where we live is two farms away from where the fire stopped,” he said.
As well as increasing the risk of a fire, a number of copperhead snakes had been spotted coming out of the grass, he said.
“If we don’t do our boundaries inside our property they can fine us,” he said.
“I would be looking at taking the council to court if it (a fire) does start on the roadside.”
Whittlesea Council city transport and presentation acting director Susan Hecker said the council had a thorough fire prevention program which included 22km of roadsides and 1583 sqkm of parks and reserves.
“We prioritise roadside slashing based on fire risk which is determined by our fire prevention team and CFA,” Ms Hecker said.
A map on the council’s website showed roadsides in Whittlesea and Kinglake were due for council maintenance in late December 2018 and January 2019.
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