Wombat State Forest: Windblown trees create ticking fire bomb

Experts fear a firestorm with the potential to mirror Black Saturday could erupt from fallen trees in one of Victoria’s most significant state parks. See the video.

At least 500,000 tonnes of windblown trees have been left lying on the floor of one of Victoria’s most significant State Forests — creating a “ticking fire bomb” that experts say has the potential to engulf nearby towns.

Industry sources say the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s conservation regulator have blocked a bid by the Dja Dja Wurrung and VicForests to clear tens of thousands of messmate, narrow-leaf peppermint, manna and other gums from the Wombat State Forest, felled by a storm in June last year.

Drone and satellite imagery of the region shows many large swathes of forest have been flattened on hills and ridge lines, covering a total of about 2000ha.

One local forester described the situation as a “ticking fire bomb” and said it had the potential to cause devastation similar to that recorded at Marysville during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, with Daylesford, Barkstead, Bullarto, Lyonville, Blackwood and other settlements considered at major risk.

Forest surveys show fallen trees have pushed the fuel loads to between 200 and 400 tonnes per hectare, which experts warn would generate enormous heat during a catastrophic fire.

Last June’s storms bowled over thousands of trees in patches like this across the Wombat Forest. Picture: Zoe Phillips

University of Melbourne forest fire expert Kevin Tolhurst said “the amount of heat produced would be far in excess of average – 200 tonnes/ha compared to 20 tonnes/ha”.

He said the vast amount of fuel on the ground would create fires similar to those that hit Victoria on Black Saturday and parts of southern NSW in 2019-20, which “can produce cyclonic force winds”.

Black Saturday’s fires were so intense they created their own weather.

“These fire-induced winds can knock down houses and blow windows in,” he said. “It makes homes indefensible because they (the winds) cause a lot of damage before the fire even gets there.”

“When you have high amounts of fuel, you don’t need as large a fire to cause these fire-induced winds.”

Associate Professor Tolhurst said every effort should be put into reducing the fuel load lying on the forest floor, via timber harvesting.

But time is running out to harvest any of the timber, with the former owner of the now closed Black Forest timber mill, Geoff Proctor, saying the trees strewn across the forest floor must harvested this winter, given it was starting to crack.

“Years ago when it went into house frames it didn’t matter so much, but now it’s used for high value appearance timber – floors and furniture, where you can’t have cracks,” Mr Proctor said.

“The fire risk is enormous unless this wood is taken out.”

Dja Dja Wurrung chief executive Rodney Carter said the risk from the heavy fuel load was “absolutely terrifying”.

“There’s environment groups that have an approach where you do nothing and I don’t think that’s useful,” Mr Carter said.

“As traditional owners we want to be involved in forest management.”

To that end the Dja Dja Wurrung, who have rights to the timber under their Land Use Agreement with the Labor State Government, have approached VicForests to harvest up to 80,000 cubic metres of saw logs from the forests.

Mr Carter said that as first nation’s people they wanted to practice traditional “forest gardening” and use fire to manage fuels loads to create more open “woodland not a forest”.

“We’re not here to profit from the forest, we want to manage it,” he said. “But if there’s storm damage and the trees have fallen, then why won’t people let us have some money.”

The Weekly Times understands DELWP has threatened VicForests with legal action if they go ahead and start harvesting, while also writing to Mr Carter opposing the deal.

“We want to partner with VicForests, because they have the capability and resources,” Mr Carter said, under what he called a natural resource agreement.

“This would be positive change for the citizens of Victoria, moving to traditional forest management and reducing fire risk.”

But he said DELWP had warned the agreement could not be declared, because the regulatory framework was not in place.

Last December Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio announced the Government intended to double the Wombat-Lerderderg parks system, from 20,474ha to 44,698ha, plus add another 19,028ha across the region extending out to Mount Macedon.

DELWP’s website states: “The Wombat-Lerderderg National Park provides habitat for many threatened species, including the Greater Glider, and will be a tourism drawcard”.

Meanwhile timber mills are running out of timber across central Victoria and East Gippsland as environment groups mount legal action that has led to court-imposed injunctions on any coupe where Greater Gliders have been sighted within 240m.

Just last week Montana Timber was forced to close its Nowa Nowa timber mill due to the timber shortage, however managing director George Kasikovic said they were open again on a 3.5 day week after sourcing some logs.

Mr Kasikovic said the industry could use the logs from the Wombat Forest, even if it had to be hauled to East Gippsland.

For every two cubic metres of messmate, a timber mill can produce one cubic metre of flooring, with a wholesale value ranging from $1600 to $2100, plus other high value products, which puts the value of 80,000 cubic metres at between $64 million and $84m.

A spokeswoman for Minister D’Ambrosio’s office said the focus of the storm recovery had been on community safety and clearing roads in the Wombat Forest.

The Minister’s office confirmed VicForsets had proposed using a timber utilisation plan to access the forest, but had to work with DELWP on progressing “the necessary regulatory checks”.

Originally published as Wombat State Forest: Windblown trees create ticking fire bomb