NT Cattlemen Association boss Will Evans makes fire safety plea

With the Northern Territory’s bushfire season in full swing, a peak pastoral-sector leader has called for assistance identifying suspicious blazes and the perpetrators who light them.

With the Northern Territory’s bushfire season in full swing, a peak pastoral-sector leader has called for assistance identifying suspicious blazes and the perpetrators who light them.
NT Cattlemen’s Association chief executive Will Evans said with a number of fires currently being fought in the Territory, it’s important that proper reporting and combat protocols are followed.

He said most fires in the Territory are deliberately lit, whether it be through arson or neglect, and that last year’s fires on the Barkly Tablelands that burnt 2.8 million hectares were larger than the land areas of 76 countries around the world.

NT Cattlemen’s Association Will Evans.

He said in addition, intense and dangerous fires around Alice Springs and Katherine threatened infrastructure and community safety.

“It’s an unfortunate reality of bushfires nationally, and especially in the Northern Territory, that fires are often deliberately lit,” Mr Evans said.

“These sorts of actions are not always malicious and can stem from poorly managed little fires that can quickly become very large fires.

“It can be difficult for people to understand, but these fires are big and we’re often

alone in fighting them.

“For the pastoral industry, they are the largest threats to our staff, our landscapes, and our environmental assets. This time of year comes with a lot of stress and sleepless nights.

“We’re appealing to the public please to be extremely cautious with fire at this time of

year, and if you see someone doing something stupid, call the police.

“Deliberately starting these kinds of fires, especially maliciously, is a serious crime. We are asking the community to help us and treat it that way.”

In Alice Springs, Undoolya Station managers Ben and Nicole Hayes said there were six major fires at the property last season, of which five were deliberately lit.

A fire rages in Central Australia.

Ben, Nicole and other family members were involved in fighting those blazes using three grassfire units and two graders used for firebreaks.

The estimated cost to the family last year was about $100,000 to fight the fires, including deploying family members away from

“You can understand a bit more when lightning strikes but when someone just walks on the road lighting up fires, it’s pretty frustrating,” Nicole said.

“It puts us all under a lot of risk and animals, whether it’s our livestock or native animals it’s not good.

“One particular fire was pretty fast and moving the one that hit town, it was pretty quick. We don’t know that the stock losses were but we wouldn’t be surprised to have had some.”

Mr Evans said extensive preparatory works have been undertaken by pastoralists this year to prevent a repeat of last year’s fires, with millions of dollars invested across the

industry installing fire breaks to try and mitigate the risk of large fires.

He said the large amounts of unmanaged land and National Parks in the Territory remain a

considerable risk of bushfire and have little if any ability or resources to fight fires

that come off these tenures.