Carry can for neighbour’s land if you want to rebuild: fire victim told

A bushfire victim’s plans to rebuild were stymied by a local council and its ‘insane’ green-tape stipulations.

Geoff Manias and his cattle dog Peppa on his property at Lake Conjola, which was destroyed by bushfire. Picture: Sean Davey

A retiree who lost his home and everything he owned to a raging bushfire last summer fears he may now be forced to give up his quarter-acre block after his plans to rebuild were stymied by a local council and its “insane” green-tape stipulations.

Geoff Manias said Shoalhaven City Council was refusing to ­approve his designs for a new home on the block that would ­exceed fire zone safety requirements unless he succumbed to its demands to take permanent ­responsibility for maintaining a strip of Aboriginal land the size of three tennis courts that runs alongside his property.

“It’s insane. At the beginning of the year, the council said it was going to do everything it could to support me and help me get on with things,” the 68-year-old said. “Now they’re telling me I can’t rebuild within the footprint of my lost home unless I obtain written permission and take on the ongoing cost and legal liability of maintaining Aboriginal land.

“We’re almost in a blackmail situation, where they are saying, ‘Well, we won’t give you a DA, won’t let you build unless this happens’. It’s just craziness.”

The former ABC cameraman was fortunate to escape with his life — and that of his blue heeler, Peppa — when fire engulfed his entire street at Lake Conjola, just north of Ulladulla on the NSW south coast, on New Year’s Eve.

Everything else was lost to the flames, from photos of his ­recently deceased wife to his ­beloved 1972 Indy America Maserati. “I tried to fight back the flames but when I looked down at Peppa and I could see the fear in her eyes and I realised I needed to get her out of there,” he said.

“We jumped in the car and drove out and, in the rear-vision mirror, we watched everything burn and the trees coming down behind us. We didn’t have a chance to grab anything. We lost the lot.

“My wife’s ashes were sitting on the mantelpiece and now they’re just part of the ash that’s spread around Conjola. If we had stayed any longer, it would have been us too.”

He said he was “scratching around in the ash” in the days after the tragedy when Shoal­haven’s mayor, Amanda Findley, dropped by and promised the council would do all it could to help him.

Heartened, he starting working with a builder and an architect on designs for a home that would take up the same footprint as the cottage he lost and exceed the Bushfire Attack Level 40 requirements for structures in a very high risk flame zone mandated by the council. He was then told he needed to get permission from the Jerrinja Local Aboriginal Land Council to clear a fire protection zone 30m wide on its property along the side of his block. “I did that at a cost of about $10,000 to me, to get the trees and the bush cleared and removed,” he said. “Then we were ready to submit plans again and it was like, ‘Oh no, we’ve changed our mind again. We now want you to get written permission from the ­Aboriginal land council for you to clear a 10m strip on their land, and then for you to maintain it’.

“On top of the cost of looking after the land, my solicitor told me that I’d also be putting my hand up to accept liability if there’s another fire and somebody’s house gets burned down, or if someone decided to have a picnic in the park and got hit by a tree.”

A Shoalhaven City Council spokesman said it had advised Mr Manias his flame zone requirements could be reduced by securing a maintenance easement over the Aboriginal land council property. “Council can still proceed and issue an approval with or without an easement … (but) to date the development application has not been submitted to council,” the spokesman said.