Communities fear Black summer repeat, as council blocks vital land clearing

Two years on from the devastating Black Summer bushfires, a community in NSW fears another catastrophe as the local council moves to stop landowners clearing firebreaks on their properties.

Bilpin residents Marion and Martin Tebbutt. Picture: Jane Dempster

Two years on from the Black Summer bushfires that destroyed their homes, a community in NSW fears another catastrophe as the local council moves to stop landowners clearing firebreaks around their properties.

In the summer of 2019, dozens of properties just west of Sydney were obliterated in bushfires among the worst the state has seen.

The Gospers Mountain “mega fire” destroyed an area seven times the size of Singapore, feeding on densely grown areas of the Wollemi National Park.

As residents of the Hawkesbury area gear up to protect their homes for the coming fire season, an “absurd oversight” in a new piece of legislation has put a stop to their plans. “We were told after the last fires that a new rule would be put in place (to) allow us to clear a firebreak around our property,” Bilpin resident Martin Tebbutt said.

“Two years on, that law still hasn’t come into play for us, and so we are sitting ducks waiting for yet another fire to come and burn through all the fuel we have surrounding us.”

Mr Tebbutt’s 40ha farm was completely charred when the blaze ripped through the area on December 21, 2019.

For 5½ years, he has tried to get permission to clear his land to create a fire break and remove fuel that could feed aa fire grow, as well as provide an access point for firefighters in an emergency but all he has from his efforts is a heap of unanswered letters to politicians.

NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott in September enacted the Rural Boundary Clearing Code to allow landowners to clear a 25m firebreak, but the legislation required local councils to pass the orders to allow residents to begin clearing their land.

Last week, a mix of Labor, independent and Greens members of the Hawkesbury City Council voted the proposal down, 9-3, instead opting to tender it for community consultation.

“On the evening news every night, we hear the minister tell us to prepare our properties ahead of fire season.

“Then when fire season comes around, they go ahead and ­obstruct us from doing just that,” Mr Tebbutt said.

The Gospers Mountain fire was devastating to so many communities.

Hawkesbury mayor Pat Con­olly was one of the three who voted for the code to be passed.

“My view was that landholders need to have the option to protect themselves before this fire season.

“I’d hate to think people would lose their properties because the council mucked around trying to pass this through,” he told The Australian.

“(The Gospers Mountain fire) was devastating to so many communities. A lot of people are still living with the trauma and fear of that experience.”

Mr Conolly was not alone in condemning the council’s decision, with local RFS chief Brian Williams claiming the legislation “was dreamt up by people who live in cities, not those who live in the bush”.

“The politics of it all are so heavily influenced by green ideology that actually to get it done is going to be extremely difficult,” the Kurrajong Heights fire captain said.

“The reality of it is that people who have bought a bush property have bought it because they have a love and appreciation for the bush. They’re not going to take down anything that doesn’t need to be removed.”

Greens councillor Danielle Wheeler, who voted to commence community consultation for the “sledgehammer” piece of legislation, said she had “concerns” that the code would allow people to clear properties and sell them off as hobby farms or houses.

“There’s a concern in land clearing and biodiversity loss because once (properties) are too carved up, they’re too small to be agriculture farms and become hobby farms that can sell for $1.4m-$2m per acre.”