‘More rangers needed’ to bolster backburning efforts

Queensland councils are pushing the Palaszczuk government to increase funding for ­national park rangers to ensure better management of fires.

NSW RFS deputy commissioner Rob Rogers. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Queensland councils are pushing the Palaszczuk government to ­increase funding for ­rangers to ensure better management of fires in and around national parks.

The move comes as firefighters continue to battle blazes throughout Queensland and NSW, with crews given little respite from extreme fire conditions in the lead-up to what is predicted to be one of the worst bushfire seasons on record.

Unrelenting fires are still threatening large swaths of NSW and Queensland, with a total fire ban to remain in place on Tuesday across much of NSW.

More than a week after the beginning of the fire surge, the NSW Rural Fire Service has again warned of the danger posed by hot, dry and windy weather, which is predicted to ­return later in the week.

“There are 6000km of active fire edge that we currently have so that’s really like going to Perth and back again,” RFS deputy commissioner Rob Rogers said on Monday.

Temperatures were predicted to hover around 30C for the rest of the week in Queensland, while residents and campers on Moreton Island, east of Brisbane, were warned to leave on Monday as a fire advanced on ­Bulwer.

The councils’ motion, passed at the Local Government Association of Queensland conference last month, followed a government report in July that found Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service had reduced its spending on ­staff while increasing the amount of land it oversaw.

The councils resolved to lobby the government to ­“adequately resource the QPWS to effectively carry out wildfire mitigation works”.

According to the Inspector-General Emergency Management report into the 2018 bushfire season, QPWS has ­reduced staff spending since 2013 by 23 per cent, while the amount of land managed rose from about 12 million hectares to 13 million hectares.

The report also found that despite the challenges, QPWS had “successfully reached 90 to 100 per cent of their target of prescribed burns for several years”.

The national parks service burned off almost 1.1 million hectares of land in 2018-19 — close to double the 5 per cent mark of 634,800ha recommended by the 2009 Victorian bushfires royal commission. Since July, more than 135,000ha of national parks have been burned by the QPWS.

The report noted increased pressures on the ­department’s 800 rangers.

“The capacity of QPWS officers to implement mitigation ­activities has fluctuated over time,” the report said.

Burns are conducted during the cooler months ­between April and August, but drier, warmer conditions have reduced that window in recent years.

“As the climate changes, these (QPWS ranger) teams are increasingly required to suspend mitigation work to respond to bushfires that occur more frequently during cooler months,” the report said.

LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam said mayors and councils around Queensland were concerned that the number of ­national park rangers was not increasing at the same rate as land acquisition.

“We do need to have a review in the amount of work and staffing that occurs with respect to the management of national parks and state forests,” he said.