Queensland forestry staff not trained to face bushfire crisis: expert

The Queensland government has been blasted for the way it manages bushfire risk in its state forests.

Forestry agencies ­nationwide are inadequately resourced for bushfire risk, says independent consultant and bushfire expert Bernard Trembath. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The Queensland government is scrambling to overhaul the way it manages bushfire risk in nearly four million hectares of state forest following a scathing independent report into the firefighting capability of the agency responsible for its extensive timber reserves.

The report found that Forest Products, which sells state-owned timber and other products, had no capacity to stop large-scale fire events, had little input into hazard reduction burns and was likely in serious breach of workplace health and safety laws because staff were not given the chance to improve their fire management skills.

Independent consultant and bushfire expert Bernard Trembath slammed the lack of policy and clear direction with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries regarding fire management in state forests despite its responsibility as a forest manager.

He said other states faced similar issues, again throwing the spotlight on whether inadequate resourcing and poor fire management of state forests was a factor fuelling the bushfire crisis.

“No documented procedures for operational personnel with ­regards to fire management were identified during the review. This presents a significant risk for ­Forest Products,” he wrote in the report.

“It is immediately apparent from the size of the forest estate and the number of operational staff available to manage disturbances, specifically fire, that Forest Products does not have the ­capacity to suppress or contain large-scale fire events.”

Mr Trembath, who worked for Queensland Forestry for 23 years before joining Queensland Fire and Emergency Services for another 20 years, told The Australian the issue of inadequate fire management was repeated in other states.

“The problem is not with the firefighting, it is with the management of those assets.”

He said forestry agencies ­nationwide were inadequately resourced for bushfire risk.

The spokesman for state Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said the department had changed its fire management since the report was completed in September 2018.

He said the department had ­integrated its fire resources into the Department of Environment and Science’s fire management.

Mr Trembath’s report highlighted the poor training in how to deal with bushfires among Forest Products’ 100 staff. The agency manages and sells timber products derived from about 3.8 million hectares of ­defined forest area in Queensland, from cypress and hardwoods in ­regional areas to sandalwood and quarry material.

It sells about 100,000cu m of cypress sawlogs for construction, framing, cladding, flooring and fencing each year. However, the cypress business is particularly vulnerable to fire damage. The business earned about $17m in ­royalties last financial year.

The agency left it to Queensland Parks and Wildlife to be the sole operator of fire management in some areas of state forest.

This was of particular concern in relation to hazard reduction burning. The report stated that Forest Products had “minimal input and a limited role in prescribed burning for mitigation and ecosystem health”.

“Forest Products’ managers indicated that the consultation process (for prescribed burning) is not consistent or non-existent,” it said.

“While Forest Products has a core of trained and experienced firefighters, there is a significant difference in the quantity and quality of fire management experience across operational staff. Many staff were not given the opportunity to attend prescribed burning operations to enhance and maintain their basic competencies.”

Mr Trembath said staff were ­required to perform in managing fire risk without proper training.

“As a result, Forest Products could be found in serious breach of the Work Health and Safety Act.”

While operational managers were generally experienced in landscape fires, they had neither the time nor the organisational support to meet their obligations.

However, the minister’s spokesman said department staff had been involved in “fire suppression” this season. The spokesman said later 23 of the report’s 43 recommendations had been implemented with a further 16 “in progress”. He said the department took workplace health and safety during fire management activities seriously and was confident no breaches had occurred.