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CFA warning: Riverside campers’ fires put community at risk

Camp fires spark 60 per cent of crown land fires. Yet the push is on to open up Victoria’s riverbanks to campers.

Forest Fire Management Victoria firefighters were called out to 860 blazes started by campfires in 2020-21.
Forest Fire Management Victoria firefighters were called out to 860 blazes started by campfires in 2020-21.

Farmers are warning the Victorian Government’s bid to allow the public to pitch a tent on crown land river frontages adjoining their land will dramatically increase the risk of unattended campfires starting bushfires.

Last financial year Forest Fire Management Victoria reported 860 of the 1435 bushfires it attended in state forests and other crown land were sparked by unattended campfires.

FFMV even issued a public alert in January, warning campfires “caused 270 bushfires on public land (so far) this fire season, which is more than half the fires responded to by crews”, with 91 of those sparked over seven days from Christmas to New Year.

The Government is in the midst of trying to deliver its 2018 election promise to open up crown land water frontages to campers, who will be able to light campfires, despite most of the land being licensed to and managed by adjoining landholders.

Rutherglen CFA deputy group officer Paul Heard said “we’re very concerned about the lack of consultation”, given the risks and that most water frontages are difficult to access or have just one road in or out.

“If we have 50 to 100 sites up here where people are camping and a fire starts it’s going to be so hard to manage community safety,” Mr Heard said.

“Are they (government) doing risk assessments and fire plans for each site?”

A government spokeswoman said “there were existing rules about campfire safety that everyone must follow to reduce the risk of bushfires and protect the community and environment.

But Victorian Farmers Federation land management spokesman Gerald Leach said “we know more campers will mean more unattended fires and it will be the landholders and the local CFA that deal with the consequences.

“This is why we want a system of registration, to encourage good behaviour and ensure accountability.”

In the meantime the Government is spending more than $2 million employing 21 contractors for 12 months to assess which river frontages are suitable for public camping.

“The advertised positions will support the implementation and assist with the ongoing consultation and assessment of possible sites,” the government’s spokeswoman said.

Liberal Member for Eildon Cindy McLeish said farmers wanted to see the government putting resources into making sure campers obeyed the water frontage regulations, not just employing assessors for a year.

As it stands farmers face having to ring the 13FISH hotline for help.

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Original URL: https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victoria/cfa-warning-riverside-campers-fires-put-community-at-risk/news-story/829606a8183bf4cd4e80c1e9a8c6a7d0