Halt on fire breaks amid Grampian fires to protect culturally sensitive sites

A bulldozer contractor has said they were pulled off work on a fire break in the midst of the Grampians fires to protect a “culturally sensitive” site.

Bulldozers play a critical role in building fire breaks, but at least one was stopped during the Grampians fires, due to fears it would damage a culturally sensitive site.

Protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage sites trumped building a fire break during last month’s Grampians fires, when a bulldozer contractor was pulled off building a containment line due to the areas sensitivity.

“I was going into this spot-over and they wanted me to cut a break around it,” the contractor said. “(But) I sat there for a couple of hours and then they told me it was culturally sensitive and they didn’t want me to go in there.”

The Weekly Times has withheld the contractor’s name and where he was working in the Grampians, due to fears he could lose future government work.

But Forest Fire Management Victoria Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman dismissed the contractor’s comments as “incorrect”, saying “neither Parks Victoria nor Forest Fire Management Victoria stopped or adjusted any critical control lines and fallback measures put in place to contain the fire.

“There is no legislative requirement to avoid impacts on cultural values during an emergency response. Our priority is always to protect Victorians and save lives, while also protecting the environment.”

But it appears protection of culturally sensitive sites during bushfires and planned burns has become a higher priority under the Allan Government.

In September last year the government began sacking 208 staff from DEECA’s Bushfire and Forest Services Group across 99 regional sites, with many were forced to reapply for new positions.

Yet just before Christmas it advertised for 13 new cultural forest fire operations officers to “undertake Aboriginal heritage value assessment and protection”, including supervision of heavy plant operation and contractors.

“This position has a strong focus on emergency response and may involve being deployed across the state for periods up to 7-days, for both emergency response and planned burning activities,” the position description stated.

“These activities require a high level of fitness, as the work environment is often steep and remote from vehicles.”

Mr Hardman said the new positions were part of a $36.9 million budget investment in 54 additional firefighting roles and $20 million to upgrade critical forest fire emergency response equipment.

“These new roles will bring specialist skillsets as part of our frontline fire management workforce, delivering bushfire risk reduction works, including planned burning, as well as emergency preparedness and response works.”