Victoria’s fuel reduction burning regime is based on out-of-date scientific thinking. RFPG has written to Minister Stitt calling for a proper comprehensive ecological review, with public input, of planned burning which is a core element of Victoria’s bushfire protection regime. Letter (3 April 2023) here.

Our immediate concern is prompted by the manifestly excessive size of the burns in the Upper Goulburn and Big River State Forests planned for the next two years.  The issues are set out clearly in an article in the latest issue of VNPA’s magazine, Park Watch, by fire management expert Phil Ingamells.   The VNPA, through Mr Ingamells, has been pressing the Government on this for some time, but the Environment Department appears to be deaf to reason.

RFPG hopes that the apparent decision by the Department to review the manifestly excessive planned burn in the Strathbogie State Forest that threatened more than 400 Greater Gliders might be a turning point.  However, the fact that it could even have contemplated such a huge burn shows that its thinking its still stuck in the past.

However, the scale of the burns proposed in the Upper Goulburn and Big River State Forests seems even more reckless.  The Big River State Forest, which escaped both the 2006-07 and 2009 fires and is remote from human settlement, is likely to be carried out without regard for the particular circumstances for threatened fauna in the area.  It dwarfs the proposed burn in the Strathbogies and if that proposed burn is to be reviewed, the Big River and Upper Goulburn burns should be likewise reexamined, including with input from RFPG ecologists.

RFPG calls upon the Government to establish comprehensive ecological review, with public input, of the planned burning component of Victoria’s bushfire protection regime in line with Victoria’s commitment in all RFAs (e.g Central Highlands RFA Cl 62C(c)) to limit the ecological impact of planned burning.

3 April 2023