PLAYING WITH FIRE

State govt warned about overgrown blocks

WEST Coast Council has taken aim at the state government for failing to prepare for bush fires.

Mayor Phil Vickers said state government land was covered in gorse. “It is a definite fire risk,” he said.

A FED-UP West Coast Council will start patrolling towns and issuing abatement notices to owners of properties that pose a fire risk — including thousands of hectares of state government-managed land —much of it covered in gorse.

Gorse is thought to have come to Tasmania’s remote West Coast by rail.

Since then it has taken over the landscape, especially areas like the swath of coastal heathland between Zeehan and Strahan.

“The main fire abatement problem is not connected with private property but on public land,” Mayor Phil Vickers said.

“There is no quick fix but if we do nothing as time goes on it will get worse and worse and totally take over the landscape.

“It is a definite fire risk. But the issue doesn’t seem to get much traction with the state government which owns most of the land where the problem is most noticeable.”

Zeehan has been in the direct line of bushfires in the past.

In 1981 40 homes in Zee-h an were destroyed in a bushfire and a 4000 ha fire threatened the town again in January last year before changing direction.

The West Coast Council’s most recent annual community survey showed controlling gorse and putting in firebreaks were among the big issues ratepayers wanted the focus to be on in 2020-21.

Most of the land on the West Coast is owned by the public with almost 70 percent under Parks and Wildlife Ser-vice control. A PWS spokesman said the service was on the West Coast Council’s West Coast Weed Management Group and worked with the council and land holders to control the invasive weed.

“Last year more than $15,000 was spent on weed abatement of Crown land in Zeehan that adjoins private freehold and it is expected that there will be similar requirements this coming season ,” a spokesman said.

“In addition to this, a fuel reduction burn of 2815ha has been completed around Zeehan and Rosebery and this burn contributed to the control of gorse. PWS is also working with TFS on a strategic firebreak maintenance program for Zeehan.

“This program will involve locating, clearing and maintaining a strategic network of fire breaks to aid in the protection of Zeehan from wildfire. These breaks will also be treated for gorse.”