We all must get together on wildfires
Peter Boyer says threat of climate change demands big co- operation
MOST who knew the late John Evans, Tasmanian fisherman, artist and deep thinker, would see him as eccentric, in a different orbit.
Evans, who died in 2012, was a big- picture person who believed “advanced” lifestyles were taking us to a global disaster. Compared with such weighty matters, he found government regulation trivial, and sometimes exchanged harsh words with public officials trying to get him to toe the line.
On Evans’s list of email correspondents was another eccentric, also bothered by the state of the planet and how authorities are managing it. Peter Hicken lives on a few idyllic hectares in the hills overlooking D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island.
Like Evans, Hicken is an autodidact who has thought deeply about the state of the planet. What drives him is fire — specifically, how we can use it to keep the bush healthy and lessen the risk of being consumed in a firestorm.
A former volunteer with his local Middleton fire brigade, these days Peter Hicken is a self- described “fire restrainer”. That entails applying his skill and knowledge to look after his own land and help others in his neighbourhood who seek his advice and support.
Hicken is a retiring type, not one to put himself out there, but if anyone asks about managing fire he has plenty to offer. In fact he’s written books about it, self- published and distributed to a select readership — full of information, advice and views about fire emergencies.
Hicken’s fire manuals are idiosyncratic, right down to dodgy spelling. Every page is its own story, told as a map, diagram, photo, quiz, checklist, cartoon, and a lot of text. His latest edition is about planning for the chaos of wildfire.
The manuals are a mine of information about fires in Australia and what happened over the decades leading up to the destructive force of nature we saw last summer. Needless to say, climate change is a big part of that story. Using fire to reduce the risk of wildfires features prominently in his manual. Among his guides are the fire regimes of Indigenous Australians, who, for tens of thousands of years, managed land with regular, controlled, low- intensity burns.
Hicken takes readers through the steps required for a prescribed burn, covering on- site factors ( weather, use and maintenance of fire suppression equipment, clear boundaries, overhead fuels, power lines and such like) and formal clearances from police and fire authorities.
In his manuals, Hicken provides a checklist for handling disputes with others, including advice to stay calm and see the best in them. But that doesn’t always seem to have worked in his favour. Some of his burns resulted in brushes with police and fire officers questioning his credentials and authorisation. He was once fined for a permit transgression.
In a drawn- out dispute with Tasmania Fire Service, Hicken thinks he was unfairly targeted and his expertise undervalued.
My own experience with TFS has been positive. I value the work of the brigade in my community and the officers I have encountered. They make sense talking about practical matters, as well as the bigger picture, including climate.
After a decade of correspondence, hearing his story and reading his manuals, I believe Hicken has much to offer his community. I can also see how, in defending his turf and responding to what he saw as unfair, he rubbed officials up the wrong way. His is a very human response to broadbrush regulations we must all learn to live with. Hicken is wrestling with how he might resolve his differences with the TFS. I hope he succeeds.
As a community, a state and nation, we need to come together to manage fire. Our best interests call for fire and other officials and dedicated, public- minded eccentrics like Peter Hicken to value each other’s strengths and find ways of making them work for all.