Report finds Queensland officials downplayed severity of Fraser Island bushfires in 2020

Annastacia Palaszczuk says she will look into a report that officials downplayed the severity of a bushfire as it burned more than half of K’Gari, or Fraser Island, last year.

Emails unearthed by an ABC Right to Information application shows senior Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QWPS) officials wrote that “we are probably burning more $$$ than anything else” after two weeks of water bombing efforts on the island in October.

The QWPS regional director said at the time water bombing with saltwater should be reserved for critical situations, which they said the fire had not reached.

The bushfire then burned through more than half of the island, making global headlines, as the world heritage site was ravaged.

The bushfire began after an illegal fire was lit on 14 October, but rangers waited four days, until the blaze neared Orchid Beach, to ask QWPS officials to call in the water bombers.

QWPS executive Damien Head told subordinates he didn’t support water bombing the blaze, “mainly because you won’t put it out in the swamp”.

“And if you could, well the fire isn’t that bad to warrant such action. I feel this is a case of people wishing to indulge their profession. AKA ‘do something’,” his email said.

The Queensland premier said she hadn’t seen the emails, but promised to look at them.

She brushed off questions about why the emails had not been included in a report into the fire by the Inspector-General Emergency Management (IGEM).

“I’ll have a look at it when I get back to work. I’ve been very busy,” she told reporters on Monday.

The IGEM report noted arrangements between QPWS and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services over cost sharing and use of firefighting assets “was the source of some confusion”.

Several factors contributed to the fire spreading, the report said, including high temperatures, strong dry nor

therly winds, difficult terrain and limited access constrained by dry, loose sand tracks.

The state government has supported all 38 recommendations put forward in the IGEM’s report into the Fraser Island bushfire.

The fire burned until mid-December, when heavy rains doused the flames.

Two men were fined $1334 and $667 respectively in January for illegally lighting a campfire which led to 87,000 hectares being burnt through.

QWPS rangers have issued 33 firerelated penalty infringement notices to campers this year.