Our thoughts with all Margaret River residents

As we on the east coast of NSW are enjoying lots of rain and cool weather, our thoughts go out to those who have lost properties and homes in the lovely Margaret River region. How heartbreaking and terrifying it must be.

I hope that none of our members, friends or relatives here are in any danger, being such a famous district it wouldn't be hard to have become acquainted with someone there. Let's hope that everyone is safe.

Fire would have to be one of the scariest things that I can imagine being trapped in.
Hope all there are ok.

We have family (my Brother-in-Law's Mother-in-Law lives there), in Margaret River who have been evacuated. We don't know if they've got a house to go back to. We know the fire is right up to their fence line and they have lost their caravan on their boundary fence. She is safe as of this morning.

Hope everyone is doing okay and stays safe, things can be replaced people can't.

Keep us posted, Simon. It's all the more dreadful for being so preventable.

Yes, thoughts with them, and with flood victims.

It was a simply dreadful day – heat and high winds. I have not been to Margaret River / Prevally for years, but I do remember parts where the houses were completely and closely surrounded by beach bush.

Our Council (further inland) has brought in new rules and regs and we have two years to comply with C to F, below:

A Remove all flammable material within 20 metres of the dwelling or outbuilding.
(There is a problem with the leaf-litter and grass clippings mulch I use on a rose bed near the house and I don’t know how to cope with this. A gardener simply MUST mulch, but mulch was the culprit in many burnt houses in the Canberra fires.)

B. Tree crowns are to be a minimum of 10 metres apart. (We will lose a few more trees I think.).
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C. Trees are low pruned at least to a height of 2 metres. (This means pruned up from the ground for 2 metres. Rob and I are slowly coping with this, but a Cryptomeria japonica elegans which was the focal point of a long walk, looks positively ugly now. However, it did have masses of highly inflammable dried foliage at its base. We will leave tackling the trees like the weeping pinoak and the blue spruce which look so beautiful with their skirts, until last.)

D. No trees are to be over hanging the dwelling or outbuilding. (Nobody would have this anyway. But our neighbour does!!)

E. No tall shrub or tree is to be located within 2 metres of a dwelling or outbuilding.
(We have ‘Marie Nabonnand’ cascading out of a flowering quince. The tree trunk is well beyond the 2 metre zone, but we will prune out another branch just to be safe.)

(F) Forest Fuel litter on your property must no exceed the depths…. of 30mm. (This will create problems for us as we like to conserve our 186 acres of forest. We will burn a portion of it each year, when we can).

Overall, we comply with safety regulations well. Our five acre garden is regularly mown; we have a brick and tile building; aluminium window shutters; our eaves are enclosed; the fire pump is permanently connected to the concrete tank all summer; and our gutters are regularly blown free of leaves. There is almost nothing growing around the house. It almost looks austere with a massive bed of the Heart-Leaf Noon Flower cactusy thing to the south (looks cool and green in summer); nasturtiums gone mad to the west; and the weeds are round-upped and later whipper-snippered on the north and east sides. Most of the rose gardens are at some distance from the house and it is a pleasant thing to walk over and go into a rose garden.

I can see that these new rules and regs might change the way we garden.

In our small town there are maybe 500 people – and three fire trucks.
FESA advice given recently was “It is your land, and it is your fire." All over Australia we have to prepare our properties to survive these hot days and very strong winds. But I really don’t know how people cope with the surrounding bush when they buy a quarter acre in the country.

"I really don’t know how people cope with the surrounding bush when they buy a quarter acre in the country."


Me neither and I own one. My father bought the Blue Mountains cottage in the 70s and I'm often amazed it's still standing. Original gums border the (narrow) property on two sides and I long ago planted exotic shrubs and trees between my garden and the house next door. By your rules, I'd have to fell the lot.

The really scary thing is the rise and rise of the disaffected kids who set fires on hot windy days for the fun of it. They can't be bothered going far to do it, so the fires always begin close to housing. It's like heaving rocks onto cars from overhead bridges. What are they thinking?

The Shire of Manhjimup fuel hazard reduction rules.
As a gardener, I would have been a little more lenient.

As for the disaffected ones, much more emphasis from both parent and teacher on the good principles of life might not go astray. (I should go in to the school and teach 'em to grow roses, shouldn't I?)

I understood the rules weren't yours, Patricia. They are good guidelines...if you are not on a suburban-size block. I've become fatalistic. If it goes, it goes. And in the meantime the Rural Fire Service and the SES get donations from me every time they ask.

unfortunately we had a friend who was affected by the fires.....going down tomorrow to help clean the block up with the truck , so that they can start anew. They were allowed back today for the first time to see the damaged that was done

Oh John your poor friend and to thiink it was all started by a back burn.

It was not a pretty sight......my friend and I did most of the clean up as our friends were pretty distraught and his wife was a total mess as she lost all her childrens photos and their mementoes. Now they wait to see how quick the insurance company comes to the party

best of luck to them hope things happen quickly

Having such good friends must be a comfort.

Hi,
we've just came back from a few days in the Wimmera near a town called Rupanyup. The people we visited are elderly (he's 80) and they live on a 5 acre block with another 5 acres leased. They have the Dunmunkle Creek flowing through their property, a water reserve behind them and a 1700 acre Crown Land forest reserve opposite.
When we were there, the fairy grass was blowing in from the water reserve behind them. It reached eave height in the house yards. The forest reserve used to be fenced and farmers could put their cattle in to eat it down every so often. The experts in their wisdom decided that the casuarinas in the forest reserve needed a bit of help to regenerate so they removed all the fences and the grass is tall because they're having a good wet season up there. They don't even cut a swathe around the edge as a fire barrier. The forest starts about 40 metres from their house.
These people live in fear of fire every day. When we were there we were helping to clear out the fairy grass from the house yards but it's a thankless task. The day after we came home, they had 50kph winds and it was back even worse.
Up the road from these people there are a couple in their 90's. I don't know how they manage.
I rang the council up there after I got home and no-one wants to know about it or do anything about it.
I'm going to write a few letters.
Barbara B