UpdateFebruary 2020 Vol 28, No. 1 Thrice Yearly Newsletter

The world reacts to bushfires Story on page 3.

First All-Indigenous NSW firefighting Bushfire survival stories from Inside Update crews 10 ’s east 17 Media late to the game on An inspiring story from an ABC Friend 18 ‘unprecedented’ fires 11 From the Editor 2 Bushfire Report from Mid North The ABC praised for its ‘vital’ Coast Branch 19 ’s Catastrophic Bushfires 4 emergency reporting 12 Fires and Floods on the North Coast How much does it cost the ABC to ABC coverage of the Australian of NSW 19 cover a bushfire crisis? 5 bushfires 12 From our President 20 ABC under ‘growing’ cost pressure 6 Witnessing the horror and the best of ABC Emergency Broadcasting (EB) 21 ABC Friends Media Release 7 humanity on the South Coast 13 ABC Emergency Broadcasts 22 Letters 8 Lauren Hamilton’s experience of the fires 14 ABC problems in bushfire coverage 23 ‘Life and death’: ABC battles to restore damaged networks 9 Kylie’s Bushfire story 16

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 1 Update Publication Information From the Editor Update is published three times a year by ABC Friends National Inc. PO Box 3620 Manuka ACT 2603 Print Post approved: PP245059/00002. elcome to our special Bushfire which would keep them and their families Extracts from newspapers and other Edition of Update. These fires safe. publications appearing in Update do Whave been described by British We acknowledge the contribution of not necessarily reflect the views of the natural historian David Attenborough as ‘a members of ABC Friends. hundreds of ABC staff, many returning major international catastrophe.’ We bring early from leave and working in extreme Update is distributed to all members of you some gripping personal accounts of ABC Friends as part of the membership conditions to bring you the stories, the fee. Update is also supplied to bushfire experiences, comments from our pictures, the sound and the essential journalists, politicians and libraries National President Margaret Reynolds and emergency information. It is ironic that across Australia. Vice-President Ed Davis, selected articles amongst those ABC staff there will be some Update is edited and produced in from journalists, reports from the ABC, facing redundancy as a result of the recent and contributions are welcome and the observations of many ordinary from state and regional branches. Email $83.7million budget cuts inflicted on the your contribution (in Microsoft Word) to Australians on the role of the ABC as our ABC by the Morrison government, on top of [email protected] or Emergency Broadcaster throughout this the $250m in cuts since 2014. post to address below extraordinary summer in Australia. Rest assured that ABC Friends will be in Material may be quoted or reproduced We dedicate this Update to those who from Update provided the source is Canberra when parliament resumes to acknowledged and reproduction is sent have given their lives in defending their demand the restoration of funds so that to the Editor at the above email or postal communities, and the thousands of the ABC can continue to provide all of the address. volunteers and professionals who have given services that the Australian public have the so much of themselves in the fight to protect Would you like to receive right to expect from their publicly funded the lives and properties of others, and our Update newsletter broadcaster. native flora and fauna. electronically? May I thank on behalf of all ABC Friends Save the planet’s trees and ABC Friends’ Our focus, of course, is on the vital role my valued colleagues Dr Diana Wyndham, printing and postage costs and read played by the ABC as the Emergency Angela Williamson and Paul Martens, who Update on your tablet or computer. When Broadcaster, and so often, when all other Update is published, you will receive an have worked very hard to bring you this email with a link to the latest issue (each communication failed in extreme conditions, special Bushfire Edition of Update. newsletter is a 2-3MB PDF). it was the ABC which was the source of You can try this now by going to the information which enabled people in Mal Hewitt OAM www.fabcnsw.org.au and clicking on desperate circumstances to make decisions ABC Friends “Newsletter”. If you prefer this delivery option for future Updates please contact your local state branch (see back page).

Who to write… Anyone seeking basic information about writing to persons of influence might find it helpful to go to www.fabcnsw.org.au where there are some menu items under “Be Active” leading to pages of information: Who can I write to? What can I say?

Update Editor - Mal Hewitt PO Box 1391 North Sydney 2059 [email protected] Production Manager - Angela Williamson [email protected] Assistant Editor - Dr Diana Wyndham Cartoonist - Phil Somerville Phil currently runs an online topical cartoon by paid subscription called Line of Thought. Enquire at phil.somerville@ somervillecartoons.com Layout Artist - Paul Martens [email protected]

2 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 unbreathable air in Australia because of institution that the Coalition and puppet raging forest fires”. masters Murdoch want extinct. Elizabeth Warren: The catastrophic Darren Chester, MP – ABC Melbourne scenes from Australia’s wildfires should broadcasting live from 5 alarm all of us. Climate change is driving January. Thanks for your coverage. The even more dangerous and destructive fires The team at ABC has been world reacts... across the world, from California to New incredible providing the latest fire safety continued from page 1 South Wales—and we must fight together warnings all week. It’s wet and cold to defeat this crisis. today – welcome respite but a lot of work A prominent member of Boris Johnson’s to be done. n 4 January, The Guardian in cabinet says the nation is “heartbroken” by Phillip Coorey – Just emerged from London led with an article about the devastation caused in Australia by the days of hell on the coast. Cannot believe Othe Australian bushfires with a bushfire crisis. The devastation prompted attacks on ABC. It is the ONLY reliable striking picture of a kangaroo fleeing a wall condolence messages from the Queen source of info, everyone is tuned in. Its of flames. Australian fires keep dominating and other members of the Royal Family. real time broadcasting is saving lives, international news. More than 1,772 Prince Charles has delivered a heartfelt property and helping us understand our people Tweeted about the 4 January video message to Australia, saying he and situation re fire threats, road, petrol, food article and these are some of them: his wife have been in despair watching the etc. Hilary Clinton: With Australia on fire and “appalling horror” of the country’s bushfire Tony Koch – Listening to radio and the Arctic in meltdown, it’s clear we’re in a crisis. watching TV on the devastating climate emergency. bushfires, am struck by the Al Gore: Among the risks of the climate Australian Tweets included: professionalism of journalists but crisis is a normalization of its horrific and Gaven Morris (ABC Director News, particularly the job the ABC is doing over deadly consequences. The bushfires Analysis and Investigations): For all the laws the country. Magnificent coverage as in Australia represent a startling climate Australia’s governments have changed usual in disasters. We owe a debt to our catastrophe unfolding before us. and the billions of dollars spent to protect ABC – they save lives. Bernie Sanders: What is happening in us from terrorism, this is what terror in Anne Summers, AO – Thank you ABC Australia today will become increasingly Australia looks like. Many innocent lives, journos for doing the tremendous life- common around the world if we do not thousands of properties and millions of saving work. Australia owes you. aggressively combat climate change and animals lost. Lucy Turnbull, AO – Listening to @ABC transform our energy system away from Simon Chapman, AO – The ABC’s news streaming radio south NSW. What fossil fuels. The future of the planet is coverage of this fire disaster has been an incredible national service that informs at stake. We must act. “I say to those utterly first class. Without them the national us and brings us all together, whenever who are delaying action on climate would be in the dark. Imagine the anxiety we are. Loving #OurABC more than ever change: Look at the blood-red sky and and panic. A reminder this is our iconic at this truly horrible time.

Northern Suburbs of Sydney Branch (NSoS) MEDIA RELEASE

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 3 Australia’s Catastrophic Bushfires

There has been a Professor Ed Davis AM deep economic toll. President of NSW Friends AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver has predicted that the fires will ‘We are in the midst of the wipe $20 billion from sixth mass extinction and the Gross Domestic extinction rate is up to 10,000 Product. The times faster than what is impact on tourism, considered normal, with up to both domestic and 200 species becoming extinct international, is every single day. Erosion of massive. Neglect fertile topsoil. Deforestation of the environment of our great forests. Toxic air has direct economic pollution. Loss of insects and consequences. As wildlife. The acidification of our the Sydney Morning oceans’. Herald’s economics This is Greta Thunberg, teenage Swedish editor Ross Gittins schoolgirl, climate warrior and Time argued on 22 January magazine Person of the Year in 2019. 2020, the economy Greta was addressing the European sits within the Parliament in Strasbourg last April. natural environment. Australia is now experiencing exactly the Anything that disasters that she predicted and that damages the climate scientists have warned about for environment imposes decades. losses in property, business, jobs, lives Australia has borne a heavy toll. By mid- and health on the January, the calamitous bush fires have Greta Thunberg – Youngest ever – Time Person of the Year. people who make up burnt approximately 18.6 million hectares At the start of the bushfires, Prime Minister the economy. (46 million acres) and destroyed over 6000 Scott Morrison was striving to reassure buildings, including 2800 homes. 34 The Australian government paid no heed us that Australia had always suffered people have been listed as dead and this to the warnings of climate scientists fires and these fires were nothing to number will surely climb. and other experts who predicted that a worry about. Indeed, the PM must have catastrophic fire season awaited at the end In NSW, the Berejiklian government convinced himself on this score as he of 2019. Indeed, the Morrison government assessed that a third of NSW national took his family off to Hawaii. The data is built on the inertia of previous governments parks had been burnt, more than half of now being assembled which demonstrate which had abolished the Climate Council the state’s heathlands, more than 40% the extent to which these fires have been in 2013 and reduced funding for climate- of the sclerophyll forests and more than unprecedented. A good example was related research. In April 2019, the PM a third of the rain forests. The impact on supplied by the NSW Department of refused to meet with the Emergency Australia’s extraordinary flora and fauna Planning, Industry and Environment last Leaders for Climate Change, led by former has been starkly tragic. Experts have week: Sydney experienced 81 days of Commissioner for NSW Fire and Rescue, estimated that more than a billion animals hazardous air quality in 2019, more than Greg Mullins. Morrison did not wish to have been killed in the fires and this does the combined total for the previous ten discuss their assertion that extreme and not include bats, frogs and insects. The years. Other capital cities also suffered dangerous weather events lay ahead; World Wildlife Fund has said that koala days of choking smoke. It is no surprise he did not listen to their pleas for urgent numbers have fallen from around 10 million that there has been a sharp spike in preparation. In early November, with the in 1788 to no more than 200,000 before asthma-related presentations at hospitals fires already wreaking havoc, Deputy PM, the fires. There are real fears that this across Australia. The Royal Australasian Michael McCormack described people much-loved emblem of Australia is being College of Physicians has reported that linking the impact of bushfires and climate pushed to extinction. A similar fate awaits Australia is now in uncharted territory in change as, ‘pure, enlightened and woke the platypus as scorching drought dries up assessment of the long-term health impact capital-city greenies’ and ‘inner-city raving rivers and creeks. of the fires. lunatics.’

Page 4 The PM and government appear to based organisations, the wonderful David It is not hard to join the dots. The Murdoch have shifted their rhetoric in recent days, Attenborough and the irrepressible Greta Empire has favoured coal and the political pointing to their belated and inadequate Thunberg. party most wedded to coal. Their campaign Australia’s measures to engage Defence personnel is designed to stave off threats to fossil fuels and reservists and provide some Media Reporting and keep their party in power. Costs to assistance to affected communities and News Corp include global derision for this The Australian media’s reporting on the Catastrophic Bushfires the extraordinary volunteer fire fighters approach, the exit of many of their most who have been the front line. According bushfires has followed a well-worn path. respected journalists and Board Member to the PM, Australia can combat the threat Most obviously, the ABC and Fairfax James Murdoch’s widely reported criticism of climate change without any change to mastheads have accepted the scientists’ of climate denialism within the Empire. government policy, as he attested in an consensus on climate change as they Meanwhile, the ABC has received ABC interview with David Speers in mid- reported on the appalling impact of the overwhelming praise for its efforts to report January. fires and on the grim warnings of the experts. In both TV clips and photography, accurately and fearlessly on the fires and This puts him at odds with a very wide they have reflected the extraordinary scale their impact. The courage and resilience spectrum of organisations, from the of the threat to life, homes, bush and of the reporters and their crews have International Monetary Fund (IMF), the been breathtaking. On top of that, ABC Bank for International Settlements (BIS, wildlife. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, comprising 70% of Australian newspapers Emergency Broadcasts have brought vital bringing together sixty central banks), information to people desperate to know and Sky TV, has continued its pattern through to Prince Charles, who delivered about the dangers facing them and their of negative reporting of climate science. a stirring speech at the recent World communities. Emails to the ABC and letters Indeed, in early January, with the fires at Economic Forum in Davos, calling for to local and city newspapers tell the story. a rapid shift to a new economic model their most terrifying, stories about picnic which ended ‘perverse subsidies’ to fossil races pushed reporting of the fires off page The sorry tale of this fire season has fuels, priced carbon and encouraged 1 of The Australian. The familiar troupe of underlined the essential role of the ABC. ‘green’ investment. Add to this list, the columnists was let loose to pour scorn on And, the absolute imperative that it is very solid consensus of climate-science climate science. independent and properly funded.

How much does it cost the ABC to cover a bushfire crisis? Image: ABC News

McKnight. McKnight told Crikey the shave around $85 million off what the national broadcaster is calling staff back broadcaster had previously expected Justine Landis-Hanley early from holidays and asking them over that period. The ABC’s board and Crikey, 15 January 2020 to work rostered days off to keep up management met in December last year to with the bushfire crisis. McKnight also consider a five-year cost-cutting strategy understands the ABC is providing living that is expected to include 200 jobs axed he ABC will blow out its allotted allowances to staff working away from in March. “No-one at the ABC would ever $1 million for emergency home, and handing out cab charges suggest they stop their coverage so the Treporting, with the broadcaster to workers who usually catch public newsroom will get whatever funds it needs telling Crikey its bushfire crisis coverage transport when they’ve done a long shift. but it will come at a cost to other sections expected to cost “well into the millions “When news breaks everyone just works of the broadcaster,” McKnight said. “There of dollars”. It’s not surprising: an ABC harder and longer knowing they are isn’t an endless supply of cash for news spokesperson told Nine last week that doing something important, but that isn’t coverage any more. Those in charge will there have already been 670 emergency sustainable,” McKnight said. “As time most likely have to make it work within broadcast events for the 2019-20 goes on people need time off and need their current budget and that means financial year, compared to 371 in total to be replaced. That’s when costs start something will have to give later on.” for the 2018-2019 financial year. to rise as you employ freelancers and The ABC hinted at future talks with And the cost of that coverage is pay airfares to get those workers into the the Coalition over its budget freeze, “only going to create headaches fire zones.” telling Crikey in a statement that “at the for management”, according to The ABC is six months into a three-year appropriate time we will discuss our veteran television producer and host freeze on any increase in its $1 billion current funding circumstances with the of podcast TV Blackbox Robert annual budget, a move expected to government”.

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, NoPage 1 55 ABC under ‘growing’ cost pressure as bushfire emergency broadcasts surge

Jennifer Duke SMH 3 January 2020

he ABC’s extensive coverage of bushfires ravaging the country Tthreatens to push the taxpayer- funded news organisation into more budget strife with emergency broadcasting events on track to double in 2020. There have been 670 emergency broadcasting events for the 2019-20 financial year so far, an ABC spokesman said, compared to 371 for the full 2018-19 financial year. In 2017-18 there were 256 events, a figure that had been surpassed by mid- September 2019. The ABC’s coverage of the bushfires and emergency broadcasts have been extensive. These national emergency broadcasts are not part of the ABC’s charter requirements, though are considered to be of significant public benefit by the government and communities across the country, and come out of the existing $1 billion-a-year budget. The public broadcaster has been faced with the prospect of cutting about 200 staff among other cost savings plans as it grapples with an indexation freeze imposed by the government that was forecast in the 2018 Federal Budget to eventually shave $84 million a year off expected funding. As but instead for an increase in overall amid declining audiences and advertising the inflation rate has been lower since the funding. revenue heading online. ABC Managing federal budget this impact may be reduced A spokeswoman for Communications Director David Anderson told staff on Friday but this has not stopped management Minister Paul Fletcher said the ABC that the coverage had been a “whole-of- discussions at the ABC about the need for was doing an “excellent job” providing ABC effort. This has included extensive substantial cuts to handle the decrease in emergency information. “No request has rolling emergency and news broadcasts taxpayer funds. been made by the ABC for additional for days on end and unprecedented and “The cost of the ABC’s emergency funding to support their emergency impressive digital story production,” he broadcasting coverage come out of base broadcasting services,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the New Year’s Eve funding – there is no specific government said. “Should such a request be made, coverage reached 3.5 million people and funding for this coverage,” the ABC the government will quickly consider it as raised $2.8 million for the Red Cross. spokesman said in a statement. “These part of a broader relief package.” The Labor Communications spokeswoman costs are growing,” he said. “We will ABC spokesman declined to comment Michelle Rowland said in a statement always prioritise coverage of emergency on the amount of additional funding that that the ABC team had been doing an information and will continue to speak might be needed or the form it would take, “extraordinary job during this crisis” and with government to ensure that we are saying the “focus at the moment is to when other forms of communication adequately funded to serve the Australian deliver vital information to the communities weren’t available often the broadcaster public.” Sources with knowledge of the affected by the fires”. The ABC has was the only means of information. “Labor sensitive funding discussions said there indicated an interest in more funding for has been calling for a national response historically hadn’t been a huge interest broader regional services, particularly to these bushfires, and given its important from the ABC for an extra budget allocation as private media companies struggle to role, this must include the national specifically directed to emergency services keep newsrooms open in rural Australia broadcaster,” she said.

6 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 MEDIA RELEASE

Urgent Call for Federal Government to Restore Funding that Guarantees Infrastructure and Transmission that is Vital for Emergency Services Broadcasting.

ABC Radio and TV networks have suffered considerable damage during the bushfire crisis. Damage to a transmission tower in , with a reach to 58,000 people, restricted emergency broadcasts in the area for several days. There were similar outages in other bush fire-affected communities. To date the ABC has received overwhelming praise for its efforts to keep local communities informed about fire warnings and road closures. But there are obviously areas that urgently need attention, either to repair or install essential communications infrastructure. Minister Paul Fletcher is to be commended for his recognition of the ABC and it would be good to hear from other Federal parliamentarians who understand the role of the national broadcaster at such devastating times of national disaster. Local communities are being urged to contact ABC Friends to provide their input into the survey over the next two weeks. Results will form an Urgent Restore ABC Funding Submission to the Prime Minister and to the ABC Friends Parliamentary Group. It would seem from initial feedback that the ABC has done a wonderful job despite the difficult conditions on the ground and the impact of continual funding cuts. Along with the stories praising the ABC’s magnificent work, we are hearing other stories of service interruption, no coverage, and accessibility issues. To better understand these issues, ABC Friends will survey fire-affected communities to determine priorities and serve as a guide to what essential work is required now and in the future. The events of this summer underscore the vital, life-saving role the ABC plays in times of natural disaster. Scientists are telling us that the frequency of such events will increase in time due to climate change, which means the Federal Government needs to ensure that the emergency broadcaster, the ABC, is well funded and has adequate infrastructure.

Margaret Reynolds, President [email protected]

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 7 Letters

Letters poured into the Sydney Morning Herald – an email to my local MP (Joel Fitzgibbon) suggesting extra ABC the first one appeared on 1 January 2020: funding should be ALP Policy. - John Turner, Carey Bay ABC is a lifeline - Many Coalition politicians regard the ABC as If there is one positive thing that could come out of the horrible “the enemy”. But out here in fire country, the ABC is our lifeline. events of the last couple of months, it surely is that the ABC On Tuesday, as fire consumed some of our neighbouring towns, has become untouchable. Day after day, reporters provide up and when we received a warning text from the RFS, we tuned into to date, insightful and often very moving reports from places all our local ABC to stay updated on what was happening around over the country. More than merely reporting, they are providing a us. On Wednesday the fires were less threatening but between valuable community service, helping people to find help and quite Nowra and Batemans Bay many have lost road access, power, often giving life-saving advice. Way beyond the expectations of a access to fuel, internet and phone communication. Through their national broadcaster, and it would have been so nice to hear the battery operated radios, tuned to the ABC, residents and tourists Prime Minister acknowledge that. One can only hope that this at places like Milton are finding out where they can get food and will at last shut up the anti-ABC campaigners. - Bernd Fichtner, shelter. This is just the sort of service the ABC provides in other Matraville disasters in our land of “droughts and flooding rains”. To our I hope that the late stage largesse from the federal government politicians, I recommend that you supplement the ABC’s budget to support the firefighters will also extend to the ABC. Despite immediately so that it can continue to carry out its role as an constraints imposed by successive Coalition budget cuts, ABC emergency service provider. - Mike Reddy, Vincentia radio and television have done, and continue to do, a brilliant job of providing invaluable information to those under threat as well as Followed by a flood of letters on 4 and 5 the broader community. - Ann Morrison, Leura January: Top marks to the ABC and the reporters who are bringing regular Despite budget cuts, our ABC is on the money - Mr Prime reports on the fire situation. I hope that this will make Australians Minister, please restore immediately the money you have taken, realise how important our national broadcaster is, and I hope while in power, from the ABC – then double it for all future there will be a rethink on the cutting of funds to this wonderful payments. With no other form of leadership obvious during this organisation. It is very likely we will be needing their services for catastrophic time of fatal fires, the ABC has provided constant, many years. - Judy Mitchell, Cabarita clear, correct information to all affected and involved. - Robin Henze, Balgownie And on 22 January. Vincent Matthews, Warriewood wrote: I think accolades also should go to the ABC for the brilliant ABC lesson for PM - When will Scott Morrison refund the ABC coverage they have given us through the bushfires. Could they be some of the money he took off the broadcaster for political thanked by having their budget increased? - Christine Stewart, reasons? He needs to demonstrate his admiration at the way Glebe ABC kept the nation fully informed about the bushfire crisis. He’s throwing money around for other just causes, why not the ABC? When power and communications fail, the ABC is our lifeline - The importance of the ABC in times of crisis is never The Sun Herald published these letters on 12 more evident than during these catastrophic bushfires. One of the reporters said it best, that when mobile coverage went out, and 19 January: people relied the ABC emergency radio for their latest information. Lack of funding is bad news. Fires had ravaged the country Those behind the scenes have done the same as the on-screen for weeks before the Prime Minister sent in the army and put people. We need the ABC at times like this more than ever, yet more boots on the ground, planes in the sky and ships at sea because of budget cuts we are going to lose at least 200 of these (“PM calls up reservists to fight the fires”, January 5). The ABC great people. What is the federal government thinking? - Chris has been reporting on the crisis from day one. If the ABC’s Moe, Bensville savagely reduced budget is further depleted by its coverage of I hope that those Coalition MPs who have difficulty differentiating this emergency, the government should allocate special funds to between price and value have watched ABC’s Channel 24. - the ABC so it can continue providing this life-saving news and John Torpy, Dural information service. Diana Wyndham, North Sydney Can I say how good has the local ABC Illawarra radio been during Back to the cricket - No need to worry if the cuts to ABC funding this fire emergency? So grateful. -Stephen Buzacott, Browns forces it to finally shut its doors, Diana Wyndham (Letters, January Mountain 12). I’m sure Sky News and Fox News will pick up the slack on The ABC coverage of the fire risks to people and property has emergency reporting of bushfires and the like. It will be so simple been excellent. The additional costs involved should be covered - out of sight, out of mind. “Nothing to see here, move along. by supplementary federal government funding. I have written Now, back to the cricket.” - Maggie Ramsay, Woolloomooloo

8 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 And Barry Swan, Balgownie wrote in the Illawarra Mercury those decades, the ABC unlike some commercial radio and TV on 14 January: stations has never resorted to sensationalism of news or, the ‘How good is our ABC? Well, if the important role played use of motor-mouthed commentators to maintain the audiences. by the ABC during this national emergency with firestorms The ABC simply maintained a principled approach of presenting engulfing most states and territories of our national can be issues impartially and more importantly, free of political spin. used as a yardstick, it is irreplaceable. The ABC has been the ‘How good is the ABC?’ Far too good for we Australians to allow communication source millions of Australians have trusted since conservative politicians, vested interests i.e. Murdoch Media and 1932, when the national broadcaster started transmitting. Across its camp following minions to destroy.

‘Life and death’: ABC battles to restore damaged networks during bushfires

service that was able to give that breadth of information immediately. And it really comes down to life and death. The fire was still raging, people needed to know where to go, where was safe, what roads were blocked and not blocked.” While the tower remains offline, local radio was restored by January 3. , News Radio and TV were back up by January 9 thanks to the interim measures, although services are still not at full capacity. TV and radio transmissions in Mallacoota were knocked out on New Year’s Day. Services in nearby Genoa and Cann River lost power and technicians have been unable to access the facilities because of 150 kilometres of road being carpeted catastrophic bushfire season have with burnt trees. The military has been Zoe Samios and been Batemans Bay in NSW and East working to clear the debris. As the Fergus Hunter Gippsland in Victoria. “At any one time, ABC and ADF co-operated to restore Sun-Herald, 11 Jan 2020 we didn’t lose any major services for any the Mallacoota outage, a local man with large amounts of time without being able technical experience volunteered to help to come up with an interim service. It install an interim satellite dish. Fighting is going to take many months to repair he ABC’s radio and TV networks fires in the area, he came forward to say some of our transmitter equipment but have sustained heavy damage from he would be able to connect the dish that during this whole period, it has been Tthe bushfire crisis across NSW and had been delivered by the ADF. During absolute minimal downtime, particularly Victoria, forcing the national broadcaster to the emergencies, the ABC has worked around local radio,” said Ms Matthews. A call on the military, commercial media rivals closely with BAI Communications, which tower in Batemans Bay, transmitting to and members of the public to maintain owns the broadcast towers and charges 58,000 people in the region, was badly emergency broadcasting. With a range of the ABC to use them under a longstanding damaged on New Year’s Eve. Regional radio and TV services knocked out in parts commercial arrangement. of the country, the broadcaster has been Radio Company Communications Minister Paul Fletcher mobilising to restore local radio stations subsequently allowed the ABC to transmit praised the ABC, military and Grant as the priority because of their critical role from their nearby antenna as an interim Broadcasters for their efforts during in providing information to communities solution and the Australian Defence Force the crisis. “Many people have worked during disasters. Broadcast towers remain has helped to repair the tower by clearing tirelessly – in extremely hazardous the “weakest link” during emergency debris. “We couldn’t get anywhere near conditions – to keep the ABC and the local broadcasts, the ABC’s head of content it and it’s not just a matter of getting a commercial broadcasters on air during management Rebecca Matthews warned, generator out there, it’s a substantially the bushfires and I thank them,” he said. because the infrastructure is vulnerable to damaged service,” said Ms Matthews. Mr Fletcher said the ABC was doing an fires. “We’d lost Radio National and News Radio, we just focused on local radio “excellent job” providing The hardest hit areas during this to get that moving. We were the only accurate emergency information.

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 9 First All-Indigenous NSW firefighting crews protecting sacred sites, remote communities

Jessie Davies ABC Western Plains 13 Jan 2020

or the first time in the state’s history, the NSW Rural Fire FService has created two all-Indigenous firefighting crews to protect sacred sites, remote communities. Eight men, from Bourke and Brewarrina in far western , have been handpicked by their elders to care for their country. The crews, called Indigenous Mitigation Crews, are charged with protecting sacred sites, caring for kin on reserves, and fighting remote fires. The opportunity has given Dale Barker a platform to change lives. “I just love helping the community out and seeing some of the younger Aboriginal kids watching us work and maybe thinking, oh yeah, I want to do that one day,” said. “That amount of time doesn’t trees and remove rubbish [so] that’s he said. Mr Barker used to be a allow for them to plan around their one less risk they have to worry about shearer. The work was hard, the shifts finances and career paths.” But she when bushfires come,” Mr McHughes sporadic, and the pay patchy. The said this program was already making said. chance to lead Bourke’s Indigenous a difference. “They have an income Indigenous elder Jason Ford from Mitigation Crew has enabled him to now where they can plan around future Brewarrina would like to see NSW take better care of himself and his aspirations for themselves, like buying RFS Indigenous Mitigation Crews family. a house or buying a car,” she said. “A established elsewhere. “If this type of few years ago, that would have been “The hours we work are 8am until model was rolled out right across NSW just a dream.” 4pm so the majority of the time I’m it would contribute greatly to closing home to get dinner started, so that’s In time, the recruits will be tasked with the gap,” he said. In NSW, more than a big plus for my wife and two kids,” performing cultural burns to better 740 homes have been destroyed by he said. Ngemba traditional owner manage the region’s fuel load, but fire since November. Mr Ford wants Grace Gordon said some of the eight for now they are focused on building Indigenous people to have a greater firefighters recruited had never held a trust with the community. That is say about the way the Australian steady job prior to their employment something important to Chris “Burra” landscape is managed. “Aboriginal with the RFS. The program’s impact McHughes. “From one First Nations people have been excluded from the had been immediate. “Their lives have person to another, it’s easy to build fire management space for a long time changed. They’ve got more meaning trust,” he said. “We call each other and it’s well overdue that we get back to life now,” she said. In Bourke, brother, sister, uncle, aunt; we’ve got in on those discussions,” he said. He indigenous people make up one third something to connect easy with.” The said sharing ancient knowledge about of the population; in Brewarrina it is crews regularly visit local schools to fire was one way his people could two thirds. Ms Gordon said jobs were discuss the dangers of arson and help build a better, safer country. few and far between, and when there the importance of staying fit, strong, “For years we’ve been perceived as were jobs, often Indigenous applicants and ready for the workforce. They not contributing to the welfare of this missed out. Government schemes also reduce bushfire hazards around country, but we do so in a number aimed at stemming unemployment Indigenous settlements like the Alice of different ways and this is one way in the towns are also not always Edwards Village near Bourke. Home to we could project that to the broader successful. “Most of the jobs that 100 residents, few have smoke-alarms community,” he said. come to us are pilot projects that run fitted, nor bushfire survival plans in The RFS has no immediate plans to for six to 12 months,” Ms Gordon place. “We clean the gutters out, lop establish more all-Indigenous crew.

10 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 sitting government losing confidence during a national crisis. Political media was not Media late to the game much quicker than the government. Take coverage of Morrison’s December Hawaii on ‘unprecedented’ fires hide-away: while the Twitter echo-system was blowing up with anger, the political echo-system was tut-tutting about the right Peninsulas, reporting back through editors to a holiday. Turns out Twitter had a closer Christopher Warren and producers in head office. The ABC reading of the real world. Crikey, 15 Jan 2020 dominates the reporting because, alone among Australian media, it can still scale he Australian media has settled on — throw resources at a challenge — with the tag for this summer’s fires: they’re cross-country coverage across radio, T“unprecedented”. But it’s been television and online, through its news slower to recognise the unprecedented and its role as emergency broadcaster. It’s demands this places on the job the media forced the prime minister to abandon his needs to be doing. It’s taken a couple usual reluctance to be interviewed one on of months, but the climate crisis is now one (particularly by the ABC), submitting to centred in the public’s understanding of both Michael Rowland and David Speers. the fires. Yet the media has been slow to But there’s a catch: the ABC is already centre this in its reporting of the disaster; under financial pressure due to the funding to pair the coverage of the daily drama cuts from July 1. It’s likely that its bushfire with an analysis of the underlying climate coverage won’t win it many points with the Fire approaches Vivonne Bay on Kangaroo trend. Because of its charter imperative government, who have publicly admired Island about 5:45pm on Thursday. to cover stories whether they occur in a but privately denigrated the national Image: ABC News commercially viable market or not, the broadcaster for its reporting on the climate ABC grasped more quickly than others the impact and close questioning of the PM. The fires have lit up the weaknesses of old scale of the crisis and had the resources to Worse for the ABC, the costs of news media. Nine has been a bit lead-footed, respond accordingly. coverage and emergency broadcasting perhaps missing the regional reporting resources it sold off last year. The AFR For the power of right now, for example, is eating away at its resources. Although has been an exception with its focus on here’s Hamish Macdonald’s empathetic there’s no estimate of impact, it’s likely to business and government responses, and interview with Bateman Bay resident mean further cuts. As funding reduces the powerful column by political editor Margaret Brus on being caught in the over the forward estimates, will the ABC be Phil Coorey about the chaos on the NSW middle of it all. If you haven’t seen it yet, equipped to respond on this scale to the south coast. News Corp, of course, has watch it right to the end. Or look beyond next “unprecedented” disaster? been focused more on self-protection, gas NSW and Victoria to The fires have accompanied a slow- lighting over its climate change denialism. where, the ABC says, 23 journalists and moving political disaster for the Morrison Just ask James Murdoch. The reporting camera crew have been covering the fires government. Both Newspoll and Essential has demonstrated the importance of new for months ranging from Kangaroo Island, poll this week show that Morrison has players too, with Guardian Australia’s use the Adelaide Hills and the Eyre and Yorke achieved the, umm, “unprecedented”: a of live-blogging and expert commentators on the climate crisis, Junkee’s focus on millennial impact and views, or Michael The destroyed Western Districts Memorial West’s reporting on long-term cuts to fire- Community Sports Centre at Gosse. fighting resources. Image: ABC News Australian journalists have historically done an outstanding job of reporting the drama and the pathos of bushfires. In 2003, Nine camera operator Richard Moran won the Gold Walkley for his footage of the Canberra bushfires. In 2009, The Australian’s Gary Hughes won for his moving story of survival after losing his house and possessions in the Black Saturday fires. Back in 1983, radio reporter Murray Nicoll was recognised for his live reporting over two-way radio as the Adelaide Hills fire swept over his own home. Expect similar in the 2020 award season. But the test now is not how best to capture the drama of the moment. It’s how to best help Australians understand the future.

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 11 The ABC has received and the professionalism on display. as Gippsland and the Illawarra, News The number of ABC emergency Corp papers have continued to overwhelming praise broadcasts for the first half of the publish articles critical of the ABC, a for its ‘vital’ emergency 2019-20 financial year is already close decision which has been jarring for to double that of the entire previous many who are relying on the national reporting, despite year. broadcaster in a time of crisis. ongoing scorn from Despite the dramatic rise in the need The Australian has run opinion pieces Murdoch-owned media for emergency broadcasts – from critical of ABC programming and 256 in 2017-18 to 371 in 2018-19 confected news stories blaming the to 673 to date this year – there will ABC. Familiar ABC critics, including Amanda Meade be no additional funding to cover the the former ABC Chairman Maurice The Guardian, 4 Jan 2020 resources which have been poured Newman and the Liberal senator into the effort, according to the Eric Abetz, were lined up to pour ince Boxing Day, as bushfires ABC’s director of local and regional, scorn on the ABC, even as its news raged across Victoria, New Judith Whelan. And then there’s the reporters put in long hours to cover SSouth Wales and South Australia, small matter of the $14.6m Coalition the disaster. “There’s no way we are the ABC has handled more than 100 budget cut to manage this year. “We going to economise on emergency emergency broadcasts in a single have a budget and what we do is broadcasting. That is our number week, receiving widespread praise for reorganise,” Whelan told Guardian one priority. And so, we do have to the practical, life-saving information Australia. Despite the overwhelming make some choices about what we praise for local radio in regions such might do or not.”

ABC coverage of the Australian bushfires

Public Media Alliance about the bushfires. Last month, an ABC rolling coverage of the bushfire 10 Jan 2020 team in Canberra resorted to hosting an emergency, they have also aired special “impromptu outdoor broadcast” for its 7pm programmes on the crisis. This includes News programme due to bushfire smoke a dedicated feature on the ABC’s BC’s extensive emergency coverage triggering the studio’s smoke alarm. The 7:30 show, the broadcaster’s flagship of the bushfires in Australia across crew had to evacuate the studios moments current affairs programme as well as television, radio and online services A before broadcast. Judith Whelan, Director on ABC Radio’s PM Podcast. During is in no doubt lifesaving, with staff working of ABC Regional and Local was quoted in a its New Year’s Eve live broadcast, the tirelessly to provide accurate, reliable and press release as saying: public broadcaster also partnered with rolling coverage under incredible pressure the Australian Red Cross and the City and in precarious conditions. “Thanks, too, to the ABC broadcasters, of Sydney to drive donations towards reporters, presenters, producers, staff and Since the bushfires began in early the Red Cross Disaster Relief and crew who continue to deliver emergency September last year, the scale of the Recovery Fund. Between New Year’s broadcasting services to communities crisis has been unprecedented. More Eve and 4 January, it had raised over under threat. People turn to the ABC at than 20 people have been killed, close to $13 million. The broadcast reached such times and we are proud of our role in 2000 homes have been destroyed and 3.5 million viewers on the night. The helping to keep them informed and safe.” wildlife and livestock have been majorly public broadcaster also utilised its social affected across the country. Conditions But these additional recovery broadcasts do media accounts as a tool to disseminate are predicted to worsen. As of 3 January, not receive any extra funding, despite the breaking news, share footage, photos the ABC had already provided over 670 lifesaving impact they can have. As an ABC and advice. This includes ABC emergency broadcasts within this financial spokesperson explained: Emergency’s Twitter account, which year, nearly double that of the previous compiles information from emergency year. According to the Guardian Australia, “The cost of the ABC’s emergency services. ABC accounts on Facebook the ABC delivered over 100 emergency broadcasting coverage come out of base also provide specific local and regional broadcasts in just one week since Boxing funding – there is no specific government updates and advice. This demonstrates Day. When the organisation’s emergency funding for this coverage… We will the important opportunity there is for broadcasting policy was created in 2011, always prioritise coverage of emergency public media to collaborate with and the emergency division ran for six months information and will continue to speak utilise social media networks and other of the year – now it runs for the entire year. with government to ensure that we are multi-platform services to provide fact- ABC staff have gone above and beyond adequately funded to serve the Australian checked and reliable content for to deliver much-needed information public.” the public.

12 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 Marina Go On witnessing the horror and the best of humanity on the South Coast

ABC Radio, 6 January 2020

n New Year’s Eve, while much the photos of Manyana, I can see my battery listening to the car radio while of the country was tuned into home in both pictures with the smoke trying to conserve fuel, stationary. Othe annual fireworks displays, billowing behind. That would have Panicked, my mother started flagging my parents and I had front row seats been terrifying for those who stayed. down cars as people drove around the to a horror show that was unfolding We were unable to leave due to road small town late at night in an attempt across the lake from our recently closures and we were without power. to charge their phones while listening purchased beach house at Manyana, The community pulled together in to ABC Illawarra. Another young man three hours south of Sydney on the the most beautiful way that showed drove me to the community centre NSW south coast. My sons were, the very best of human spirit: sharing at 7am for further help when her car thankfully, safely in Sydney that week food, sharing fuel, sharing homes and still wouldn’t start. The community of as they were working through the sharing the little bits of information residents and holidaymakers pulled break and my husband was supposed gathered from ABC Illawarra radio together as one to ensure that no one to join us in Manyana after work the and the local firies. People power would be left behind. As one man following evening but the roads were swung into action whenever there said to me before sunrise on Friday cut. So, I was alone with my parents, was a need. I got to really know morning, as he was finally able to start both aged in their seventies. There the neighbourhood. Mark from the the engine: “we have to work together had been fires on the south coast for corner house on The Citadel had a to make sure that everyone gets home months, the roads had been closed generator and generously gave our safely”. near Manyana previously due to back- phones a bit of charge so we could I love this little part of the world and burning and spot fires, and we knew communicate with family, as well as our home there. The people there are that the weather conditions on New fresh milk and potatoes. Chris and the very best examples of humanity. Year’s Eve would be extreme heat and Ellie, regular Christmas and New Year No doubt that is the case in all of wind, but we were not prepared in any week renters of the house next door, those little coastal towns that have way, especially emotionally, for those gave us a spare BBQ to use as ours been burning for the past month. fires. was still unpacked in the garage and None of us would be safe without These images captured our attention the electric roller door wouldn’t open the extraordinary efforts of our local on NYE in the tiny coastal town of due to lack of power. branches of the @nswrfs who worked Manyana on the NSW South Coast. A group of young men, of a generation through the night with so very little I have never seen anything like this much-maligned, didn’t hesitate to sleep and very few resources (only in my life. The fire was ferocious, try to help when my mother’s car two fire trucks to fight this fire that unpredictable, and fast and we were wouldn’t start. We discovered this on made its way dangerously closer to to learn the following day that we had Thursday night after we were given our homes on Saturday). Please give witnessed Conjola and Yatte Yattah new hope, via the radio, that we generously to help communities in burning with 2 lives and at least 90 might get out the next day. We had need via The Red Cross. That’s the houses lost. And we were told that hoped to drive the car into the exit best thing that any of us can do to Saturday would be worse and that line that had begun to snake around help right now. we needed to be ready to leave as Curver’s Drive at the very edge of the soon as was possible. In a couple of town. Instead we had flattened the

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 13 while the RFS app – appropriately flame red – told with stark icons that the fires were now surrounding us. New Year’s Eve felt different from the moment we woke up. The temperature had almost doubled overnight, and the phone signal had completely disappeared. The wind was strong enough to blow a child over, changing direction every minute. Cut off from the outside world via the usual sources, we began a new ritual of switching on our car radios each hour, to hear the news bulletin from the ABC South Coast. A few hours later, I gazed south at the headland which formed the northern boundary of Kioloa Beach. A thick pall of smoke crawled towards us, rapidly obscuring the headland. Inland, a separate plume of grey smoke appeared, shooting into the sky. The wind whipped crazily, whirling sand and ash in our faces as we hustled to the car and drove nervously back. We arrived to find the power had gone out completely, and the Image: Justine Perl. water ceased to run from all but one tap in the park. ABC Friend Lauren Hamilton writes about her family’s experience of the fires

lthough Sydney has been home still and eerily silent. Dozens of handmade for the past 13 years, I grew up ‘Thank You Firies’ signs were propped on Anear Wollongong and spent every fences. Sorrow for what had been lost summer holiday in the vicinity of Ulladulla so far and a heightened awareness of the and this summer we’d chosen pretty, laid- ongoing threat had us on edge. When we back Kioloa – 25 mins north of Batemans received a flicker of phone signal, we all Bay – for our annual family pilgrimage. rushed to check the relevant apps before it Nine adults, three children and three dogs vanished again. Live updates on the ABC gathered on 27 December at my parent’s News app revealed the broader picture home in Wollongong to determine if we would go or call the trip off. Staff at our holiday village encouraged us to come, but a sixth sense made me reluctant. In the “Today riding in the Adelaide end, swayed by the fact that the fire front Hills, around Cudlee Creek had passed through the area weeks earlier there was so much horrific leaving little that was flammable, we set off scenery, I chose not to down the Princes Highway shortly after the photograph. Instead I roads were reopened. photographed just two moving, pertinent and significant Our first few days should have been idyllic. residents responses.” The weather was cooler, making outdoor living pleasant. Phone signal was patchy, Thank You posters near Cudlee so devices were put away and games and Creek in the Adelaide Hills. books brought out. But it was far from Sent by Damien Henderson idyllic. Kioloa’s white sands were sprinkled with ash and most of the bushland surrounding the village was blackened,

14 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 With no TV or phones, we continued astonished by what we found. A line spending two days in a cabin. The power monitoring the fires via the car radio that of people in cars, stretching for over 1 remained off, and the water supply came afternoon. At some point, we realised that km, waited patiently for their turn at the and went, sending us into a frenzy of filling the ABC had switched to rolling coverage. bowser. A sign advised that there was every pot and bucket when it flashed on. We ventured out to an RFS fundraising a limited supply, after which customers When we were woken at 2:30am by the event and, driving back, listened in would be turned away. Shelves were bare slamming of car doors, we realised our silence as the newsreader discussed the in the small convenience store attached neighbour was leaving and realised the dangerous, fast-moving Clyde Mountain and to our disgust, we saw that price roads must have been reopened. We fire just 27km away. The most emotionally hiking was underway. A 6-pack of 1.5 litre resolved to leave ourselves, as soon as it charged reports were those phoned in by water bottles bore a new, hastily scrawled was light. It took us 8½.hours to complete listeners in areas where it was too late to price tag of $44. An older firefighter, his a 250 km trip on 3 January, and we were leave. We sat in the dark and sipped a yellow suit and lined face blackened from lucky to get through at all. We stopped a few warm beers, limiting ourselves in case smoke and soot, came in to buy a few few times - once to donate our remaining we needed to drive suddenly. For the first things but with the power down, there was pantry goods to the evacuation centre in time in memory, we went to bed at 9 pm no ATM, and the cashier seemed to inform Ulladulla - but mainly we crawled along, after packing the car with food, water and him that he lacked enough cash to pay for gaping in shock at the skeletal remains of essentials. his items. I offered to pay myself, but he homes, vehicles and forests which lined the road. My Dad, who left a few hours In the morning, the extent of the politely declined and trudged in exhaustion after us, was stopped at Milton due to devastation was hinted at by the opaque back to his fire truck. fires flaring along the highway and spent smoke which hung low to the ground The rest of that day was a tense waiting an uncomfortable night in his car. His trip throughout the campsite. The shared game. We packed our cars, listened to from Kioloa to Wollongong took 20 hours BBQ, 15 metres from our cabin door, was the ABC on the radio and entertained (it’s normally two), a tense and fearful time barely visible. While my husband worked the children who were getting wild after for our whole family. out what to feed the kids for breakfast based on how soon it would go off without Now, over two weeks later, I look back power, I sat in the car and listened to the on those few days and wish many things radio in horror. Tiny towns we’d visited in had played out differently. Aside from years past – Mogo, Cobargo – were no Now, over two weeks wishing there had been no fires in the longer. Homes in nearby Bateman’s Bay later, I look back on first place (obviously), I certainly wish we had burnt to the ground, and residents those few days and hadn’t decided to travel south that week. were trapped in villages from Nowra to the My children had nightmares for days border. Tearful people called on borrowed wish many things had afterwards and are still affected. I feel landlines to send messages to loved ones played out differently. guilty to think that we needlessly added about their current locations. another car to the incredible 30 km long traffic jam trying to get north of Nowra on My sister and I chanced a run to the 2 January and increased pressure on local local petrol station for supplies and were fuel, power, water and telecommunication resources. And, I wish that we had heard from our country’s leader with a message of hope and strength on the radio during those dark two days. Not just thoughts and prayers, either; a plan of action for evacuating those trapped and a message of gratitude for those working around the clock to reconnect services, to feed and shelter those trapped, and to defend lives and property. Some will question the difference that would have made. I can only say that to me, it would have helped and seemed like a small ask to know that we weren’t forgotten, that we’d get back to safety soon, and that the scale and horror of the South Coast bushfires was being acknowledged. To see the opposite on our screens – the cocktail party, the cricketing banter, the downplaying of the trauma - only added to the stress and uncertainty of the experience for me, and reveals a lack of leadership which will be hard to forget.

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 15 Kylie’s Bushfire story

hen Melbourne resident Kylie, But then suddenly later that morning her husband and two children the town’s power failed, then the mobile Waged 14 and 16 headed off on and telephone networks failed and 28 December for a beach holiday at the communications were closed down. NSW coastal township of Dalmeny, she Everyone in the town sat in their cars had no idea of what lay ahead. They listening to good old ABC radio to hear were going to spend a few weeks with what was going on, and suddenly realised four other families in a rented house for a the extent of the fires around them as the fun-filled time. Her sister, who had been at ABC regional updates replaced regular the town’s caravan park since Boxing Day, programming. had reported some smoke in the air, but The NSW fire services people, who were nothing to worry about. providing morning and evening reports However, over the next couple of days the at the caravan park, indicated that smoke haze increased and ash started Dalmeny would be an evacuation point This experience is burned into Kylie’s falling on the beach. When Kylie awoke for the area, and lots of other residents consciousness. She said “Living in the city on New Year’s Eve, the skies had turned and tourists would be arriving as nearby we are all so blinkered to what happens black and blood red and Kylie began to be towns were evacuated. Even though it out there. Being so isolated by the power alarmed, however a friend with them was seemed that Dalmeny itself would be safe, and communications failures, having no a member of the CFA, and he was keeping locals though started watering down their idea what was happening around us, each well abreast of the fire news. Despite the houses. day ‘humming and hawing’ whether to bad day with dark skies the families played stay or go, in a situation where minute-by- The next day, New Year’s Day, Kylie’s beach cricket, cooled down in the coastal minute the status was changing, was quite CFA friend said there was ‘a window of waters, and shopped for supplies. terrifying. opportunity’ to leave the region as the road was still open to Canberra, and he If it wasn’t for the ABC radio coverage that was leaving. The next morning Kylie and so constantly provided the updates that her family left Dalmeny, travelling bumper- we, and so many others, desperately relied to-bumper on a convoluted, route to upon, so that we could make informed Canberra, through Cobargo and Cooma, decisions and know about the road a scary 400 km trip that took 15 hours, closures, I don’t know how we could have avoiding much of the devastation and road managed. The ABC coverage was a great closures, guided all the way by the ABC comfort, we really felt that someone had on-going updates. our backs covered.” As they drove Kylie’s sister rang in (the Thankfully Kylie’s family and her friends all mobile network had been restored that made it out safely, thanks in a large part to day) to say that fire services advice was the emergency services the ABC provides. now for everyone to evacuate and she was Others have not been so fortunate, also on the way to Canberra. right across Australia.

16 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 Bushfire survival stories emerge from New Year’s Eve blazes in Victoria’s east

As told to the ABC, stories of survival are emerging after intense bushfires swept across Victoria, destroying at least 43 properties and burning hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, mainly in the state’s east.

he Federal Government has agreed quickly surrounded by flames. Shaun “Going into town ... I couldn’t see from to bring in military aircraft and naval MacDonell described what happened one side of the street to the other. It was T ships at the request of the Victorian when the fire took off. “Spot fires were quite mind boggling,” he said. “There’s Government. At Sarsfield, north-east of coming from the west, landing to the east no way out and it’s been a rather horrific Bairnsdale, local police officer Graham [of the house] and then burning back day.” Somehow his house survived but Shenton told ABC Gippsland of his towards us,” said Mr MacDonell. “All Mr Parker’s friend’s caravan, which was dramatic escape from his property after the fires were going up the top of the hill parked on his property, was destroyed. His everything in the valley near his home “just where the house was.” Mr MacDonell and three siblings, who also live in Mallacoota, lit up in five minutes”. his daughter, India, 19, were reasonably lost their homes. “I can’t believe it — my well prepared with pumps, water and When a massive ember storm went over next door neighbour’s standing on the an underground fire shelter. But the fire the top of his house, he thought the fire verandah having a smoke,” he said. came as close to the house as it could had skipped over him, but he was wrong. Graham Clark lives at Club Terrace, north without destroying it. They lost other Sergeant Shenton, a police officer for 19 of the Princes Freeway, between Orbost buildings on the 40-hectare property. years, had a plan to defend his property. and Mallacoota. He said there was total After the fire passed, Mr MacDonell said But that plan was useless when at least 15 devastation in his town. He fought with his property looked like “the surface of spot fires began burning on his property. a neighbour to defend against an ember the moon”. But the danger was not over He said he made the wrong decision, attack, the likes of which he has never yet. Ms MacDonell said her mum and despite knowing the devastation fires two younger sisters left their home for seen before despite being a former CFA could cause. “But when the water goes nearby Orbost three days before the fire officer. “We put the embers out as they hit off and then the power goes off, and then hit. Now that fire is headed toward Orbost the ground and we beat them all, thank you’ve got spot fires starting all around and Mr MacDonell can’t get there to help. God,” Mr Clark said. He could not quite you, you can’t do anything about it,” he Yesterday he and his daughter drove 10 believe his home was still standing, such said. “The sky dropped down, it was kilometres south, clearing trees as they was the devastation of the blaze. “The like fire falling out of the sky and it lit up went. They turned around when there were fire swept through with incredible intensity everything between me and the river, and too many trees to remove. Now they are and burnt everything in its path,” he everything burned.” Sergeant Shenton isolated on their property, though luckily said. Despite the immediate crisis being described driving through “8 kilometres of they still have water and food. over, Mr Clark will be sitting tight for the inferno” as he tried to make his way out next week or so, with the town cut off One man in Mallacoota posted a public on local roads “with 30 metres of flames after huge trees fell down over the road. message on Facebook asking people to on both sides of me. It was just a very The power is out and he cannot travel send their addresses so he could check if poor decision to stay and I would never anywhere to get food. “So I’ve got to sit their properties were still standing. While stay again. It was just a stupid decision. many were told their homes had been it out for five days. I have water that I can “Everything you think you know about fire, spared, others were not so lucky. One get from a stream,” he said. “But I don’t when it comes, it just makes its own mind house in Mirrabooka Road was reduced have any food in my cupboards, so you up.” to rubble. He evacuated from his home at know my neighbour will probably invite As India and Shaun MacDonell worked 4:00am because “the skyline was on fire”. me over for a meal at night time with frantically to save their family home at At 6:00am there was a bit of daylight, but their generator and, you know, you Goongerah in eastern Victoria they were by 7:00am it was completely dark again. just battle on.”

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 17 An inspiring story from an ABC Friend

esidents of the north-eastern side My family is in a lucky position. I have a of Blackheath were on alert from big woodworking workshop where my Rthe moment the Gospers Mountain Fire entered the Grose Valley in the early Top: View of the fire fighting efforts from hours of December 16th, and not just for Di’s back garden. Top right: If it wasn’t so their homes but for the iconic wilderness awful it would a Fred Williams painting. and the animals who live there. On 22nd Right: A new home in the bush. Below: Lyndal and Esther making habitat boxes. December the fire hit the eastern edges of the town. After a number of close calls, and many sleepless nights, with us gasping for breath in the smoke, the fire daughter makes harps. That made it easy finally hit my property on New Year’s Eve. to quickly set up and invite other ladies It was terrifying, but at the same time my with a bit of woodworking nous to make family was feeling frustrated, angry and shelters and nesting boxes to replace deeply saddened for the scale of the loss burnt habitat. It’s becoming quite a of the bushland we love. People I spoke to production line! We’re also hooked in with were literally crying for the bush. Everyone local WIRES members for distribution and felt helpless. installation. Then we started thinking about the best We are making lots of boxes of differing things we could do to help. shapes and sizes from tiny pygmy possum to big brushtails, from antechinus to owls. An easy quick first step was to install There are lots of good plans on the net if watering stations: lots of people you want to make your own. established extra water supplies in their yards and in the bush. Feeding wildlife Esther, my daughter, is the shed boss. also seemed like a good idea but there is She’s on the right in one photo with friend a real risk in doing so while animals are Lyndal on the left. vulnerable and desperate. NB: Wildlife Di Shanks Health Australia and WIRES both warn ABC Friends member in the Blue about these risks. Mountains west of Sydney

18 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 including the Pacific and Oxley highways. When my friend cut himself slipping on Bushfire Report from the roof, clearing the gutters, both roads to the hospital were closed and he was Mid North Coast Branch dependent on his wife’s nursing skills. Other friends, inland from Taree, battled fires for several days. Everyone has similar n 2019 we had less than one third of our with the January rains. This gave us the stories. I can assure you, we were all average rainfall and the result is dried up worst air quality in the world in November I listening to local ABC radio to hear where creeks, gardens half dead, dry rain forest, and we had 38 days of awful air quality the fires were burning. desperate wild life. In Lake Cathie alone, starting from early November. (Not a good more than 350 koalas died. The Port look for an area which is dependent on Our branch, shown here meeting Matt Macquarie Koala Hospital is in the news tourism!) Peacock, has sent a thank you card to and with crowd funding, it’s able to make the local ABC studio to thank them for Friday 8 November was Red Friday i.e. the and distribute watering stations, all over their good work updating the fire danger sky turned red at about 2 pm. It was so Australia. However it needs millions more news around the clock. It’s raining now dark the street lights came on. From Port dollars to buy land so the koalas (and other but we need much more, otherwise these Macquarie Bunnings carpark one could creatures) will have a guaranteed habitat. conditions will return, possibly before the see giant flames threatening the suburbs. end of the summer. Our area was one of the first to endure People were evacuated, sometimes two these catastrophic times. A peat fire near or three times, in several areas – Lake Drusi Megget the Port Macquarie airport kicked off in Cathie, Dunbogan and Thrumster to Convenor, August and may only have been quenched name three, and many roads were closed ABC Friends Mid North Coast

Fires and ach morning over the past months, more than 50%of the fires, the ABC stuck Ewe tuned into the local ABC radio to the facts and made an occasional Floods on the based in Lismore. The bushfire season reference to climate change. All is quiet started on the North Coast NSW in on the bushfire front here in Tintenbar. North Coast August 2019 with drought and fires Last week we were contemplating devastating communities from Tenterfield another tanker load of water and the of NSW to the Dorrigo Plateau and the Clarence proximity of trees to the house. Now one Valley, culminating in the tragedy that of our members is on flood watch on the once was the town of Rappville. Tweed River (where the ABC coverage While our local National Party probably saved lives in 2018) and we can representative, Kevin Hogan issued flush our loo guilt free. press releases (seemingly relying on the Peter Dickson Murdoch media) blaming arsonists for President, ABC Friends Northern Rivers

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 19 From our President Margaret Reynolds President, ABC Friends National Inc

s most of our members will be One respondent said that any review aware, I commissioned a survey should be led by the ABC, and many A with respect to the Bushfire respondents said the ABC should Crisis that has enveloped Australian receive increased funding from the residents in these last several weeks, government Regional ABC centres even months, particularly in relation Several people noted that there • More regional ABC offices staffed to the prompt accurate and detailed seemed to be information flow with local journalists information in each of the local areas of blockages causing vital information the multiple fires impact. not to get through in what was • More funding for regional ABC Our National Administrator emailed described as “life or death” offices our members and we have had situations. One respondent Extending ABC emergency an overwhelming response to the suggested that a central body broadcasts to commercial network questions posed. be formed linking emergency frequencies was also suggested. Elsewhere in this special issue of services, radio broadcasting, and Update, you will see many of the community to ensure clear lines 91.1% of those surveyed sorts of comments we received in our of communication and information said that the ABC local survey. I include only three to give you sharing. emergency broadcasts a flavour: Some of the other priority areas were important to them suggested were: • Juliet from NSW said that when they during the crisis. were in “Narooma, we lost radio Regional radio and communications 96.1% of those surveyed service for a little while and it was infrastructure upgrades said that ABC staff with acutely felt by me and my family. I do • Fix any radio reception blackspots local knowledge was not know what caused the outage. in regions for emergency radio important to them. The power was also out for a while, broadcasts the shops were closed, the internet 98.5% of those surveyed was off, so we really relied on the • Fireproofing transmission towers said that it was important calm and professional announcers • Commitments to maintaining the to them that their local on the [ABC] radio to keep us vital AM network ABC outlet remain open informed and let us know we were and well-staffed. • Dedicated radio spectrum not alone.” • Mirrored ABC and emergency • Geraldine from Leura in the Blue websites in case of problems Finally, I urge you to please respond Mountains said that they “can’t to the survey, if you haven’t already, • Battery powered portable radio receive ABC radio broadcasts” as as the results will form part of our and WiFi towers available to be there is “no signal”. They depended argument to the Government for deployed if infrastructure is lost on the Fires Near Me app which reversal of the cuts announced in they “found to be inaccurate / not • Communications infrastructure put the budget, and in fact, an increase updated.” underground such as landlines and in the ABC’s budget for its unique • And as one respondent put it, it is internet access role as the National Emergency essential that everybody has access • Satellite driven radio, mobile phone broadcaster. As we are unlikely to good communication, “telling and internet to see a diminution of extreme people to get a battery radio just weather events in the foreseeable • Battery powered mobile reception doesn’t cut it.” future, the ABC’s ability to respond and WiFi hotspots linked to with sufficient equipment and Suffice it to say that: satellites reporters, at a moment’s notice is When asked if there was a need • National WiFi coverage imperative. for a national plan of additional • Better mobile phone towers not And a warm ‘thank you’, to those essential communications reliant on mains power members who have contributed infrastructure, 95% of respondents already to this survey. said “yes”.

20 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 ABC Emergency Broadcasting (EB)

Overview Snapshot 31 December 2019 to Audience response • As at 17 January, the ABC has covered 14 January 2020 The public en masse has turned to the 825 Emergency Broadcasting (EB) • Three peak fire days escalated ABC for vital information during these events since 1 July 2019. The figures emergencies for NSW/Vic/SA, two events. Across the country, either streamed for previous years were: 2017-18 = 256 cyclones developed near WA & NT, other or live, ABC has been the ‘go to’ source for EB events, 2018-19 = 371 EB events. fires occurred in WA and Tas. (Peak days vital information, along with ABC/Aust Red An EB event is one in which emergency = New Years Eve, Sat 4 Jan, Fri 10 Jan). Cross appeal which raised $13.3mil by 7 broadcasting is required. This generally January. The ABC also ran public service • ABC South East NSW audiences heard occurs for Watch & Act warnings, announcements around donated goods rolling emergency coverage around moderate flood warnings, cyclone and smoke awareness. the clock for 13 days from Monday warnings and Detailed Severe Weather/ 30 December to Saturday 11 January. Thunderstorm warnings. Costs Personnel returned early from annual • The ABC provides rolling coverage leave, some of the EB staff live in The ABC does not have an estimate yet of (reporting from the field, interviews affected areas and had to prepare their the additional impact on the budget for the with public, authorities) during extreme properties and be evacuated, and some recent bushfire coverage, but it is expected emergency situations. are also RFS volunteers. to be well into the $millions. Provision of emergency broadcasting is becoming more • The ABC’s extensive , • During this time, ABC teams in other resource intensive and requires people and covering 99% of the population via its states also produced rolling/continuous money to be reallocated from other areas terrestrial network, and 100% of the fire coverage: continent via satellite, along with its 48 of activity. – ABC Gippsland 134hrs regional studios enables best reach to In recent years the ABC has increased the country’s residents, as many bushfire – ABC Melbourne 83.5hrs prioritisation of investment in regional areas lose power and mobile phone – ABC Adelaide 14.5hrs services through the Connecting coverage, with residents & visitors reliant Communities initiative, adding $15 million – ABC 6.25hrs on car or battery-powered radios for per annum to regional expenditure. This ABC’s EB. – ABC Perth 2hrs funding has been reallocated through internal savings measures – is this a Dedicated emergency ABC partnerships with euphemism for further staff cut-backs? emergency agencies resources within the ABC However, having to find additional savings • The ABC has a small dedicated team • The ABC works in partnership with the to meet the Morrison government’s especially for emergency broadcasting. emergency sector to better help the indexation cuts of $83.7 million over They generally work four days a week, community prepare for, respond to and three years means there’s increasingly often over weekends. This recent recover from disasters: Australian Fire less capacity for internal savings to cover emergency has seen NSW/ACT co- and Emergency Services Council, as the stretched regional services, including ordinators working in rotation seven days well as the Bushfire Natural Hazards EB functions, without impacting other a week. Research Centre. In regional areas, important content areas. the ABC has representatives on local • During the peak fire periods from Additional funding to bolster regional and regional Emergency Management November-January, other staff are and local services would enable the ABC Committees. regularly redeployed to supplement the to enhance and support emergency Emergency team. • Emergency sector Commissioners/ broadcasting coverage. The provision Chief Officers actively encourage the of this funding aligns with good public • Many other ABC roles are also involved community to tune to ABC Local Radio policy outcomes, taking into consideration in EB, especially ABC Local Radio on-air for emergency information. the continuing contraction of regional staff and support staff and technical staff commercial media, the ABC being best for transmission/content distribution. • In some States & both Territories, ABC placed to deliver emergency broadcasting During the current fires more than 120 managers are part of the State operation coverage, and independent assessments ABC News staff have been sent into the centre during major events. of regional and local media such as by the field to cover events. • The ABC chairs AFAC’s Bushfire Media ACCC and the Centre for Media Transition. • The ABC provides all support possible Accreditation and Training Group, in The above document is derived from to staff to ensure employee wellbeing, developing a nationally-consistent information made available to ABC Friends health and safety. approach for media training and by the ABC in mid January 2020. accreditation for work on fire grounds.

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 21 ABC Emergency Broadcasts Appreciative comments directed to the ABC either via tweets or on their website – a sampling from hundreds of similar accolades received by the ABC. Selected by Angela Williamson

So impressed with the brave journalists Hamish MacDonald, Appreciate your Illawarra ABC team has been indefatigable who have covered the bush fires, we updates and commentary from Bega very in providing updates & information on the appreciate being kept informed, and much. One of my family lives in the bush bushfire crisis. Special thanks to one and really wanted to thank you for showing there so your updates are faster than all. Gino the human touch rather than just showing the “Fires Near Me” app because of the politicians all the time. Please keep us network of ABC journos. Big thank you. informed, biggest disaster ever. Need a Just emerged from days of hell on Sth royal commission, we need good footage coast, cannot believe attacks on ABC. It is and I love the ABC for the human touch Congratulations and sincere thanks again the ONLY reliable source of info, everyone more than anything. for the level of presentation of the current is tuned in, its real time broadcasting bushfires. The level of dedication, the is saving lives, property and helping us around the clock coverage in difficult understand our situation re fire threats, Just wanted to thank all the young ABC circumstances, the clarity, dealing in facts roads, petrol, food, etc. Phillip reporters who are covering the fires around while in action makes me so thankful Australia. and appreciative of the high standard you provide that I have grown up with all my I’ve been on the south coast for the past life. I want to thank all of those presenters. month. It’s been a fire disaster roller- Great to see young people doing such a Their delivery knows no bounds. coaster. The ABC hs been my light on the great job in challenging conditions. They hill. Melinda James in particular has given a are all fantastic and we are immensely faultless & sensitive rolling broadcast. Bless grateful for their professionalism, I am in a watch and act zone in Victoria. #MyABC. Janet pronunciation and diction. Go the ABC. I’d like to recognise and congratulate the ABC News Channel team for their extraordinary coverage of the current fires Thank you ABC ! Your coverage is Hi ABC, just wanted to say your coverage across the nation. ALL of your reporters wonderful! Hamish is so professional and of the fires is exceptional. So many speak significantly well and in particular I’d gives great assessments. All the reports reporters on the ground speaking to local like to note that the genuine showing of from the field are so helpful! Especially people and letting their stories be heard. empathy through tone and body language when you are worried about relatives in fire Thank you to your many staff who have of reporters and news readers goes a areas. Patricia cut short their own family holidays to bring long way for viewers and is something us top coverage. I’m in the Wimmera in other news channels appear to lack. As Victoria and I noticed our own local ABC devastating as these fires are, it’s been a The ABC’s coverage of this fire disaster has presenter, Rebekah Lowe, has gone to pleasure for my family to stay informed by been utterly first class. Without them the present in Gippsland while the fire crisis is ABC News. Thank you for your tireless nation would be in the dark. Imagine the on. Thank you! work. anxiety & panic. A reminder that this is our iconic institution that the Coalition & their puppet masters at Murdoch want extinct. Dear Craig Many thanks to you - and to all Listening to radio and watching TV on Simon Chapman AO ABC reporters - for your compassionate the devastating bushfires, am struck by and insightful coverage of terrible bushfires the professionalism of journalists, but on the NSW South Coast and elsewhere. particularly the job the ABC is doing all Thanks to Nicole Chvastek on Very sorry for all affected, but bravo ABC over the country. Magnificent coverage as ABC . Knowledgeable and Canberra. usual in disasters. We owe a huge debt to compassionate coverage, hard-hitting our ABC – they save lives. Tony when necessary. Veeteejay

My family would like to say how very grateful we are for the way in which ABC During our two days of blackout in Broulee,  When we were evacuated to Narooma has covered the bushfires. We cannot ABC South East was our lifeline. I’d wake the other day we listened to the ABC speak too highly of the accuracy and up in the morning and eat breakfast in the emergency info. When we were finally empathy of your reporters. ABC is a car so I could listen to the radio and figure allowed to try to get back to Canberra we national treasure. out what was going on, who had petrol, listened to the ABC emergency broadcast which roads were open, etc. Thank you, the whole way. No one else provided that thank you ABC. Evie service. Invaluable. Sharon

22 ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 I want to commend the ABC for its are so so thankful for the extraordinary professional. Well done ABC. It is so commitment, at considerable financial work you have been doing during the important that Australia retains and funds cost, to keep citizens up to date with fires. They are down on the shores of the your excellent service. I want more of my developments in the bushfire period. I also estuary listening intently to you their only tax dollars spent on the ABC. want to commend the many reporters, source of information and are eternally sent by the ABC to so many diverse grateful. Many thanks. places, perhaps returning from family The sensitive reports showing people holidays to do so, for their fortitude, hard coping with the crisis aftermath of fire. The work and clarity and humanity of reporting I would like to commend the ABC for its reporter stayed out of the way and allowed from sites full of painful emotionality coverage of the bush fires in Australia. these raw and dazed individuals express and complexity. I would like you to pass Your reporters, journalists and presenters their emotions. There was no hint of ‘star on my thanks to those responsible in have done and are still doing a wonderful journalist’ telling the story on their behalf, management decision making and to the job across Australia reporting and advising and the impact was all the more powerful relevant reporters. on the fires. This is Television and Radio at for this subtlety. Congratulations to all its best. I am amazed that every location ABC staff in bringing the unfolding event was covered by a reporter and from to us and for posterity. The quality of the I’m writing on behalf of a friend in Wallaga the youngest and newest to the most work is exceptional. Bravo! Lake Heights. She and all her neighbours seasoned the reporting has been very

Nevertheless, we had remained vigilant, ABC problems in we had taken heed of reminders by the ABC that we needed batteries for a portable radio, and, reluctantly moved from Radio National to local radio. On bushfire coverage the TV news on 30 December there was an optimistic broadcast that a 12km firebreak was in place to protect Mogo and We were caught in the Malua Bay beach Sue Tregeagle Batemans Bay but by 7am we had a SMS evacuation on New Year’s Eve. People ABC Friends, ACT to evacuate Mogo and knew to move to have asked us why we went to a fire the beach. affected area as it seemed so inexplicable e were well aware of the need in retrospect! But we went to escape a run I can’t tell you when the ABC coverage for ABC emergency coverage of 40 degree days at the end of December, stopped being reliably available, but for Wafter having lived through fires choking air and the threat of fires to the both the twelve hours on the beach and in Canberra in 2002 and 2003, but in the east, west and north. In truth, we also for the two days following, we could only 2019/20 firestorms, we had some real found it hard to abandon holiday plans. reliably get a local commercial radio station problems with information. As Zoe Samios The road down Brown Mountain seemed (2EC). At one stage we were directed to made clear in her 12 January 2020 Sydney safe enough and we set off for the south ABC News Radio but reception was just Morning Herald article (‘ABC battles to coast where temperatures in their 20s as patchy. The young 2EC broadcasters restore damaged networks’), we needed and there was the prospect of easterly did a valiant job but news was sketchy and more ABC information and transmission breezes. We heard no warnings, on ABC the task seemed well above their pay rate! lines that did not fail. radio or TV, not to go. We were grateful for what we had heard as there was no internet and, without electricity, mobile phone batteries didn’t last long enough to get access to apps. We dared not waste fuel to try to recharge phones or get radio coverage elsewhere. There were incessant ads for local shops that we couldn’t believe were still standing. We made the uninformed decision to head back to Canberra and by the time that we reached Bega we were picking up local ABC coverage. But we did need more information than we could get about whether to risk the climb up Brown Mountain. There were clear messages that we were being asked to leave and needed adequate fuel but the state of the traffic, on this one lane country road, and the proximity of fires was not clear.

ABC Friends National Update, February 2020, Vol 28, No 1 23 Join the ABC Friends There is strength in numbers, and every membership counts at this time of unprecedented attacks on ‘Our ABC’. To join go to www.abcfriends.org.au or phone your local contact below.

ABC Friends

ABC Friends National Inc. PO Box 3620 Manuka ACT 2603 Ross McDowell Bobbie Mackley [email protected] 5 Dunn Ct Bunya Qld 4055 PO Box 534 Subiaco WA 6904 Phone: 0418 291 350 [email protected] Victoria [email protected] T: 0422 489 711 (office hours only) PO Box 233 South Melbourne Vic 3205 South Australia & Tasmania Phone: 1300 108 126 [email protected] Sue Pinnock Kate Durkin (Secretary) PO Box 7158 Hutt St Adelaide SA 5000 55 Feltham St North Hobart Tas 7000 NSW & ACT Phone: 0407 035 701 Phone: 0447 645 345 (office hours only) [email protected] [email protected] Ed Davis PO Box 1391 North Sydney 2059 Phone: 0438 166 986 [email protected]

NSW/ACT Regional Branches

ACT & Region Eastern Suburbs of Sydney Illawarra Northern Rivers Peter Lindenmayer Nizza Siano (Secretary) Jan Kent (Secretary) Jennie Hicks (Secretary) Phone: 0497 976 945 16 Holland Rd PO Box 8 Phone 0431 958 911 [email protected] Bellevue Hill NSW 2023 Keiraville 2500 abcfriendsnorthernrivers@ Phone/Fax: 02 9327 3423 Phone/Fax: 02 4271 3531 gmail.com Armidale [email protected] [email protected] Byron sub branch Vic Wright (Secretary) Jill Keogh PO Box 1448 Hunter Mid North Coast Phone: 02 6688 4558 Armidale NSW 2350 Allan Thomas Drusi Megget [email protected] [email protected] 7 Cantwell Road 24 Arncliffe Ave Lochinvar NSW 2321 Port Macquarie NSW 2444 Tweed sub branch Blue Mountains Phone: 02 4930 7309 Phone: 02 6583 8798 Sandy Copley Sue Noske (President) [email protected] [email protected] Phone: 02 6677 1570 Phone: 02 4751 8320 [email protected] Mobile: 0421 020 610 Publicity Officer Northern Suburbs of Sydney Lismore sub branch [email protected] Anne Kirsten Janine Kitson (Convenor) Therese Crollick [email protected] Mobile: 0428 860 623 Phone: 02 6624 2289 Central Coast [email protected] [email protected] Ross McGowen 11 Weemala Cres Terrigal NSW 2260 Phone: 0400 213 514 [email protected]

Victorian Groups

Like to join a local group or Southern Bayside Castlemaine area Latrobe electorate be on their mailing list Ivor, 9580 6402 Geoff, 0402 262 261 Peter Fleming 0418 557 808, in Victoria? [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] We have many local groups. To find out more about one Geelong area Eastern Melbourne Electorate in your area: ➞ Michael, 03 5271 1222 Neil 0411 487 348 Sally Moseby [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Not in these areas? 0400 371 635 Contact Marcus May Northern Melbourne Boroondara Margaret, 0421 338 155 Gael 9859 5185 or 0416 009 339 as we are Ballarat Electorate [email protected] [email protected] setting up new groups. Maureen MacPhail [email protected] Inner Melbourne Inner Western Melbourne 0476 247 870 Michael Bond Anne-Maree [email protected] [email protected] 0413 315 084