Response To, and Lessons Learnt From, Recent Bushfires in Remote Tasmanian Wilderness

Submission to the Senate Inquiry: Response to, and lessons learnt from, recent bushfires in remote Tasmanian wilderness. Summary This submission addresses “part f) any related matter”, as it refers to events occurring outside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Nevertheless, it is the opinion of the author that these events deserve scrutiny in that the bushfires occurring in a wilderness area (ie the Tarkine) as a result of climate change impacts, bore direct adverse impacts on public health, animal welfare and regional economics for a prolonged period due to inadequate planning and resourcing of fire fighting services. This occurred despite recent recommendations in the 2013 Tasmanian Bushfires Inquiry advising early and comprehensive intervention in remote fires. These are dealt with in Part 1. Additionally, the Tarkine area has been identified as having World Heritage Values and campaigns continue to have this area recognized as a National Park. There was significant impact on this landscape in the recent fire events resulting from global warming climate and weather outcomes, and delayed fire fighting response due to lack of resources despite recommendations made repeatedly in previous years. This is addressed in Part 2. Several aspects of this Northwest fire event are pertinent to the other terms of reference listed. This submission seeks to examine the events in detail: the timing, resources, coordination and limitations of the emergency response, the fire behavior & its predictability, wilderness and industry environmental factors precipitating the event, the relevant local impacts of global warming, and make some recommendations to direct future emergency response to wilderness fires posing significant risk to adjacent communities and globally significant natural values. The narrative covering the local timeline was originally written at the time of the events, or very soon afterwards, by the author who has lived and worked in this area for over 10 years. Additional reference details, screenshots, photographs and maps supporting this submission are 1 available upon request and are not included with this document due to the large amount of data. About the Author Dr. Nicole Isabella Anderson BNurs;MBBS(Qld);FRACGP;GradDipDiv;FAWM Rural Medical Practitioner and Director of the Smithton Medical Services. Visiting Medical Officer, Department of Health and Human Services, Smithton District Hospital. Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine Volunteer with the State Emergency Service Northwest Remote Area Search and Rescue Landscape Photographer, Expeditioner, Citizen Scientist (Naturalist) and Explorer Introduction On the night of the 13th January 2016, several dry lightning strikes caused remote bushfires across the state of Tasmania. In the far Northwest region, about 12 such fires were noted the following day and displayed on the Tasmanian Fire Service (TFS) website alert map. The weather forecast for the next two weeks was grim – continued very dry weather and strong winds, and another episode of dry lightning on the 28th January. On the 15th January, a Public Health warning (Mitchell & Johnstone, n.d.) (Director of Public Health, 2016) was issued for the far Northwest town of Smithton which had already been blanketed in thick smoke (Ted O'Connor, 2016). Of most concern were those suffering frailty and chronic heart and respiratory ailments given the risk of acute and chronic sequelae (Ryan, 2013). Shannon Fox, Burnie Incident Controller warned on the Jan 16th "[We are] really concerned about what the fires will do." (Ted O'Connor, 2016). To yet 2 unfold was a juxtaposition of climatically induced wilderness stress upon the health, safety and wellbeing of a rural community, resulting from a lack of early and comprehensive bushfire control. Regional overview a) Circular Head: Smithton is the administrative town for the municipality of Circular Head, whose total population is just under 8000 at the 2006 Census. The North West area has the highest avoidable mortality rates for heart disease, cardiovascular disease and lung cancer in the state (Tasmania Medicare Local, 2012). The region is an idyllic rural area with the enviable claim of receiving the freshest air and rain in the world (Environment Protection Authority Tasmania, 2013). Originally the landscape was covered in dense rainforest (Pink & Ebdon, 1988), much of this was cleared by the post war settlers. It boasts a phenomenal agricultural industry on the basis of this hard work and its natural assets – seafood, beef, dairy, crops, honey and even, of course, fresh water - all bolstered by a brand which embodies the best of Tasmania's clean image (Nelson, 2008). Roughly peripheral to the agricultural zones is a forestry industry rich in heritage and history – for 150 years the original, native and immense blackwood and mixed species rainforests have given way to a labyrinthine network of roads to eucalypt plantations and burn regenerated native forest regrowth. On their mostly southern and eastern aspects, the remaining native forests blend into heathland and buttongrass moorlands, the abode of some of the last seen, and last shot, Thylacines (Campbell, 2015). Scattered here and there are the fading marks of bygone mining booms. Some big rivers wind their way through this varied landscape – the Frankland, the Arthur, the Duck, the Montagu being the main watercourses. b) The Western Tasmanian Aboriginal Cultural Landscape and the Tarkine: South of the Arthur River, the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area, the Tarkine wilderness encompasses the Norfolk Range, roughly parallel to a rugged, spectacular coastline. The biodiversity of this region is immense, and currently a refuge for over 60 rare, 3 threatened and endangered species of flora and fauna, with further research continuing to document additions to threatened ecological communities (Anderson, 2016). The geodiversity matches it with globally rare karst formations (Wikipedia, 2015). Shack nodes dot the coastline – the latest installments to a land which has nurtured and inspired people for well over 40000 years. Known now as the Western Tasmania Aboriginal Cultural Landscape (Australian Heritage Council, 2013) - memories, middens, hut depressions, seal hides, petroglyphs (Sims, 2013) - relics of past inhabitants’ resilient culture. It was here the last free Aboriginal family was coerced into captivity (Clements, 2014, p185). To the east is an ancient, tenuous link with Gondwanaland – an 800 thousand year old myrtle rainforest corridor (936 ABC, 2008) which is still relatively intact and being Australia's largest, and the worlds' second largest temperate rainforest (Parks and Wildlife Service, 2001), is an extraordinarily valuable landscape in having such unique and diverse natural values. Fire behavior observations Serial examination of the TFS website Alert Maps and linked details (Tasmanian Fire Service, 2016), Sentinel Hotspot screenshots and original Land Tasmania Emergency Services GIS maps demonstrate what Ms Fox was alluding to. The combination of an extraordinary dry January, historically dry soil dryness index (SDI), very warm weather, wind forecast and dry lightning firespots held a predictable outcome in the absence of intervention. The pattern of fire spread posed no surprises as the satellite images display a fire trajectory roughly along forestry operations, adjacent heath and buttongrass native "fire adapted" vegetation, and adjacent Eucalyptus forest, and then into "fire-sensitive" mixed species rainforest. The strength of the winds and the unseasonal dryness caused the fire front to cross otherwise natural fire barriers of creeks and rivers, as well as roads and previously completed planned burnoff areas. This pattern of burn via anthropogenically disturbed landscapes has already been observed in Victoria (Taylor, Lindenmayer, & McCarthy, 2014). 4 The State fire fighting resources were understandably going to be stretched with around 80 fires eventually burning across the state. However, on the 25th of January, a press release from the Office of the Premier and Cabinet reassured the public that "The TFS confirmed to Cabinet they have access to the resources they require, which includes the 100 interstate firefighters we currently have on the ground" (Hidding, 2016). Of local concern at this stage, were three major fires: the northernmost affected forestry operations southwest to the locale of Mawbanna. South to this, another large burn was affecting an area known as "Dempster Plains" in the Tarkine - a mix of native buttongrass and heath scrub with creeks and apiary/forestry operations. West to these, the other large burn started on the southern side of Wuthering Heights Road, in heathlands and quickly spread to nearby forestry operations, jumping the Frankland and Arthur Rivers to its north. At some stage on the 25th of January, the TFS website confirmed rumors on the ground that the Dempster Plains fire had joined the Mawbanna fire – crossing both the Rapid River and Arthur River in its path, including an area of fuel reduction burn off near the Tayatea bridge, in wildfire situations, this is certainly described (Kirkpatrick, 2013). Over the next 3 days, Circular Head experienced an escalation in the wildfire threats to life and property, due to strong easterly winds driving a fire perimeter which had an estimated distance over 650km (ABC News, 2016). Until this emergency, few resources had been dedicated to this

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