AS we approach another serious fire season, there seems to be one prevailing emotion among farmers and rural dwellers. Right across Victoria, fear is an ever-present emotion.
It is fear bred from experience that fire recovery, rather than fire prevention and suppression, is foremost in authorities’ plans. Stock & Land journalist Jeanette Severs has spoken to a large number of people across Victoria and their concerns are replicated in the following three interviews – with a farmer, a fireman and a fencer.
The farmer
GEOFF Johnston is worried about water.
The Hereford breeder, who farms at Walpa with wife Lyn, were burnt out in the bushfires earlier this year.
With enormous volunteer help, their external and internal fences have been replaced - and with a good season, pasture has largely grown back.
Most of their remaining cattle have also now recovered.
On the south side of his paddocks, some ground is still bare and black and a lot of trees are dying because there's no moisture in the ground.
This week he will slash both sides of his fence lines, around buildings, to lay down paths between gates.
"Slashing the inside and outside of fence lines can slow a bushfire down and with a bit of rain to keep it green, we've got a chance," Mr Johnston said.
"The dams are very low, they're lower than last year, and there's been no runoff and a lot of evaporation from the wind.
"We need to know where the water is. Which dams have good, deep water … dams that have been cleaned out, they're not full of mud.
"Mapping water sources used to be something that was done every year.
"The brigade tankers and farmers with slip-ons can go and pump it up.
"Everyone takes it for granted someone's going to bring water and knowing where it is can make minutes or hours difference in a bushfire.
"We're buggered without it."
The fireman
TAMBO Crossing farmer and career volunteer fire fighter in the Alpine high country, Mack Stagg, believes local knowledge is a critical tool in suppressing fires.
That local knowledge includes knowing the terrain, being familiar with the fire history of an area and knowing who to phone to find out where the fire is and what it is doing.
Mr Stagg has worked in incident control centres (ICC) across Victoria and NSW.
"The closer the ICC is to the sphere of operations, the better, that's inarguable," he said.
"Distance equals time lost. The incident controller has become purely a manager and the operations and planning makes a lot of assumptions at a distance … mistakes can easily be made.
"Euan Ferguson (CFA chief officer) says fire control and suppression needs to happen where the fire is.
"The CFA needs to be in the ICC to lay down the law to protect people and property.
"Local brigade captains know the terrain, how fires move in different weather patterns, how long it takes to get to the fire, where asset protection is needed, what type of strike teams and equipment is needed.
"... a local person will know how to avoid cutting fence lines to move heavy machinery in.
"Senior fire brigade volunteers have considerable experience and knowledge about fighting fires.
"The person with the local knowledge may not know everything, but he knows who to phone to find out."
The fencer
MOUNT Taylor's Alan Stuart is a farmer and volunteer fire fighter - and has lived with cancer for seven years.
For the past 11 years he has also been a volunteer fence recovery co-ordinator.
This year he put his life on hold to help East Gippsland farmers burnt out in last summer's bushfires. He is still doing that job.
"If it wasn't for Allan Stuart and his volunteer teams, I'd still be building fences, in between my daily farm work," said Geoff Johnston of Walpa.
Mr Stuart has co-ordinated volunteers to pull down and replace 150 kilometres of burnt fences from last summer's bushfires in East Gippsland.
It frustrates him that authorities allow roadside vegetation to build up - the cause of most of the burnt fences he has seen.
"The biggest cause of most damage was along roadsides - they're like a wick," Mr Stuart said.
"It's too big a job for volunteers to do roadside burning or slashing, because of the paperwork required.
"The shire councils and Vic Roads have a big responsibility to step up and do that.
"If everybody was fair dinkum about doing this it would be a different story when a fire got started."
He also questions the wisdom of putting birds and small animals in danger by encouraging roadside vegetation.
"They make it their habitat and then they get flattened by cars or killed in a bushfire," he said.