Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the condolence motion and I hope to draw on the strength of the heroes of Gippsland to help me express the enormity of the tragedy that has touched us all. Saturday, 7 February 2009 will always be remembered as the day that hell came to the paradise of the foothills of Gippsland. While the history books will record the bare facts, like the death toll, the homes lost, the extreme temperature and the hectares of forest burnt, they will struggle to tell the stories of so many heroes of Gippsland, and so many have emerged from this tragedy already.

So much has already been written and spoken about the emergency services crews at the frontline but, on behalf of Gippslanders, let me add my heartfelt thanks to the firefighters who have risked their lives to keep our community safe. While our CFA crews and Department of Sustainability and Environment firefighters are the most obvious heroes, they were joined by our police, ambulance personnel, medical staff and SES crews in their efforts to save lives in the face of the most horrendous fire conditions our nation has experienced. They were on the frontline, but we have had dozens of emergency services workers behind the scenes in logistics and allocating precious resources as this fire storm raged across Victoria, and the resources became more and more stretched throughout the day. Let no-one be under any illusion—this was a storm beyond the experience of firefighters from across our region. I have spoken to firefighters with decades of experience in Gippsland and they have never seen anything like it, but without their help it could have been far worse.

Yesterday I visited the tiny hamlet of Callignee or, to be more precise, I visited the site where the tiny hamlet of Callignee used to stand. The destruction there simply defies description. The community hall and school buildings are gone. Home after home is in ruins. There are cars which tragically became coffins. Enormous trees are blackened and have snapped in half, such was the ferocity of this storm. The land is scorched and was still smouldering several days after the fire front had passed. Where once we had rainforest and abundant beauty as far as you could see, there was an ugly scar across the landscape. You could only identify the place names by the charred street signs that were still standing. Every so often we came across families who had been allowed to return yesterday for the first time. They were searching through the rubble just trying to find anything, to salvage anything at all from the wreckage—some memento that they could cling to. They have lost so much but many of them would talk to us, either there or at the community meetings I attended, and they see themselves as the lucky ones because they have escaped with their lives. Almost bizarrely you would see sites like a swing set or a cubby house, completely intact, not a mark on them, yet 20 metres away a house would be in ruins. You would only be human to shed a tear as you consider the fate of that family or the children who used to play there.

Such was the nature of these fires that some homes were left standing where whole neighbourhoods were destroyed. It did not make sense and it does not make sense to the people who are returning there now. Tragically, people who still have their homes are feeling guilty because their neighbours do not have theirs. It is a horrible feeling for our community to come to grips with. We have lost more than 100 homes in Gippsland over the past 10 days, and we also believe that 21 people have perished, but we are not certain of those figures. The risk, though, is not over. As I stand here today, there are still active fire grounds, and many townships are on high alert in case the severe weather conditions return. As one of the wise heads of the CFA put it to us quite bluntly, only rain puts bushfires out in these forest type conditions. It is a great irony that in Australia today much of Queensland is under water. Our thoughts go out to the Queenslanders while much of Victoria lies blackened and in ruins. Our thoughts and our prayers are also with those who are still fighting these fires, with those who are fighting for their lives in hospital and with the people who are caring for them at the moment. It will take many months for them to return to full health. While the Gippsland fires are a tragedy of epic proportions in themselves, I am mindful that they are only one part of a more hideous disaster right across Victoria. It will take all of our strength, as a community and as members of this place, to overcome what lies ahead.

I said at the outset that there were many heroes of Gippsland emerging from this tragedy. The people of Gippsland are setting an outstanding example for us all to follow here in this place. The emergency recovery centre and Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund have been inundated with donations and offers of help. The business community’s contributions to those who have lost so much have been staggering, as has their release of staff for the volunteer effort. It is amazing the way the business sector and government departments are working hand in hand and working long hours, well beyond what is expected of these people. I know of one Red Cross volunteer who travelled for four hours from Cann River to Traralgon just to be there to help complete strangers and hand out food and toiletry packages for these people who have lost so much.

The shire council staff are working their own shifts and then volunteering their time on the weekends to assist just to ensure that the needs of their friends and fire victims are met. Friends and family members are opening their homes to provide comfort for those who have been left with just the clothes they were wearing when the firestorm hit. I have been to many community meetings where hundreds of people have filled the halls—because we still have that expectation that the fire may return—for the latest advice. People stand up and thank the CFA for trying so hard even though they have lost everything. They are there still saying thanks to those who have given so much to them. There are so many other heroes emerging from the tragedy across our region, from the ABC journalists and presenters who worked incredibly hard to keep us informed throughout what was a long, painful campaign of fighting the fires on Saturday right through to now—it is ongoing; the threat messages are coming out almost on a daily basis—to the people making sandwiches and supporting fire crews and neighbours helping out a mate by bulldozing a firebreak or putting out spot fires. The capacity of the community and the resilience of the community, which is on display in Gippsland and, I am sure, right across Victoria at the moment, is something which is quite amazing.

We should also spare a thought for those other heroes who are left with the hideous task of sifting through the wreckage for the remains. Theirs must be the most difficult job of all and I am sure they will need our support in the months which lie ahead. And out of that wreckage have come some more heroes. It seems that every second person I have spoken to in Gippsland over the last three days has a remarkable survival story of their own.

Yesterday I spoke with a beautiful old lady who, I would estimate, is in her early 70s. She is only about four foot three, I would imagine. She simply trotted away from her home in Callignee and jumped into a dam. She was there for several hours all by herself and the fire, remarkably, spared her home. She was telling me what a hard time she was having getting the mud out of her clothes. I also met a teenage boy with a far more chilling story. He was part of a family of four. They were very well prepared. They had their fire pumps attached to their swimming pool. They had the vegetation slashed and hoses at the ready. They did not even get ember attack or any warning whatsoever. The wind changed, the fire rushed their way and they were met with a wall of flame. They sought refuge in their home as they had been taught to do. As it turns out, their home probably did save them but they were forced to race from room to room as each roof collapsed. Finally, at the end of the house was their rumpus room—luckily they had a pretty big house by the sound of it. The roof fell around them and they dashed out and jumped into their pool—where they had started the whole battle. When that became too hot, they also dashed to a dam and survived to tell the story.

Others told me of their confidence that they could handle a bushfire, that they were well prepared. They knew what the task was ahead of them but, when the wind changed on Saturday night and the fire descended on them in all its fury, they made last-minute dashes for survival—against all the advice that we have given them in the past. They had to get out of there, and they did, and they survived. As we know, of course, many people did not survive that last-minute dash. I have never been so proud of my community to see the survivors now volunteering their time and chipping in to help others who they regard as being less fortunate. It is an amazing relief effort on the ground at the moment. And it is the same story, I understand, being repeated across Victoria. There is unimaginable grief and destruction but it is coupled with those stories of incredible survival. There are so many heroes out there for us to celebrate.

I believe that this is our chance to all become heroes in our own small way. This is not about us; it is about the fire victims. This is no time for our political games. We must commit ourselves to helping those people to rebuild their lives. Towns like Callignee, Koornalla, Devon North and Boolarra in Gippsland are just like Kinglake, Whittlesea, Marysville and Flowerdale on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. These communities cannot be burnt off the face of the earth, no matter how fierce the firestorm. These communities live on in the hearts, memories, dreams and hopes for the future of the families who lived there, and it is our job to help them return, if that is their choice. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Australians at this time as we all come to terms with the grief, the absolute anger and the disbelief that many of us are feeling at the moment. For those of us who are not directly impacted by this firestorm, we must be there to help pick them up and assist them in the hard times which will undoubtedly lie ahead for them all.

I would like to put on the record my sincere thanks to those members of parliament who have contacted me—including the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of The Nationals—to express their support for the people of Gippsland. There has been so much goodwill in the speeches I have heard as I have travelled throughout the fire hit areas of my electorate in recent days. We need to turn those kind words of support into action on the ground to help the heroes of Gippsland in the weeks ahead. I commend the state and federal governments for their prompt action—dare I say, Prime Minister, decisive action—to date, but our communities are already tired and this recovery will require months and years of effort and resources on the ground. My community, I know, stands united in its determination to rebuild, and we must not let them down.

Finally, I believe it is up to us to make sure that we learn from whatever mistakes have been made. Now is not the time for apportioning blame, but when hundreds of lives have been lost across Victoria, tough questions must be asked, and our community expects us to find the answers. I fear that we may have made the mistake of underestimating the force of these fires, and perhaps overestimating our own capacity to deal with them. The message of ‘leave early, or stay and defend a well-prepared property’ has been a mantra for more than 20 years—and I know that I have repeated it myself in media releases and in comments to my constituents—but it may be the wrong message on days like 7 February, when the fire risk, according to all the experts, was off the scale. I fear that there are some places which are simply impossible for us to defend on days of such extreme fire danger. I am not advocating forced evacuations—many people want that right to stay and defend their property, and I respect that right. They know it is their choice and they know that there will not be a CFA tanker at their doorstep to help them out in a crisis. But what I am suggesting is that we may need to have an escalated level of threat or warning. We need to let these people know that there is every likelihood that they may well perish if they stay in certain parts of our state on days when the fire risk is so extreme and fires erupt from whatever cause. Regardless of how well prepared they are, I believe that there are certain properties in parts of our state which are completely beyond defending. It is not a question of being wise after the event. I think it is an issue for the royal commission to examine closely, and I am sure it will.

I have spoken to many Gippslanders who thought they were ready, but when the firestorm hit they had absolutely no warning—and, again, I am not apportioning blame, they simply had no time to receive a warning—and no defences against the ferocity of the blaze which descended upon them. As I said, there will be a royal commission and I trust that the practical experience of these people on the ground will be listened to. We cannot allow so many people to have lost their lives in vain. I would also hate to see this tragedy used as a reason to depopulate regional Australia. We have an enduring love affair with the bush. It can be tranquil. It can be magnificent. It is a beautiful place for us to visit and in which to live, but on Saturday it erupted into a storm of unimaginable fury. For those of us who do choose to live in regional Australia, we must learn to live with the threat of bushfires and minimise the opportunities in the future for such a disaster to be repeated. But I must repeat that we must not use this as an opportunity to scare people away from living in regional Australia. We must let people return to rebuild as soon as is humanly possible and go on with their lives as best they can after such a tragedy. We need these people to remain in our communities—to continue making their outstanding contribution to the rich fabric of life in rural and regional Australia.

I have purposefully focused on the heroes in Gippsland rather than on the villain of this tragedy. Just last week, I spoke in this place about the community of Boolarra, which had lost 30 homes at the hands of an arsonist. We do not know who lit this inferno which killed so many of our loved ones, but it is regarded as suspicious and the police believe it was deliberately lit. It is an unspeakable crime that stands condemned by all right-thinking men and women. There is a seething anger in my community that we have a traitor in our midst. As much as we pray for those who have perished, we hope their killer is brought to justice. Too many good people have lost their lives already. The heroes of Gippsland did not deserve this.

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