Southern NSW's primary industries are in good shape ahead of the summer season with millions of dollars in fire protection measures completed to help protect local communities and critical softwood plantation timber from bushfire threats.
The seven completed projects, valued at $3.2 million, are part of the Minns Government's $12.9 million Southern NSW Timber Plantations Fire Protection funding package.
While the projects will protect plantation resources, they also provide increased protection for local residents and businesses in the area following the 2019/20 devastating bushfires and play a vital role in protecting the remaining critical timber supplies in the Murray region.
Funding recipients including Forestry Corporation of NSW, Southern Cross Forests and NSW Rural Fire Service have completed a number of projects within the region, including:
Forestry Corporation of NSW
Tumut - $1,537,800 - Firefighting Forwarder with water tank and high flow pumped water distribution
- Firefighting Forwarder with water tank and high flow pumped water distribution that will improve tactical and operational response and enhance firefighter safety. It will enable delivery of large volumes of water in difficult terrain and situations and reduce exposure of firefighters to overhead hazards and manual cutting and lifting tasks.
Tumut - $100,000 - Two trailer mounted quick fill water pumps
- The provision of two high volume, trailer mounted water pumps will facilitate rapid refilling of bulk water transport trucks and larger capacity fire tankers (Cat 1, Cat 6) for tactical firefighting operations significantly reducing turnaround times.
Green Hills/Tumut - $456,000 - Firefighting water transport equipment
- Two 32Kl semi-trailer tankers for delivery of bulk water for firefighting operations undertaken by all agencies. Tankers will be fitted with high volume capacity pumping for delivery to firefighting appliances. The tankers will be set for deployment utilising trucks from the existing industry log fleet.
Southern Cross Forests
Mt Ikes, TableTop and Mt Flakney - $325,000 - Additional fire detection cameras
- The installation of three additional cameras and associated AI platform to help in the early detection of fires. The installation of these cameras adds to the existing extensive detection network in the region.
Rural Fire Service
Southern NSW - $329,490 - Improved data quality with additions to the Automated Weather Stations network
- A network of Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) that will provide granular and timely data to the Bureau of Meteorology and help inform fire preparedness and response.
- This will provide the ability for the BOM to provide an improved and accurate forecast fire weather conditions for the South Eastern Local Government Areas of Snowy Valleys, Greater Hume, Cootamundra-Gundagai and Wagga Wagga City. This will also provide valuable live weather data for fire behaviour practitioners and Incident Controllers to predict fire spread and make timely decisions to combat existing fires based on accurate weather conditions.
Snowy Mountains Forests
Ellerslie and Bobs Creek - $70,625 - Firefighting water storages in strategic locations - private plantation land
- The installation of bulk water tanks in strategic locations where firefighting water is limited, particularly in dry seasons. All firefighting agencies will benefit from these tanks being able to quickly source bulk water for fire suppression when required in these locations.
- This project will see two 110,000 litre tanks installed in the Takejo Plantation and a further 250,000l tank in the Bobs Creek Plantation complex. These tanks will be zincalume and have RFS compliant store fittings to enable the rapid filling of firefighting units.
Snowy Valleys Council
$387,106 - Specialist tractor and mulcher for fire management
- Purchase of a tractor and mulcher with reach attachment for heavy-duty fuel reduction activities along strategic road corridors to undertake larger area growth suppression and no-burn hazard reduction works along key fire control corridors.
A total of 15 projects were approved for funding under the Southern NSW Timber Plantations Fire Protection package. These projects will form a network of enhanced fire protection initiatives across the Murray region, including Greater Hume, Snowy Valleys, Cootamundra-Gundagai, Albury and Wagga Wagga LGAs.
The remaining eight projects, valued at some $9.7 million, on track to be completed over this fire season include:
- Expanded (Public Safety Network) PSN radio network for plantation and council workers
- Tumut Aerodrome water supply for fire management
- Improved data quality with additions to the Automated Weather Stations network
- Australian Fire Danger Rating System - plantation tools
- Upgrade fire towers for ongoing early detection
- Tumut Aerodrome - hangar for fire suppression aircraft
- Fire Trails Bondo, Bago, Carabost, Jingellic
- Upgrade of priority strategically important fire trails for the protection of at-risk plantation estates
These projects will be administered as a pilot program, with monitoring and evaluation to be undertaken by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) to help determine the potential to broaden this program across the State.
The NSW Government's $12.9 million Plantation Fire Protection funding package is preventing bushfires by supporting fire preparation with fire management equipment and strategic fire trail upgrades.
All projects were identified by representatives from the NSW Rural Fire Service, DPIRD, the Softwoods Working Group, Forestry Corporation NSW and plantation managers with the Softwoods Working Group, facilitating input from additional plantation owners, local councils and local fire authorities.
Minister for Agriculture and Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty said:
"This is about making sure our firefighters have the best equipment and resources to protect our communities and our forests.
"These projects have been identified to deliver the maximum fire protection, hazard reduction and response capabilities across southern NSW.
"We are delivering on the latest technology in fire detection cameras to aerodrome-based water supplies for firefighting.
"This is an important step forward as we work to build on the resilience of this important regional softwood timber industry.
"The NSW Government has a plan for developing regional NSW and a plan for delivering more housing. Protecting softwood forests and production is critical to delivering on both."
