Evacuation that wasn’t

By Melissa Meehan
LABERTOUCHE and Tonimbuk could have been evacuated on Black Saturday if the new bushfire warning system had been in place.
Speaking at the Bushfires Royal Commission last week, Bunyip incident controller Dave Nugent said officials were now seriously considering evacuation after the fires that devastated the state.
Mr Nugent, who has worked for the Department of Sustainability and Environment for more than 23 years, said all incident controllers were looking forward with interest.
“The issue of relocation is going to be a very complex one,” Mr Nugent said.
He said while working to control the fires in the weeks surrounding 7 February, incident controllers were also aware of the potential danger to residents who decided to stay.
“So the potential advice about relocation may well have been applicable to some communities in this area,” he said.
But he rejected suggestions from the commission that officials should have used simpler language in warnings issued on 6 February.
The inquiry asked whether warnings such as “The Bunyip Ridge bushfire is currently burning in the state park, 123 hectares” and “This fire is not currently posing a threat to communities, but extreme fire danger weather is forecast for the coming days and is likely to directly impact on Labertouche” were clear enough and sent a strong enough message to residents in those areas.
Other towns were advised they should also be prepared for smoke, falling embers and possibly fire on 7 February.
It was also asked whether it would have been more accurate to issue warnings that said, “We hope to hold the fire in the state park. If it escapes the park, it will burn in all likelihood through Labertouche, Tonimbuk, Jindivick, Bunyip, and Drouin West.”
But Mr Nugent said the aim of incident controllers was to “give those communities as realistic a level of information about the situation and what they needed to do as possible”.
“We used the term ‘likely to directly impact on the community’,” he said.
“You may debate that other language may have given a clearer message, but from our point of view that was the message that we were trying to convey to those people – that we were actively at this stage right up until the morning of Saturday the 7th trying to contain that fire.”
He said he and his colleagues tried to ensure that communities prepared themselves and were being realistic about giving them the message about what might happen on that day.