A DECADE-long battle between landholders and the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) over a small stretch of highway has seen at least two major fires in two years - causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to farming communities.
The area in dispute is a 40 kilometre stretch of the Bruce Highway between Bowen and Ayr, where landholders have repeatedly requested the government do more to manage the increasing fuel loads accumulating along the roadside.
Multiple landholders who spoke to Queensland Country Life claimed repeated fire incidents along the government-controlled road corridor quickly become uncontrollable because of the lack of preventative measures taken by the DTMR to control fuel loads on its side of the fence.
Hugging the coastline from North Queensland to the south-east corner of the State, the Bruce Highway is among the most travelled roads in Queensland.
While the full impacts of the 2012 wet season are yet to be felt across Western Queensland, rural fire brigades are already preparing to manage the fire risks expected to sprout later in the year.
With the potential for another difficult fire season facing rural fire brigades, landholders have implored the State government to cut the red tape required for controlled burns along government-owned roadways and to listen to local knowledge when inspecting fuel loads along highways to decide on potential fire "hot spots".
Last year Queensland Country Life reported on widespread disaffection among landholders and Rural Fire Service volunteers, including claims the "bureaucracy-heavy" QRFS did not take into account the "on-the-ground" expertise of property owners.
But the QRFS has repeatedly denied the claims, saying working with local landholders was part of its fire response protocols and training.
The frustrated landholders have now detailed their ongoing battles with the DTMR officials in Central Queensland.
Local landholder and West Euri Creek Fire Brigade second officer Bruce Smith, Koonandah, said the brigade wanted controlled burns along the Bruce Highway stretch during May and June, especially along the western roadside which threatens more rural and rural residential properties.
He said the grass was more than waist high in sections along the highway and heavy tree overgrowth draped into neighbouring properties.
Mr Smith said his brigade usually started seeking permission for controlled burns from the relevant Queensland departments during the wet season, to make it easier to plan their fire-management activities later in the year.
However, he said the "long-winded" process had meant when the brigade did receive permission, it was usually months after the ideal burning off period had elapsed with the warmer months increasing the risks.
"We want to put the fire breaks in during May and June but Main Roads does not allow us to do it until July or August the department is three months behind the eight ball," he said.
"If the rain finishes early and someone drops a match in the right area, we can be burnt out by July. We even put double fire breaks in, which the fire can jump if the wind is blowing right."
He said the DTMR also decided some sections of the highway did not require any fire management, much to the disagreement and dismay of neighbouring landholders. He said some of these sections were slashed, but only three widths of a slasher, with grass generally left strewn along the roadside and creating a further fire risk.
Mr Smith said landholders should be better consulted before the department made decisions which could impact on a property's profitability.
"We have been asking them to burn the area off for the past 10 years and they have done nothing about it. Main Roads does not seem to have any interest in maintaining this area. The government is not talking to us and listening to local knowledge it just has no idea."
He said DTMR's lack of action was placing properties at risk.
"You'd think the department would be approaching us, asking about when we would burn off the area - but they don't," he said.
Mr Smith said some landholders were seeking compensation for property and business losses due to a large fire in October and another in November 2009, with his own family demanding $80,000 for lost infrastructure and pastures.
Donald Sproule, Wyoming, had almost half his 3700ha property burnt out when a fire, which he said originated from the highway, raged through his property in October.
He is currently seeking up to $200,000 in compensation from DTMR after he lost 16km of fencing and was forced to bring in feed and sell cattle as a result of the blaze.
"Main Roads will not so much as clear a tree along their side of the highway bordering my land," he said.
"Any fire breaks I put in are not going to stop 30 mile-an-hour, hot dry winds. All along the highway needs to be burnt - it is a real hot spot and it is only going to get worse with more traffic on the roads.
"The department is our neighbour and they should have duty of care to a neighbour and the travelling public. If they had done the right thing they would have saved rural people a lot of grief."
Further along the highway John Kajewski, Saltwater Creek, said he had offered to create fire breaks and controlled burns along the 5km of government highway that cut through his property. But he has been repeatedly turned down by DTMR.
"When you have a dry year you don't want to have to worry about some bloke throwing a match from a car as he goes past. We've had flames jump 500 metres - it can cause a lot of damage," he said.
"We are never given a specific reason why they won't let us do the fire breaks and the burning along the highway. The department just says we are not allowed to burn.
"We need fire breaks and burns every year along that stretch of road. We just want some common sense from the department."
A spokesperson for the DTMR said inspections were carried out by a department inspector.
In July 2011 DTMR also engaged an independent consultant in the Mackay-Whitsunday region to undertake analysis and validation of the area's fire risk assessment.
"Contractors have been engaged to carry out fuel reduction works on the Bruce Highway north and south of Bowen, as we were advised in 2010 that most rural fire brigades in the Bowen area were not interested in undertaking fuel reduction burns in the road corridor for us," the spokesman said.
