Fire forum hears warning of escalating fuel loads in SW Queensland

While southern Australia bore the brunt of the hundreds of uncontrolled fires that raged from the end of December 2012, a record-breaking heatwave fuelled the spate of fires in Queensland as well.

Speaking at the Fire in the Mulga forum at Charleville, Mr Young said that from January 2012 to March 2013, 335 bushfires had been reported in Roma and Charleville fire areas, and there had been 674 incidents in total.

"Looking back to 2012-13, there had been record floods and fuel loads not seen since the 1950s," he said. "We're leading up to the same now - some properties are having their best growth of grass in 27 years."

Just like in 2011-12, flood debris is adding to the fuel load on the ground.

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Mr Young said a lot of the out of control fires of a decade ago had started as hazard reduction burns, from people with not enough experience dropping matches at the wrong time, which then jumped containment lines.

The concern for the potential for a similar scenario to erupt this summer is being felt by the Murweh Shire Council's rural lands officer Blair O'Connor, who said firebreaks were being put round fuel loads on town commons in the shire.

Stock routes were identified as one possible gap in the armour, when Morven grazier Ed Beale relayed his experience of asking for a permit to burn stock route land around Mungallala, and being refused.

"I was told it was feed for travelling stock," he said.

Mr O'Connor said that had been identified, adding that he hoped to get a bit of an understanding with authorities that a cool burn would enhance grazing.

"It's hard on active routes but if we do it right, with the right personnel, I think we can show we can bring the country back," he said.

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AgForce's Dr Greg Leach addressed the forum on the recommendations it put to the state government review following the central Queensland wildfires of 2018, followed by the much bigger events across the eastern seaboard in 2019.

"They were about the need to think more about the management processes as a result of the fires," he said. "The messages we got from our consultation were that proactive fire management was needed."

Among the forum's conclusions were that a lot of people had lost confidence in using fire in the right place, at the right time.

"We also picked up the message that we need a lot more cooler fires, more often," Southern Queensland Landscapes CEO Paul McDonald said.

"You also said you can't accept bigger destructive fires anymore.

"We're getting more money for shiny trucks and planes, to put bigger fires out, rather than mitigating the problem.

"Landholders are an important part of that."

Mr McDonald concluded that people wanted to see management plans that supported the whole of the landscape, and that much of that could be done by bringing black and white science together."

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