A missed opportunity to burn off tinder-dry vegetation beside Queensland's roads and highways has rural firies seeing red.
According to Rural Fire Brigades Association Queensland general manager Justin Choveaux, the vegetation growing beside main roads and the responsibility to manage the associated fire risk belongs to the landowner, in this case the state government, but red tape and confusion between authorities was getting in the way.
Rural volunteer firefighters are being asked to shoulder the bureaucratic load and undertake the hazard reduction burns as well.
Mr Choveaux said he was receiving calls from disgruntled first officers, and had seen the lack of preparation himself on a trip out to western Queensland.
"Roads are critical to defending communities - they are perfect to backburn along," he said.
"So many have been missed this year - the Dawson and Capricorn Highways - there's only a handful of kilometres burnt.
"Brigades are only there to assist Transport and Main Roads with their responsibility.
"They are one of the largest landholders in Queensland and they've got to maintain their land.
"We can help, or they can hire a third party - lots of companies do it - but they just need to have a plan and the will to do it."
One of those frustrated by the process is Wallumbilla RFB's first officer Michael Taylor, who said he'd been approached by the Maranoa Regional Council to burn off around the small town east of Roma.
"We're happy to do it - we've done it for years, but we're not doing it unless the council sorts out the paperwork," he said.
"We made enquiries and were told we could only do it between certain hours.
"We're all volunteers, we've got businesses to run, and we're also the emergency response for accidents, and there are call-outs to those nearly every day.
"We've also got to take the weather into account when we burn.
"We're over it. When someone comes back to us with a permit, we'll do it, when it's safe."
TMR responds
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport and Main Roads said in a statement that it supported hazard reduction burns being conducted within the state-controlled road corridor.
The statement said TMR and the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had jointly prepared a state-wide guideline that "provides clarity on the process for obtaining approval to conduct a hazard reduction burn within the state-controlled road corridor and for QFES to light the fire for various scenarios, depending on who requested and is responsible for the burn".
Permission to conduct hazard reduction burns is required from TMR, to ensure that safe operation of the road can continue, and a traffic control permit may also be required.
"We manage bushfire risk across the state-controlled road network by planning works that manage vegetation fuel loads," the statement continued.
"TMR works closely with QFES and adjacent landholders to deliver hazard reduction burns in identified priority areas of the SCR network.
"TMR also manages vegetation fuel loads through vegetation clearing, slashing, trimming and pruning activities."
Mr Choveaux said he'd approached officials in 2020 with his concerns, and was again pushing for a dialogue with Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan's office to work out a statewide policy.
He said the reason he'd gone back to the department to ask for more dialogue was because it was all down to local perception.
"Some don't like to even slash the sides of roads, and then there are rulings about grass on stock routes," he said. "It's even more complicated by road corridors adjacent to railway lines, and who to talk to about that."
Mr Choveaux said he'd supplied examples of a number of incidents experienced by brigades in being able to support TMR in reducing its risks, to Chief Operating Officer Ann Moffat.
"As we are now into fire season, we must work with TMR to develop a more practical and achievable statewide policy that will result in a huge increase in burning ahead of the 2024/25 fire season," he said.
In the meantime, Mr Taylor has memories of the last big fire season, and says the ready fuel beside the highways is making him nervous.
"Burning beside roads would have made a heck of a good fire break," he said.