Farmers have warned that New South Wales’ national parks have become “ticking time bombs” for bushfires, accusing the state government of failing to provide adequate resources to manage fire risk on public lands. That is according to Xavier Martin, NSW Farmers’ President, who, along with Mike Guerin, CEO of NSW Farmers, toured Hurford’s Kempsey mill with Timber NSW President Andrew Hurford today.
Wood Central understands that the meetings saw the timber and farming associations agree to work closer together on areas of common interest, including the Great Koala National Park, which will see 476,000 hectares of forest turned into the world’s largest koala park, which will be the subject of a series of farmer meetings starting with Kempsey and continuing with Dorrigo and Grafton from tonight.
“Farmers and communities have done a lot of work to prepare for this year’s fire season, but we’ve got a serious danger that’s out of our hands and right on our doorstep,” Martin said. “This isn’t just a few fallen branches — these parks are huge tinderboxes of timber and vegetation simply waiting to explode. Fuel loads haven’t been managed, and burn‑offs aren’t happening when they should. There are real question marks about how safe it is to live and work near these parks.”
Last week, Gerald Glover, NSW Farmers’ Western Division chair, said the NSW government must step up and implement a serious regime to manage bushfire risks in national parks, with farmers in the west among those facing an uncertain summer ahead. “Before they can even think about declaring another square inch of land as a mecca for pests, our governments have got to stop, think and invest real resources to reduce the bushfire risk in the national parks they’ve already got,” Mr Glover said. “Some of these parks in the west of the state span hundreds of thousands of acres, and often there’s barely anyone monitoring them.
“Apparently, it’s going to be another hot summer ahead, and as any Aussie can tell you, there is simply no room for complacency when it comes to bushfire season. “If the average citizen had an opportunity to prevent a bad fire from becoming far worse, they’d take it. The question is, would our governments do the same?”
