PEOPLE might disagree on climate change, but there’s no denying the Southern Tablelands is a large and dry expanse of southern NSW.
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A large and dry expanse that doesn’t take much to burn, as we experienced all too recently on that hot and windy unlucky Friday, November 13.
In an unforeseeable and largely unpreventable series of events, a loose tyre sparked the grass fire that became a full burn over several hours.
We’ve already praised in these pages the emergency personnel who worked hard to stop its escalation into something with more serious consequences.
We’re sure we’ll praise them in these pages again before summer is through. That’s why we, and many land-owners along the Hume Highway, are exasperated over the tussle of the tussocks between the council and RMS.
Playing chasey - “tips, you’re it” - was fun in the schoolyard, but is folly among grown men and women, with serious consequences of its own.
The tiny slices of land that line the Hume as easements and embankments must surely be marked on a map somewhere under someone’s jurisdiction.
Come on! Tossing the responsibility back and forth like a hot potato only means we’ll all be roasted when the next total fire ban rolls through town. No one gives much thought to those tiny slices, least of all the drivers who glide and fly by them, but that’s probably because we trust in our taxes.
That is to say, the different levels of government and their agencies always remember to collect them, so how could they forget to spend them?
Obviously, the Hume is a long stretch with tiny strips of land all the way alongside it, and patches will be overlooked even in the best of efforts.
No single agency or official could take responsibility for the whole stretch, and no government or agency budget could stretch its entire length.
But refusing to take responsibility for foreseeable and preventable outcomes just because some imaginary line limits your outlands of caring is not OK.
Taking responsibility does not have to mean putting up the cost of routine maintenance, but it does mean taking action, and in a number of ways.
Talk to land-owners about the potential danger areas. Tell the Rural Fire Service where those danger areas are. Take the time to publish it all online.
Take these actions until there is absolute agreement about who does what for whom, then do it, and tell us what you’re doing, and when.
Don’t leave us guessing, and don’t leave us grabbing for garden hoses the next time a hot, dry wind gusts across Goulburn and the district.
Summertime safety will always be a burning issue in the large and dry expanses of southern NSW. Tis the season to be jolly well responsible for it.