THOSE who choose to live in Victoria's highest-risk bushfire areas should be required to build fire-protection bunkers, according to the state's Emergency Services Commissioner, Bruce Esplin.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Speaking for the first time since deciding to remain in his role, Mr Esplin expressed frustration that it took the 173 deaths of Black Saturday to force a national agreement on a long-mooted telephone warning system.
He and the Victorian government had been advocating the development of such a system for about five years.
''It took Black Saturday [to get it],'' he said.
He questioned whether one of the Royal Commission's most controversial recommendations - a government buyback of properties in high bushfire risk areas - could work, referring to the trouble-plagued 1960s and 1980s buybacks in the Dandenong ranges and saying houses in dangerous areas should be required to have fire bunkers instead.
''Australians don't want to live in a nanny state,'' he said.
''There will be people who want to stay on their land … but they need another form of security and we are going to need to look at personal bunkers.''
Mr Esplin, who has served as Victoria's Emergency Services Commissioner for a decade, said he was surprised at how emotional he became reading the commission's four-volume final report.
''I've been through a lot in my life. I had cancer at 25 and had to survive that.
''I'm relatively resilient and it really hit me between the eyes,'' he told The Age.
''When I think about what I've been exposed to, I think about the people who have lost lives, lost loved ones or know someone who perished in the fires, or lost houses or lost livelihoods.''
After lengthy discussions with his family and Police Minister Bob Cameron earlier this week, Mr Esplin decided to remain in his role.
''I wanted to make sure I could continue at 100 per cent and commit to a very intense period of change,'' he said.
''I'm a Pollyanna. I believe in community. I believe in community resilience. That's what I'm going to work towards.''
Mr Esplin also disagreed with the Royal Commission's view that a state of disaster should have been declared on Black Saturday.
''The powers that a declaration of a state of disaster activates weren't considered necessary and I think that was the right decision,'' he said. ''I don't think that's a fair criticism.''
He also backed the commission's recommendation for a central fire officer, saying he recommended a similar role following his inquiry into the 2002-03 bushfires.
Quoting historian Tom Griffiths's idea that Australians have a ''cyclical relationship with bushfires matched with a short-term memory'', Mr Esplin also warned Victorians against complacency.
''Climate change is going to make these things happen more frequently, and we can no longer afford the short-term memory loss,'' he said.
