Dry conditions see Hamilton district controlled burns put on hold

Ted Mann, Glenthompson, said he believed the ban was a result of a burn-off near Dunkeld several weeks ago which got out of control.

“They put a ban on all burning in this region, saying the conditions were too dry,” Mr Mann said.

“Next door, the Wickliffe brigade was burning and it just seemed to be extraordinary they could burn off, but we weren’t allowed to.”

But the CFA’s District Five operations manager Richard Bourke, based in Hamilton, said the ban was only temporary. It was imposed because of extremely dry conditions.

“We need rain, we’ve had only one millimetre this month and hardly any in January,” Mr Bourke said.

Mr Bourke said brigades wanting to carry out controlled burns were issued with a “burn plan.” Burn plans were subject to conditions such as temperature, wind speed and the drought index.

“Conditions have exceeded the permitted drought index,” Mr Bourke said. 

Burns were not permitted if the drought index (which measured soil dryness) exceeded 100, the wind speed was above 15kilometres an hour or the temperature was above 32 degrees.

“If we get rain, as soon as the drought index falls within the permitted parameters, burn plans will be issued again,” Mr Bourke said.

Mr Mann said while fire break burning was “not the be all and end all” of control measures, it was part of the prevention process.

“We graze heavily around buildings and we use summer crops, but we would feel a lot easier at night if we were allowed to burn breaks.

“In one of Victoria’s most fire prone regions, it seems extraordinary.”

District Six, Colac Operations manager, Dean Manson, said conditions in his area were also dry, but burning had not yet been stopped.

“A lot of our brigade captains are telling us it is pretty dry, particularly up north around Derrinallum, Darlington, Lismore and Cressy,” Mr Manson said.

He said burn plans were being issued on a case-by-case basis.

“It will be a balance between risk versus reward,” Mr Manson said.