Chapter 4 - Warnings - 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission

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2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission—Interim Report 4 WARNINGS 4.98 This demonstrates that a very large number of awareness, alert and urgent threat messages were posted to the CFA and DSE websites throughout the day. Information contained in the awareness, alert and urgent threat messages was conveyed to the ABC and to commercial media for broadcast. It was also supplied to the VBIL to be used by staff providing information to the public. 129 134 Warnings broadcast by the ABC 4.99 Consistent with the MOU, many bushfire warnings were broadcast by the ABC on 7 February. After the usual midday news bulletin, local radio Victoria began its scheduled grandstand sports broadcast but interrupted this at about 12:30pm to broadcast fire-related information. As information about the number of bushfires burning in various parts of Victoria was received, and the growing seriousness of the situation became apparent, Victorian local radio management decided to cancel scheduled programming and switch to continuous rolling coverage of the bushfires. 130 4.100 During the day, much of the content broadcast on local radio Victoria was sourced from 774 ABC Radio Melbourne. In some areas, local ABC radio stations made local broadcasts at some stages of the day. 131 4.101 The information concerning bushfires received by the ABC came from multiple sources: ■■ telephone calls from representatives of emergency services made on the hotline directly to 774 ABC Radio Melbourne production studio in Southbank and to regional radio stations and directly to ABC local radio staff ■■ emails from the fire agencies and Victoria Police ■■ ABC staff monitoring the DSE and CFA websites: on the afternoon of 7 February a person in the Ballarat studio was rostered to monitor the messages being posted on the agencies’ websites and as appropriate to read those messages on air on 774 ABC Radio Melbourne ■■ direct conversations between CFA and DSE staff and ABC personnel located at the iECC ■■ ABC staff speaking directly to Incident Controllers by telephone, and sometimes the Incident Controllers being interviewed on air ■■ telephone calls with representatives of the Bureau of Meteorology 132 ■■ telephone calls, SMS messages and emails from members of the general public. 133 4.102 There are in evidence transcripts of the 774 ABC Radio broadcasts on 7 February. Additional audio files and transcripts of ABC Central Victoria Radio, ABC Gippsland Radio, ABC Western Victoria Radio, 3AW and ABC local radio were also tendered. 134 In addition, a chart setting out the first mention of warnings for the Kilmore East and Murrindindi fires was tendered. 135 4.103 It is clear from this material that bushfire awareness, alert and urgent threat messages were read multiple times throughout the day. ‘On the spot’ coverage was provided throughout the day. Interviews were conducted with representatives of the emergency services, callers from the public provided information and reporters on the ground provided additional coverage. 4.104 An extremely high volume of calls was received by ABC Radio on the afternoon of 7 February. The Melbourne Southbank studio received just over 6000 calls. In comparison, on an ordinary day it expects to receive approximately 800 calls. 136 4.105 Ms Stayner said calls to the ABC were being made simultaneously and continuously on multiple lines. Producers and editorial staff were answering calls for over 10 hours commencing at about midday on 7 February. 137 The events of the afternoon presented a ‘very challenging situation even for experienced staff’. 138 Some members of the public called in a distressed state seeking information, which presented difficulties for ABC staff. 139 The public increasingly called the studio looking for specific information and reporting problems with the VBIL. 140 Some callers rang back repeatedly and became increasingly frustrated. 141 4.106 In addition to the information broadcast on ABC Radio: ■■ ABC television broadcasts on 7 February carried ‘crawlers’ which advised viewers that there were fires burning throughout Victoria and that they should listen to their ABC local radio for further information. The first crawler went to air at 1:45pm and they continued regularly until nearly 10:00pm on 7 February. 142
Warnings ■■ Information was published on the 774 ABC Radio Melbourne Twitter account from about 12:30pm on 7 February until the early hours of the following morning. 143 The information published on the Twitter account came from information already broadcast by the ABC, the CFA website and information on the ABC news site. 144 4.107 The ABC played a vital role on 7 February in informing and warning the community. The efforts of its staff are commended. The level of public trust in and reliance on the ABC is evident. However, in a number of key instances the information provided by the ABC was out of date, or inaccurate — or there was simply no information that particular communities were under threat. The ABC was reliant on accurate and timely advice from the emergency services, and when this was not available, the quality of information relayed by the ABC was inevitably compromised. The specific circumstances around warnings for the Kilmore East fire are discussed in Chapter 9. The Commission will hear further evidence for each major fire in future hearings. Commercial media 4.108 The commercial media also played a role in alerting the community to bushfire warnings. A compilation of media clips (including commercial TV news bulletins) was played during the hearing. 145 These clips graphically illustrated the level of attention that the bushfire risk gained in the commercial media on 7 February. 4.109 There is scope for increasing the involvement and profile of the commercial media in emergency broadcasting. As Mr Rees noted, the MOU between the ABC and the emergency services agencies acknowledges that ABC local radio broadcast to a maximum of about 25–30 per cent of Victorians at peak listening times, and a smaller number outside those hours. 146 Attention needs to be paid to reaching those who are not within the ABC’s audience. 4.110 Mr Grant Johnstone, General Manager of ACE Radio Traralgon stations TRFM and Gold 1242, gave evidence. 147 ACE Radio is Victoria’s largest regional commercial radio network. It operates 13 AM and FM radio stations throughout Victoria. Mr Johnstone noted that ACE Radio and other commercial radio networks are not recognised officially as emergency broadcasters. 148 However, ACE Radio follows the procedures contained in the Commercial Radio Australia Limited codes of practice and guidelines for broadcasts of emergency information. 149 Pursuant to those guidelines, ACE Radio broadcasts emergency information. ACE Radio broadcast the warning messages it received on 7 February and undertook substantial efforts to obtain information directly from Incident Controllers to supplement that information. 4.111 ACE Radio’s system for broadcasting emergency service announcements relies heavily on the emergency services directly contacting ACE Radio by telephone, fax or email and on ACE Radio staff being able to speak to emergency service personnel directly when the need arises. 150 4.112 Mr Johnstone noted, however, that there are two major consequences of ACE Radio not having the status of the emergency broadcaster: (1) Incident Controllers and others charged with dissemination of information do not automatically and routinely provide emergency information to commercial regional radio networks. As a result, the information available for broadcast is more limited than it should be. (2) Commercial broadcasters are not promoted in the mind of the public as ‘emergency broadcasters’. 151 4.113 Mr Johnstone expressed the firm view that all radio networks that are prepared to broadcast emergency service information during bushfires and other emergencies, and to maintain appropriate standards when doing so, should enjoy equal access to the emergency service information to maximise public accessibility. He noted that ACE Radio would be prepared to enter into an undertaking with the relevant authorities to guarantee the extent and integrity of its emergency information broadcasts in a similar way to the MOU that presently exists between the ABC and Victorian emergency services organisations. 152 He said: 135
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Chapter 4 - Warnings - 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission

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