Pittwater Life September 2023 Issue

ecent times,” adds Angela. “As
a result, there’s been a build-up
of vegetation due to a couple
of very wet years… and we’re
quite behind.”
“We will take the opportunity
whenever it presents itself
though and there is preparation
work planned and being done
on the Northern Beaches.
“We have mitigation personnel
working with volunteers
to reinforce and define lines
where we want fires to burn up
to and then stop,” says Angela,
MOPPING UP: Crews
monitor the aftermath
of the Coasters Retreat
grassfire in July.
“so widening trails and tracks
that are used as dividing lines,
or clearing grass and litter
in areas where you want the
burns to stop.”
Scott Molenaar of the Northern
Beaches Rural Fire District
is hopeful that burns will take
place soon; he agrees that the
wet weather has been an issue
– more so for the Northern
Beaches than many other areas.
“The rain we’ve had has been
quite coastal, and so if you look
at places even just 10km inland
such as Baulkham Hills and the
Hawkesbury area, they’ve been
able to do some burns,” explains
Scott. “We’ve done some
at the back of Cromer Heights,
but we had a burn just above
Akuna Bay that we had to stop
as it rained.
“Things are drying quicker
than they were say six weeks
ago, but there are still frustrations
with the weather when
assessing what is viable.
“We’ll burn into September
and October, but it becomes a
game of cat-and-mouse when
things start to warm up, and
we have to stop the fires. But
there are plenty of places ready
to go – and I know Ingleside
is one of them – we just need
those weather windows to be
on our side.
“People will perhaps see
that there’s been a week of dry
weather and think ‘why aren’t
they burning?’, but it’s a bit
more complicated than that.”
– Rob Pegley
* The RFS is holding a ‘Get
Ready Weekend’ on September
16-17 to encourage residents
to plan and prepare for the
bushfire season; rfs.gov.au
News
The Local Voice Since 1991
SEPTEMBER 2023 11