A six-month long state inquiry into the cause, effect and future prevention of bushfires, following this horror season, will take submissions from the public, but has no plans to tour the regions in its quest for learning.
Dave Owens, former Deputy Commissioner of NSW Police, and Professor Mary O'Kane AC, Independent Planning Commission Chair and former NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, will lead the inquiry, commencing immediately. A report will be submitted to the Premier at its conclusion.
The apparent lack of interest from the NSW Government in not reaching out to regions for answers prompted opposition leader Jodi McKay to tell media at Quaama in the Bega Valley last Friday, "I don't think written submissions to an expert panel based in Sydney is appropriate at all."
Birdwood grazier Gemma Porter, whose family lost paddocks, fences and a sawmill in the Werrikimbe blaze last November, said it was imperative the inquiry hold meetings across the fire grounds.
"Unless this inquiry gets out into the regions and hears from the people affected it will be a Clayton's event," she said.
"Not one of these fires was exactly the same and so much of the state was burned. People are damaged. This inquiry needs to be put in front of them."
Class action
Meanwhile five families and one corporation from the Ebor area are banding together to sue National Parks and Wildlife for millions in compensation following what they say was inaction immediately prior to the eruption of the Bees Nest blaze in September.
Spokesman and NSW Supreme Court solicitor Peter Jackson, Jackson and Associates, said he hoped more parties would join the fight, seeking compensation for damages from recent bush fires along with long term fundamental change.
Mr Jackson said the initial fire in the Guy Faulks National Park should have been continuously monitored from the beginning, with his clients suggesting the enormous inferno that later merged to destroy homes at Nymboida and threatened coastal communities near Coffs Harbour could have been stopped at the beginning with just one truck and two fire fighters.
"There was a lack of communication," Mr Jackson said. There needs to be more liaison."
Another grazier affected by the Bees Nest blaze, Mick Kelsall, who manages Marengo Station, agreed more communication between authorities was required, "but when you enter into a class action that relationship breaks down."
Mr Kelsall said it was essential the NSW bushfire inquiry reach out to regions for answers.
