With a heavy heart, great sorrow, remorse and the deepest of condolences to the bereft, I have to ask why we - Australians - are not in some form of control of our natural climate management.
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As each year rolls on we continue to pay increased insurance premiums - as long as you can get insurance at all - suffer dreadful loss of property and worse still, we have the horrid outcome of loss of life because of natural disasters.
Mere mortals have an expectation that someone is going to save them.
Our amazing, dedicated and selfless first responders, firefighters, SES, armed forces, surf lifesavers, police, ambulance, medics and volunteers all turn out to help us and we are too stupid to help ourselves.
Enough I say. Our councils and governments need to let us look after our patches, as we know best, and stop being dictated to by agenda-driven fearmongers.
Australia, no one knows how best to protect us more than ourselves.
In my opinion, on the fire management front - and this is not new thinking, this is restating the bleeding obvious - livestock needs to be allowed back into the national parks so the undergrowth will be kept down.
Before the bleeding hearts start their abuse, how about some genuine common sense is practised.
The so-called reason for the lack of permissible grazing in the national parks is the livestock may tread on a special speckled longneck lizard or may damage a frog habitat.
But, what hope do these little creatures have of outrunning a ferocious fire?
Next, get the fire trails back and maintained in section grid patterns so responders can map, back burn and have access to difficult and vulnerable areas.
Then reinstate the road reserves.
The old rule in the bush being that the road reserve needs to be clear 22 metres on each side from the centre of a public road.
Some trees have to go but is it not better to have safe roads where trees don't fall and block access during the wind and fire storm devastation?
Once, there was an occupation called 'scrub cutting' where the weak saplings and rough off shoots would be removed.
That left good pasture and enough subsoil moisture for the strong trees to stay healthy and sturdy, as uncontrolled saplings and weak vegetation becomes the worst fodder for fire.
I hope and pray never see traffic lined up and jammed like we did a few years ago where some coastal hamlets only have one access road. We must never forget those scenes broadcast on the news where traffic was stationary with the real fire threat looming over the ridges.
This is Australia, not some poor country that has no options. We have options and we must grow up and not fear the angry backlash from do-gooders whose aggression is unacceptable.
- By Katrina Humphries, Moree.
