Fifth Anniversary of the Blue Mountains Bushfires

The seventeenth of October marks the fifth anniversary of the devastating Blue Mountains bushfires, which destroyed 200 homes in Mount Victoria, Winmalee, Springwood and Yellow Rock. Five years on, most people who rebuilt their homes have moved in—as I did earlier this year—although I reckon it's going to take another five years before people get to do their front yards. You'd think by now that the marks where cars melted to the bitumen would be gone, but no state or federal government has provided funding for that. The psychological impacts of those events on our whole community, not just on people who faced flames or lost houses, have proven to be long-lasting.

However, there are some things that would help other communities deal with another bushfire. Insurers must work with householders to ensure that they can afford to rebuild after a fire. Too many in our fires had that choice taken away from them because of unintentional underinsurance. Being helped to plan is crucial—plan for human safety, for pet safety and to give your house the best chance of survival. I congratulate New South Wales Rural Fire Service on their latest campaign to encourage people to test their plan.

We should have already had the mobile black spots fixed, with better battery life for towers—I know firsthand how important it is to be able to communicate during and immediately after a fire—yet that too has been ignored by this government, with key bushfire-prone areas excluded from the Mobile Black Spot Program. If any good can come out of the fires, it should be learning from our experience and making sure that others don't experience the same.

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