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| |Home|Fire
Safety| Living in Grassland on the Southern Tablelands| |
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Fire
Safety |
| Living
in Grassland on the Southern Tablelands (2) |
| Some
proponents of native grasses insist that they should not be mowed. True, you
can't turn them into lawn, but slashing them down to form a firebreak will not
hurt them at all. |
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On
the left, unmown poa tussock, dry and combustible. On the right, poa tussock
which has been mowed, green and quite healthy. The two pictures were taken
in the same paddock on the same day. |
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| Another
option for creating fire breaks is the cunning arrangement of paddocks for grazing.
Your stock can munch out the fire breaks for you if you put them into the right
places in spring, so if you divide your paddocks up so that the high risk areas
are fenced off the neddies, sheep or alpacas can do your strategic risk reduction
for you. This rotation is particularly necessary with horses as they have the
annoying habit of daintily picking out the green bits and leaving the dry hazardous
combustibles alone if you give them the full run of the place. Portable electric
fencing is handy to regulate grazing in the growing season, but it can be a
fire hazard itself if it produces the odd spark in the really hot dry season.
It has its place if used judiciously. |
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A
two horsepower ride-on mower. And no, the comments in the previous paragraph
were not based on equiphobia, just experience. |
| Once
the grass is very dry, high risk activities must not be carried out in the
paddock, including welding, anglegrinding, blowtorching or even mowing and
slashing. Even when conditions are not extreme, if you are mowing or slashing
in hot weather it is compulsory, not to mention sensible, to carry a knapsack
spray pack or similar source of water in your tractor or mower. The same
applies when you are doing any kind of work producing sparks. The brigade
has had to put out grass fires caused by a spark from a slasher, from a
welding spark and from the careless disposal of barbecue fuel. If such a
fire escapes from your property and damages the property of others, you
can be held liable for the damages. |
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The
Sutton brigade attended an incident in which a spark from a welder burnt out
this paddock within minutes on a hot and dry but almost windless summer day. |
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are some areas where extra attention must be paid to carrying out spark producing
activities safely whatever the fire conditions are outside. Such areas include
haysheds and fuel depots which, once ignited, will burn whatever is going on
outside, and they ignite very easily. The damage may be even greater if fire
spreads through long dry grass, so these outbuildings should always be a a clear,
well mowed area. |
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This
hayshed fire was started by careless use of machinery and burned all night,
despite pouring rain. Fortunately, the area around it was well cleared. |
| Windbreaks
on the property can reduce the speed of a grass fire. Location is important
and with our prevailing winds they will do the most good on the westerly side.
Filtering windbreaks which slow the speed of the wind are said to be better
than really dense windbreaks which cause eddying. Suitable species which are
themselves not highly combustible should be chosen. Lists of suitable species
are available from various sources. Try Landcare, the local council or the Society
for Growing Australian Plants. It is a myth that all natives are dangerous,
although it is important to avoid using eucalypts with long dangly bark because
of the risk of burning bark fragments blowing around and starting new fires.
The traditional pines go up like a burning blowtorch. |
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A
shot from the archives shows a trail ride heading off into the wilds past
the church on the right. The two giant pines are all that remained of
a border of huge and historic specimens. Unfortunately the rest succumbed
to the 1979 fire that swept around the village. Photographer unknown.
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| Grass
fires move fast and can destroy pasture, but generally pose a lesser risk to
property so long as spot fires and hot spots are extinguised after the main
fire has gone through. If there is a grass fire on your property, careful attention
to mopping up any hot spots reduces risk of further damage were these to reignite
later. |
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