Bush burns off to early start in 2010

Jessica Benton
“Favourable” weather has allowed an early start to annual fuel-reduction burning along the Great Ocean Road this year.
Department of Sustainability and Environment Otway district manager Andrew Morrow said the annual burn-offs were also set to extend to parts of the Bellarine Peninsula identified as “high risk.”
The department started burns at Marengo and Kennett River this week amid “favourable weather and ground conditions”, he said.
“The start of the burn program varies a bit from year to year as per seasonal conditions. Compared to last year, the start is earlier this year because we had quite good rain in February,” Mr Morrow said.
“This means we should be able to progress to the drier areas earlier as we go through the autumn period.
“We’re aiming to maximise the weather window available to undertake all of the (planned) burnings.”
Mr Morrow said the burning program covered 25 hectares at Marengo and Kennett River on Tuesday.
The department initiated a 16Ha burn at Wye River and another covering 83 hectares at Kennett River on Wednesday.
Mr Morrow said the department planned more burns later in the week.
He expected the program to continue until the weather “closed in”, which was usually mid-May.
This year’s program would expand to include a “larger” burn-off to Sharp’s Track, near Lorne.
Mr Morrow said burning was also earmarked for parts of the Bellarine Peninsula.
“A lot of townships in the region have been identified as high risk, so our focus is to provide enhanced protection to those areas,” he said.
Last year’s planned burn-offs in the region covered over 5500 hectares.
“That was a really good outcome – the best we’ve had in 30 years,” Mr Morrow said.
“It was because of the good sequence of weather and making the most of opportunities with increased resources and focus.”
Last week the Independent revealed that cool weather was set to end the region’s fire-danger season six weeks before the offical end of the fire season.
Acting CFA region seven Geelong operations manager Gerry Verdoorn said the alert could end by the middle of this month.