Fireworks fizzer

Andrew Mathieson
PORTARLINGTON’S summer fireworks have been canned for the first time in 12 years.
Repeated months of dry weather have ignited the risk and annual fireworks on the Penninsula have been put on hold.
Geelong region CFA chief Bob Barry said current sanctions involved “minimising every risk that we can”.
“The issue is that Portarlington is surrounded by open grassland, and even though the fireworks are over the water, the debris from them actually float back in over land.”
Mr Barry said the ban was not a response to a spate of illegal fireworks that brought in the new year across the Bellarine Penninsula.
“The restrictions were imposed well before New Year’s Eve and all the fireworks companies have been told that we won’t be issuing a permit,” Mr Barry said.
“But we have told them all individually that we would review it on a case-by-case basis if it rains.”
More than 50 millimetres of rain would be required to change the seasonal outlook and reassess the fireworks ban, he said.
Mr Barry said Geelong’s New Year’s Eve celebrations on the waterfront were exempt from any ban.
“The fireworks in Geelong were launched in the middle of Corio Bay, with no rural surrounding around them that posed a threat,” Mr Barry said.
CFA regarded Corio Bay as the only “safe location” in Region 7 for fireworks, he said.
He said fireworks at other Bellarine and Surf Coast towns were also too dangerous.
Portarlington Charity Carnival Committee secretary Karen Woodhart said it was disappointing to miss out this year.
The fireworks display has been a staple of the Portarlington Summer Festival in the past.
“It’s very disappointing in the respect that I can’t see why the waterfront got theirs and we didn’t get ours,” Ms Woodhart said.
“If we were setting them off from the land, I wouldn’t have an issue.”
She said a fireworks operator had told her it would not cause any risk to either the grassland or spectators.
“We could actually take the barge (with the fireworks) as far out into the bay as we needed to ensure there was no debris onto the land,” she said.