National fire guru gives blessing to Falls Festival

Australia’s leading fire scientist has defended Lorne’s Falls Festival against claims it could become a death trap this fire season.
Dr Kevin Tolhurst dismissed the warnings of a regional fire risk management officer that limited roads out of the iconic music festival presented a danger to patrons in the event of a bushfire.
Dr Tolhurst, who visited the concert site in October, disputed the vulnerability of the late-December festival to fire.
“The environment around the Falls Festival site is highly unlikely to be dry enough by the time of this year’s event to enable a bushfire,” he said.
“The festival site is located in a wet-rainforest environment that would typically be too wet to burn when the festival is held each December.”
Dr Tolhurst reported to stakeholders including CFA, Surf Coast Shire, Event Fire Services Australia and Falls Festival organisers that “the condition of the environment and the level of bushfire risk can be measured”.
“Given the timing and location of the festival, the chance each year of a dry environment for a Falls Festival is remote and that case would take time to develop and be very apparent well before the festival took place,” he said.
Department of Human Services’ Chris Piper told the Independent last week that a quadrupling of Lorne’s population to accommodate the festival left the event “quite vulnerable” to bushfire.