Bushfire Road Recovery

This Christmas and New Year Australia suffered a bushfire emergency that impacted the south coast from Batemans Bay to near Melbourne in Victoria.  Many homes burned to the ground and lives were lost.  A vast army of volunteers from the Rural Fire Services fought the fires for weeks until they were reinforced by members of the armed services.  In some areas, residents were forced to wade into the sea when the fires burned to the waters edge and navy ships were urgently despatched to effect rescues.

The Princes Highway is the direct connection between Sydney and Melbourne by way of the east coast of Australia. It is mostly a single lane each way and during the fires great stretches were overwhelmed by flames and closed to traffic.  Welcome rain has now eased the fire threat and the highway is open again, but there is a vast difference in the remedial action taken by the two state governments.  This would have been very apparent to any Sydney motorists taking the highway to visit the motorbike races at Phillip Island in Victoria over the March weekend.

For the first time, this blog carries pictures.  The top picture shows the Princes Highway in a section of New South Wales where it was impacted by fire.  Trees damaged by fire and in danger of falling have been removed, but that seems to be the extent of the restoration.  Massive trees are still as close as a metre from the edge of the carriageway, providing the danger that is the outcome in all too many motoring accidents.

The lower picture shows the Princes Highway in Victoria.  The tree line has been withdrawn two hundred yards from each side of the highway and the sight line has improved. Oncoming traffic is no longer hidden by trees masking a bend in the road and the light factor has sharply improved. This is the standard which should be applied to all traffic roadways in this country.

The Victorians have achieved this with admirable forethought.  The trees that were removed were valuable commodities and as each tree was cut down the bark and branches were removed and the trunk was sold to the sawmilling industry.  The trees removed in the interest of highway safety simply replaced trees that would otherwise be lost to fulfil housing needs for timber.

There is no doubt that this Victorian initiative has increased highway safety. How often do we see an accident report that contains the words " the car ran off the road and crashed into a tree " ?  On too many roads the carriageway is lined with trees that would stop a Sherman tank in its tracks.  The safety issue of setting back the tree line by two hundred yards is obvious.

An example has been set and it is now important that the motoring public insist that this standard be applied, not only to safeguard the road system against the fires we know will be generated by global warming, but to introduce a safety factor to save lives.