Last year's devastating bushfires have made many Great Lakes residents understandably nervous, especially the hundreds who watched in horror as the inferno threatened their homes and livelihoods.
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While residents have been urged to ensure they are 'bushfire ready' for the 2020-21 season, residents in Taree Street, Tuncurry are concerned MidCoast Council is not following its own advice.
Former Great Lakes Council councillor, Brett Presland is both frustrated and disappointed his calls to clean up Charlotte Ohma Reserve have gone unanswered.
During the October 26 bushfire, which threatened a large chunk of Tuncurry, Mr Presland and his wife Joanne were trapped, unable to escape a fire burning in Charlotte Ohma Reserve opposite their Tuncurry Street house.
The extensive reserve, which features indigenous cabbage palms, eucalypts, sheoak and paperbarks along with introduced figs and weed species, is littered with dead palm fronds.
The biggest problem with the cabbage palms is that they drop fonds on the ground, creating a fire hazard, Mr Presland said.
"The head of the palms holds the embers and the tree can smoulder for days."
Authorities believed the fire in Charlotte Ohma Reserve were a result of embers flying over from the Minimbah Road fire, after it jumped the Wallamba River.
Mr Presland said following two similar incidents eight years ago Rural Fire Service (RFS) personnel had advised council the area needed to undergo hazard reduction.
"I was there when the RFS told council, but nothing has happened," he said.
During his tenure with council and as works and services committee deputy chair, Mr Presland secured 'work for the dole' to undertake a clean-up program in the reserve.
"But, that was 20 years ago, and successive councils have never maintained it," he said.
"At one stage the area was mowed; it was really lovely area to walk through."
MidCoast Council community spaces recreation and trades manager, Dan Aldridge explained the area was zoned E2, an environmental conservation area.
"Meaning it has to be left in its natural state," Mr Aldridge said.
"Under the Great Lakes LEP all the palms in there are protected."
Mr Aldridge said the reserve was managed and protected by MidCoast Council on behalf of Crown Lands.
At the same time he said council worked closely with the RFS and to date had not received any advice to undertake a hazard reduction program.
He said the reserve was managed in accordance to advice from the RFS.
With much of the area a wetland and is generally very wet the area was not considered a high risk bushfire zone, Mr Aldridge said.
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