Farmer builds airstrip as bush fires season approaches.
A strip of gravel on Peter Kirchner’s Munglinup property is easing his nerves about the looming bushfire season.
Key points from the Esperance Bushfire Tragedy
- A coroner investigating deadly Esperance fires said water bombers needed better access to the region
- A farmer at Munglinup has led efforts to ensure water bombers can access more of the region
- He also says telecommunications upgrades are urgently needed
The farmer and volunteer bush firefighter said he spent more than $50,000 from his own pocket upgrading the 1.5-kilometre airstrip. This will allow light water bombers to land when the agricultural district between Esperance and Ravensthorpe faces its next fire.
He was on the ground during the deadly Esperance bushfires of 2015, in which four people died. He hopes having the infrastructure to facilitate water bombers would spare the region further devastation in the future.
Efforts to stop the 2015 blaze were hampered by the lack of water bombers deployed to fight them.
A coroner, who investigated, recommended that $800,000 be spent on water bombers to service the Wheatbelt and Esperance areas. He also asked that airstrips be reviewed and identified for use in the northwest Esperance Shire.
Until earlier this year neither of these ideas, nor many of the coroner’s other 10 recommendations, had been enacted.
So Mr Kirchner decided to get the ball rolling.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to do it yourself,” he said.
“Four people lost their lives. That was very scary. We were up there right in the thick of it and it was just terrible.
“So [the lack of action on the coroner’s recommendation’s] was really disappointing.”
Farmer builds an airstrip : Thousands spent on project
The project has been costly for Mr Kirchner, who estimated he spent between $50,000 and $60,000. Some $22,000 of that jwas just for gravel, upgrading the strip on his farm west of Munglinup.
Earlier this year, a spokesperson for the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said it stumped up $21,000 for tank installation and site works.
The spokesperson also said gravel earthworks would be funded through its bushfire mitigation works. Additional funding opportunities would be pursued for further equipment.
The department would also support and help with the maintenance of the Munglinup airstrip.
But it has also been hard work, with Mr Kirchner and others spending a month carting gravel to the site. He also cleaned out a dam to hold water and carted sand for a pad for a water tank base. The job also required laying pipe to the dam, putting up a windsock, and smoothing the runway.
The configuration will now allow planes to land at either end, depending on the wind. They will then taxi to the water tank in the middle and refill off to the side. This will allow another plane to land at the same time.
“We are surrounded by millions of hectares of bush,” Mr Kirchner said.
“If we have any sort of lightning strikes it’s always the volunteers who are left to tidy up the bush and be responsible.
Water Bombers will be a lifesaver!
“So to have some assistance from bombers is just going to be a game changer up here.”
Phil Longmire, the chief bushfire control officer for the Esperance region, said having the additional infrastructure in the adjacent Ravensthorpe Shire would make the area, particularly to the east of Ravensthorpe, much safer.
But Mr Kirchner still hoped to see further action from the government to better fire-proof the region and believed improving its notoriously poor telecommunications services would be a good place for it, and the service providers, to focus.
Although a relief to have the airstrip, Mr Kirchner remains a little jittery about the summer ahead.
“It’s going to be a real concern if one does get going, with the current stubble loads,” he said.
“There are just some amazing crops throughout the whole district and everywhere you drive, I haven’t seen a bad crop.
“So if one does get going it could turn quite nasty quite quickly.”
If you are flying in the Esperance area, there is an airpark in Myrup which is a great spot to leave your aircraft and explore Esperance.
Article courtesy of the ABC
Author: admin
2 Comments
Hi Les, thanks for your comment. The current CASA medical processes are under debate, with many pilots feeling the same frustrations as you. There is a survey on this topic available on the Home page of this site if you would like to complete it, and have your thoughts sent anonymously to CASA.
the medicals is to restrictive I had a open heart with 1 vane fixed now five ten years later they still ask for a medical with the lot of the test even thou the lame passed me each time saying with my health he would pass me foe a CPL but that’s not good enough for the department so I had to stop flying got expensive for me