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Historic agreement wins fire awareness award

An historic agreement outlining indigenous protocols for fire in East Gippsland has won a prestigious award at the Fire Awareness Community Service Awards in Melbourne last week.

By Department of Sustainability and Environment - 24th October 2005 - Back to News

Developed by the Gippsland Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) in partnership with the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Cooperative (GEGAC), the agreement enables rapid access to important information about indigenous sites in a bushfire-affected area.

The information allows firefighters to modify their fire containment efforts in a bid to minimise impacts on indigenous sites in affected areas.

Officially titled Memorandum of Understanding – Indigenous protocols for fire in East Gippsland, the agreement paves the way for greater cooperation between DSE and indigenous communities in Fire Management.

Judges at the Fire Awareness Community Service Awards said the project was an outstanding example of partnership and cooperation.

DSE project officer Gerry Laughton welcomed the award and said the indigenous community (GEGAC) would benefit from the agreement by having the opportunity to be involved with post fire assessments.

"They will also have the opportunity to be involved with prescribed burns and assess how they have been planned and conducted," he said.

"There is a great opportunity now for us to look at and incorporate indigenous fire practices, to register indigenous site data and to build a better relationship with indigenous and non-indigenous groups in the area."

Mr Laughton said the new process allowed incident controllers to quickly assess the potential for damage to an indigenous site.

"As a scenario, when a lightning strike starts a fire at two in the morning, this information is immediately available to specialist staff, rather than waiting for the results of potential damage analysis by Aboriginal Affairs Victoria during normal work hours," he said.

The process was tested last summer during a number of wildfires in the Bairnsdale Fire District. The Incident Controller requested an indigenous cultural heritage assessment before fire suppression works were carried out. This assessment gave options for the containment works to be carried out with no impact on any known indigenous sites and with the lowest possibility of impact on unknown sites.

"The whole process was completed within 30 minutes whereas it had previously taken a number of hours and sometimes days to access the data," Mr Laughton said.

There were nine categories in the 2005 Fire Awareness Community Safety Awards – the Education Award, the Community Award, the Media Award, the Fire Services Award, the Indigenous Multicultural Award, the Government Award, the Partnerships Award, the Industry Award and the RACV Award for Excellence.

As well the awards, the inaugural $10,000 RACV Insurance Fire Safety Grant was up for grabs. It was awarded to The Victorian Arabic Social Services organisation.

The Awards are a joint initiative between the State Government, the Department of Sustainability and Environment, CFA and the MFB, and are sponsored by RACV Insurance.

Parliamentary Secretary Elaine Carbines said the awards were a timely reminder of the importance of a close working relationship between the community and Victoria’s fire services.

"With an increasing number of elderly Victorians being involved in preventable house fires and a growing multicultural community, we need to be vigilant in educating all segments of the public about the risks and impact of fire," she said.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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