Two safer places

By Tania Martin
Yarra Ranges Council will tonight cast their final vote on the location as a place of last resort.
Councillors and shire staff met with the CFA last Wednesday as they prepared the final assessment on the locations.
Morrison Reserve in Mount Evelyn was also assessed and both could be approved as early as tonight.
Mayor Len Cox said the council had submitted more than 67 places for assessment but the two hills sites had been the only ones to meet the stringent criteria.
He said an NSP building had to have a vegetation clearing of more than 140 metres and an open space of 300 metres.
“There wasn’t much in the shire that goes within cooee of the criteria,” Cr Cox said.
Cr Cox understands the frustrations of locals waiting for NSPs to be announced but he said the council was doing everything it could to prepare for this summer.
Lyster Ward’s cr Samantha Dunn said there were only 12 sites that had made it through the first round assessments.
But she said a lot had been dumped following issues with insurance and liability.
“There is a gap in the insurances for NSPs on privately owned and crown land and there is no way that the council can expose its ratepayers to that.”
“So that cut out nine locations … that brought us back to three but one was not accessible 24 hours.”
Monbulk’s police Sergeant Alan Fincher said the football ground was an obvious choice.
He said it would be a good gathering point for people who have been caught short.
But Sgt Fincher warned residents to remember it was not a refuge or meeting point to wait out a fire.
He said it was a shame the new town’s hub centre had not been finished in time for this season.
“It would have been the perfect gathering place,” he said.
Sgt Fincher said many residents would welcome the news that the shire had found a suitable location for an NSP in the hills.
“People are getting nervous already,” he said.
“Every time the siren goes off people are asking what’s going on … another season is already starting and there are a lot of concerns.”
But the Dandenong Ranges Community Bushfire Group (DRCBF) fears having only two NSPs in the hills would cause even more chaos.
Spokeswoman Melanie Gajdek said fire experts say NSPs needed to be located close to residents’ homes.
She said there was a risk on those lower category days where thousands would be battling the roads to get to one of these NSPs.
“You will then have people at home, trying to exist or trying to find an NSP and roads are shut down,” Ms Gajdek said.
“We need formal, signed NSPs of last resort in each town, preferably in walking distance also for visitors.”