00:00It's been a long five and a half years for Karen and Michael Gallagher on their farm
00:07at Bumbalong since the Auroral Valley fire left them with nothing.
00:13Today they watch the coroner from home.
00:15It is, it's surprising to think that somebody just wouldn't think.
00:18The fire that burnt 90,000 hectares of the ACT's Nimadji National Park crossed the border
00:25into New South Wales, burning down their house and destroying their property.
00:30We lost everything.
00:31You know, we lost it.
00:33We lost tractors, sheds, houses.
00:35The Gallaghers and their neighbours fought the fire and then had to fight to have a voice
00:40in the inquiry which laid bare the events leading up to the fire.
00:45A defence helicopter made an unplanned toilet stop in Nimadji, its searchlight igniting tinder
00:52dry grass.
00:53A transcript of an exchange between crew members was published as part of the inquiry.
00:59We started the fire, we started a fire.
01:02Turn the searchlight off now.
01:04Come up, come up, come up.
01:07Come up, come up.
01:09Just, just wait, wait, wait, wait, wait guys, just wait.
01:14We've got a fire under the aircraft.
01:16The crew maintained from that point they were totally focused on their own safety.
01:22And although authorities became aware of the blaze, it would be around 45 minutes before
01:28they heard about it from defence.
01:30The coroner found it was an error of judgement on the crew's part not to alert local firefighters.
01:37The Commonwealth submits that this finding cannot be made absent expert evidence.
01:44This is not a matter requiring expert evidence.
01:47It is a matter involving an assessment of the facts, the witnesses and common sense.
01:53Chief Coroner Walker said it was not plausible, despite the stress, that no one thought to
01:59say anything, even to air traffic control.
02:02It was absolutely within their means to do so by simply stating to the ATC words along
02:09the lines of, fire started in a rural valley alert fire brigade.
02:14Just a silly error in judgement has caused so much heartache.
02:18Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker made eight recommendations today, including a call for direct reporting
02:24of incidents, establishing duty contacts and better communication within defence about the
02:31the lessons from other incidents.
02:33The coroner set up the inquiry herself after the ACT's chief minister rejected the idea,
02:40saying he didn't want a witch hunt.
02:42Today, the emergency services minister said there were concerns about harming the government's
02:48relationship with defence.
02:50This is, you know, a key conversation out of the 2020 fire, but I think that, you know,
02:57we're looking forward now and working closely with our ADF.
03:01Over at Bumbleong, the Gallaghers are still rebuilding.
03:04They welcomed the finding that someone did the wrong thing and hope it will make a difference
03:09to their lives.
03:10Well, we hope so.
03:11Yeah, we hope so.
03:12We've got a claim for damages in at the moment.
03:17It's been going for five plus years.
03:20To date, the Commonwealth has paid no compensation to anyone.
03:25Defence says it's reviewing the report.
03:28.
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