Canberrans urged to prepare for the territory’s bushfire season

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Canberrans are being urged to get ready as the territory's bushfire season gets underway. While this summer is expected to bring moderate conditions the act government says it's prepared for the worst.

Transcript

00:00With bushfires still fresh in Canberran's memories,

00:08preparing for the upcoming season is front of mind.

00:12So the 1st of October is the start of the declared bushfire season for the ACT.

00:16Our outlook for the season is for an average season.

00:20We do live in the bush capital and we are prone to fires.

00:24While a catastrophic season isn't expected, there's still plenty of risk.

00:29We are likely to have an extended grass season this year

00:32with the growth that we're getting through spring.

00:34And if we don't get those follow-up rains, then grass will be our biggest problem.

00:39Bushfires are all too familiar for Uriarra cattle farmer Brian Blundell,

00:44whose family has lived in the Canberra region since 1820.

00:49During Canberra's catastrophic bushfires in 2003,

00:54Mr Blundell's property was on the front line.

00:57Most of our livestock survived but then we had no feed to feed them

01:02and we had sort of very little water.

01:04So it was very difficult for quite some months after the fires

01:09and for many years trying to recover from that.

01:13And he fears that with the right conditions it could happen again.

01:17Since 2003 there's been significant sort of fuel build-up in some areas.

01:25There has been some hazard reduction burning but that has not kept up with the regrowth that's occurred since then.

01:37The Territory Government says it's ready.

01:40There's a lot of backburning and work that occurs and assessing the landscape in terms of high risk areas.

01:49As the weather warms, Canberrans are being urged to prepare.

01:54Please clean up your property, clean your gutters out, remove any materials that could be combustible around your property.

02:01A timely warning to take on lessons of the past.

02:05Let's do this first.

02:10以上 months

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