Fire tower vandalised

WITH the bushfire danger period well and truly here, the Rural Fire Service has brought vandalism to the attention of the community.

Last week the Bega District News joined some of those in charge of the fire towers in the Bega Valley and made the trip to the fire tower on Wolumla Peak some 17kms and 500 metres above sea level into the hills around Wyndham.

Four times in the past 18 months, the tower at the top of the mountain has been vandalised, according to acting manager of Far South Coast RFS team John Cullen.

“The original glass was smashed once, then we replaced it with thicker glass and they did the same to that,” he said.

“We even tried thick perspex but that didn’t last either.

“The table inside was smashed and thrown down the hills as well.”

The glass provides protection for the people who man the lookout from winds up to 100kph winds and, at times, extreme heat.

A four-metre square box perched on a platform some 10 metres higher than the top of the mountain, the lookouts are vital for the early detection of bushfires throughout the Valley.

Dean Payne, operations forester from NSW Forests based in Eden said there were four towers: the one at Wolumla, Peak Alone, west of Cobargo, Timbilica, south of Eden, and the other at MumbullaMountain , but “this is the only one that has been vandalised substantially although the others have been hit a couple of times”.

“This tower plays a major role in the protection of communities across the Valley and is essential for early detection,” Mr Payne said.

He said the towers could be the first and last places in the battle against a fire.

“They tell us when the fire has started and if ever communications go down during a bad fire like last year’s in Victoria, the towers can still tell us what’s going on.

“There are also radio towers for the other emergency services nearby and if they were damaged it would be really critical.”

Brian Ayliffe is the chair of the Bega Valley Bushfire Management Committee and said that vandalising the tower was along the lines of vandalising a fire truck.

“It has a similar effect,” he said.

“I can imagine the community’s revulsion at that and this is a similar resource.

“This is the starting point for everything, the earlier we know about a fire, the better we can tackle it.”

Peter Windle from National Parks and Wildlife Services in Merimbula said the towers were funded jointly by National Parks and State Forests and were extremely important.

“The fire spotters give those on the ground the direction of the fire, a rough length and where we can start to move crews in,” he said.

“They also give weather readings on the hour so we can tell if a front is coming through or any change in the weather that might make a difference.

“The RFS has our radios in their control centres and we all work together.”

Mr Windle said that while the towers don’t really have line of sight with each other they are in constant contact.

“While we might know about lightning strikes, there’s nothing like the eye to identify a small smoke column away in the distance.

“When there are two towers seeing it they can triangulate and locate it, and they are really good radio relay points so everyone is aware of what is going on.”

According to Mr Ayliffe any damage is paid for by National Parks and State Forests, but he has the feeling “that if it gets too expensive the agencies might start to think twice about putting all that money into them and stop using them; that would be disastrous for our fire fighting operations”.

“We are spending tens of thousands of dollars on repairing vandalism and that’s taking money away from the core job.”

Around the inside of the tower box is what is called an alidade – a strip of hardiplank marked with angles, distances and identifying marks of the whole Valley through 360 degrees.

“This has been smashed a couple of times,” Mr Payne said.

“And there is so much work and history that has gone into it that we now have a template so we can replace it if necessary but you shouldn’t have to do that.”

Mr Payne said the vandals had also tried to break into the radio control box but “we have upgraded it and reinforced the door”.

He said now the agencies were looking at even higher levels of protection for the tower and the equipment.

Mr Cullen said the vandalism was not simply done from boredom.

“This is premeditated,” he said.

“You don’t go all the way up there for no reason, it’s just wanton vandalism.”

Mr Ayliffe said he wants the community to be aware of what’s happening.

“This is all for the community’s protection and coming into summer we need to know that one day this vandalism could make a difference to anything we do with a major fire.

“We don’t want a disaster.”

Mr Cullen and Mr Ayliffe urged anyone with any knowledge to please contact the police.