In Australia, the Victorian government has decided to implement a recommendation by the Bushfires Royal Commission, which investigated the 2009 fires, to buy properties from willing owners that are in high-risk bushfire areas. Here is an excerpt from The Age (if you go to the site, a video that is far down the page and hard to find will begin playing automatically… really annoying!)
The commission recommended a ”retreat and resettlement strategy” that would be adopted ”in areas of unacceptably high bushfire risk”. It said a buyback should focus on land ”near to or adjoining public land”, and give priority to properties that were ”damaged or destroyed by the 2009 bushfires”.
The Victorian government has set aside $5 million for the first stage of the property buying project.
In other down-under fire news, the Country Fire Authority will receive $67 million to build or upgrade 60 fire stations and to acquire 101 new firefighting vehicles over the next 12 months.
Thanks Dick
