Month: July 2003

Operations

Within a day of the fires, the ACT Planning and Land Authority (formerly PALM) was involved in a team effort that set up a cross-government and industry Property Assessment and Recovery Team. PART, as it would be known, at one stage involved more than 50 organisations.

“Every day more and more people would turn up at the meetings,” recalls Ros Chivers, the Bushfire Coordinator at the ACT Planning and Land Authority. “It was amazing to think that so many people from so many different areas were all needed to work on starting the recovery.”

A quick trawl of the PART meeting would reveal updates on restoring essential services of electricity, water and gas; site inspections and data collection; demolition and development approval, insurance, housing and new offers of help.

Says Ros: “The PART meetings ensured that a whole host of different organisations knew what was happening across the recovery effort at the same time.”

It meant that within the first week, ACTPLA had produced, on behalf of PART, the first step-by-step guide for Canberrans to make their property safe. Within a month, a series of five fact sheets were available, which is now called the Guide to Rebuilding After Bushfire.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_planning operations story”

Leading Australian general insurer, NRMA Insurance took help to the next level by reminding residents of important considerations needed after a home has been destroyed by fire, storm, earthquake or cyclone.

Through its experience as a leading general insurer for more than 75 years, NRMA Insurance has helped customers through many major claims events such as the Newcastle earthquake, Sydney hailstorms, Wollongong floods and the recent NSW and ACT bushfires.

Group Executive of Personal Insurance, Rick Jackson, said the destruction caused by the Canberra bushfires was an example of how natural disaster can strike quickly, leaving a trail of destruction and many people overwhelmed by the recovery process.

“Following a natural disaster, NRMA Insurance provides help beyond simply paying our customers’ claims. We take pride in being on the ground in the affected area to help provide emergency funds, organise trauma counselling and temporary accommodation for customers who cannot live in their homes,” Mr Jackson said. “NRMA Insurance even launched a mobile claims assessing centre called the help van which can be quickly deployed to areas affected by natural disasters.

“We understand that when the community recovers from the initial shock of the disaster and moves forward into the recovery phase, there is a demand for quality information about what to do next.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_nrma no byline please”

Usually it is the bureaucrat’s ultimate nightmare – breaking new ground with no safe precedents to rely upon, no manual, no best-practice guidelines and models to ensure all bums are covered, all decisions justifiable, all funds accounted for and all careers protected.

Whatever finger-pointing goes on about the lead-up to the fire, it appears that the recovery work and administration has been exemplary. Well this is Canberra, so we should do those things well. There has been hardly a peep of criticism about the running of the Bushfire Recovery Centre – a good test for smooth administration.

There was little warning.

The manager of the centre, Di Butcher, taken from the child protection service of the Department of Education Youth and Family Service, found the experience surreal.

Usually human services are always struggling in terms of both physical and financial resources. Each area of service delivery has its own procedures, means of reporting and ways of doing things.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_new inventing a new administrative wh”

The fires will have a profound effect on the way Canberra is planned and developed – and not just in the suburbs that are rebuilt.

Four major studies will look at lessons to be learned from the fires and future land uses.

This month a discussion paper resulted from the Non-Urban Study. It suggested a range of possible sustainable uses of non-urban land, such as the rural areas, nature reserves and national parks. It will include suggestions about the burnt-out Stromlo area, including the possibility of residential development there. Before the fires, that was not a possibility. The study, which will be completed in October, will also make recommendations about the future of pine plantations.

The Urban Edge Review will look at design standards and guidelines, and management approaches for Canberra’s urban edge. The urban edge is the land that abuts the metropolitan area, and open spaces that link the urban interface with the residential areas, such as roadways. The review will assess whether any areas should be declared bushfire-prone.

ACT Forests Business Case will look at plantation forestry in the ACT.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_long term effect on planning”

The fires will have a profound effect on the way Canberra is planned and developed – and not just in the suburbs that are rebuilt.

Four major studies will look at lessons to be learned from the fires and future land uses.

This month a discussion paper resulted from the Non-Urban Study. It suggested a range of possible sustainable uses of non-urban land, such as the rural areas, nature reserves and national parks. It will include suggestions about the burnt-out Stromlo area, including the possibility of residential development there. Before the fires, that was not a possibility. The study, which will be completed in October, will also make recommendations about the future of pine plantations.

The Urban Edge Review will look at design standards and guidelines, and management approaches for Canberra’s urban edge. The urban edge is the land that abuts the metropolitan area, and open spaces that link the urban interface with the residential areas, such as roadways. The review will assess whether any areas should be declared bushfire-prone.

ACT Forests Business Case will look at plantation forestry in the ACT.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_long term effect on planning”

Usually it is the bureaucrat’s ultimate nightmare – breaking new ground with no safe precedents to rely upon, no manual, no best-practice guidelines and models to ensure all bums are covered, all decisions justifiable, all funds accounted for and all careers protected.

Whatever finger-pointing goes on about the lead-up to the fire, it appears that the recovery work and administration has been exemplary. Well this is Canberra, so we should do those things well. There has been hardly a peep of criticism about the running of the Bushfire Recovery Centre – a good test for smooth administration.

There was little warning.

The manager of the centre, Di Butcher, taken from the child protection service of the Department of Education Youth and Family Service, found the experience surreal.

Usually human services are always struggling for money. Each section has its own procedures and ways of doing things.

“With Recovery Centre we were given the autonomy to just go ahead and to it,” she said. “We have got people here from every government department. Housing, mental health, child protection – a whole lot of people used to working in challenging areas, but everyone had a different style of reporting. We co-ordinated that quickly.

“We found out from the people affected what was needed. Often we have had to change tack very quickly. Unthought-of issued just emerged. So we spoke to people higher up about the things we found out.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_inventing a new administrative wheel”

The January 18 fires cost insurance companies $350.7 million, according to the Insurance Disaster Response Organisation.

It puts it among the top half dozen in the list of Australia’s most costly disasters for the insurance industry and the second most costly fire in Australia’s history. The fires destroyed the most homes on a single day in Australian history.

IDRO National Co-ordinator Christopher Henri said the $350.7 million “contributes to a total of more than $9.1 billion of insured losses for natural disasters since 1967, with the largest being $1.7 billion for the April 1999 Sydney hailstorm, followed by the 1989 Newcastle Earthquake at $1.1 billion.”

Other pay-outs (in today’s dollars) include $837 million for the Darwin cyclone and more than $350 for the Ash Wednesday fires in February 1983.

Three thousand home and contents claims arose from the Canberra fires costing $199 million. The 151 commercial and industrial claims will cost an estimated $146.5 million. These included the claims for Mount Stromlo and the pine plantations. The fire claimed 411 motor vehicles costing $4.8 million. Some of the commercial and industrial claims are yet to be finalised. Virtually no domestic claim is outstanding.

Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_insure for recovery”

ACT Bushfires Loss Figures as at 1 August 2003

Type Number of Claims Amount
House (home &contents) 3,000 $199 million
Commercial & industrial 151 $146.5 million*
Motor vehicle 411 $4.8 million
Farm 6 $411,000
Total Loss 3,568 $350.7 million

* Includes Mt Stromlo Observatory complex and pine plantations.

The electricity part of ActewAGL had to first to energise as much of the system as possible around the damaged infrastructure, and then to achieve several months worth of repairs in a matter of days, all while paying close attention to safety.

Working with damaged high-voltage infrastructure is challenging at the best of times.

System control staff isolated and bypassed damaged parts of the system so they could restore supply immediately where possible. This began even while the fires were still passing. Workarounds were devised, temporary lines run, little used switches and controls were brought into play, and the system was stretched to the limits of its engineered capacity. This was done with due regard for safety.

The infrastructure repairs began at first light on Sunday morning. There were not enough people or materials to do the repairs. So while ActewAGL’s crews were being dispatched to undertake critical repairs, the call went out across south-east Australia for people and trucks, and for materials including poles, transformers, mini-pillars and switch-gear. This was a massive management and logistic challenge. It was essential that the first crews arriving in a few hours could be put to work safely and without delay. Every technician, truck and pole that arrived in the ACT over the following days was used without delay.

ActewAGL had to “engineer on the fly” using whatever resources available.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_how they restored power gas water”

From the day after the fire, the ACT Planning and Land Authority has worked to help people affected by the fire in restoration and rebuilding.

In doing so it has had to balance the desire of many to get on with the job as quickly as possible against safety needs and long-term considerations about the design of the city and the buildings within it to withstand future fires. It has also been concerned to advise people rebuilding their homes how to get the best from the land and building on it.

The day after the fire ACTPLA (formerly Planning and Land Management) helped set up a cross-government and industry Property Assessment and Recovery Team.

The team, called PART, had up to 50 organisations represented.

The Bushfire Coordinator at the ACT Planning and Land Authority, Ros Chivers, said the PART meetings ensured that a whole range of organisations knew what was happening across the recovery effort at the same time.

She said that a quick trawl of the PART meeting would reveal updates on restoring essential services of electricity, water and gas; site inspections and data collection; demolition and development approval, insurance, housing and new offers of help.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_how planners coped with fire area”