Showing posts with label bushfires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bushfires. Show all posts

Tuesday 30 January 2024

Two persistent fires in Yuraygir National Park under control


 


 Two bushfires have been burning in Yuraygir National Park on the Clarence Coast for well over a week now.

The largest which began in the Sandon River area now covers a fireground of at least 4,246ha.

The second at Lake Arragan  between Angourie and Brooms Head area has only covered 514ha to date. 

Both fires are under control and the current NSW Rural Fire Service advice for the Sandon River fire is set out below:


Advice: Sandon River Fire (Clarence Valley LGA) Monitor Conditions - Minnie Water, Diggers Camp, Wooli.

Posted: 28/01/2024 11:21


Firefighters have contained a fire burning to the east and north of Lake Hiawatha near the locations of Minnie Water, Diggers Camp to the north of Wooli township, and south of Sandon.


The fire has burnt more than 4,010ha and is contained.


Current Situation


The fire has burnt to the north of Wooli and to the north and west of Minnie Water.

Crews undertook backburning operations yesterday along the northern side of Diggers Camp Road and south west of the Minnie Water village.

Rain fell across parts of the fireground yesterday evening and overnight, further easing conditions, with minimal fire activity today.

National Parks and Wildlife crews assisted by RFS crews will continue to black out, mop up and continue to strengthen containment lines today.

A number of campgrounds in the area have been closed and people planning to visit camp grounds in the Diggers Camp area are advised to use alternate campgrounds.

Monitor conditions and stay up to date in case the situation changes. Know what you will do if the situation changes.


Minnie Water – Monitor Conditions


Firefighters conducted backburning operations yesterday south west of Minnie Water village. Crews will continue to strengthen containment lines today.

The fire continues to burn to the south west of the Minnie Water village between Lake Hiawatha and the coast.


Diggers Camp – Monitor Conditions


The fire is burning to the west of Diggers Camp between south of Lake Hiawatha and the coast.

Backburning operations were undertaken yesterday along the northern side of Diggers Camp Road. Crews will continue to mop up and patrol this area today.

People in the area are advised to monitor the situation and know what they will do if conditions change.


Wooli – Monitor Conditions


While the fire remains to the north of the Wooli village. People in the area are advised to monitor the situation and know what they will do if the situation changes.


What you need to do


  • People in the Minnie Water, Diggers Camp, and Wooli areas stay alert and monitor your surroundings.

  • Watch out for emergency services personnel and follow their directions.

  • This means looking out for burning embers, changes in wind direction and smoke. Watch for signs of fire in your area.

  • Know what you will do if the fire impacts on where you are. Identify a safer location in case the situation changes. This may include a well cleared area or a solid structure such as a home.

  • If you are not prepared to the highest level, leaving early is the safest option.


If you are threatened by fire


  • If the fire impacts, seek shelter in a solid structure such as a house to protect yourself from the heat of the fire.

  • Bring pets indoors and restrain them, close all doors and windows and turn off air conditioners, keep water running if possible.

  • Shelter in a room on the other side of the building from the approaching fire, and one that has water and a clear exit out of the house.

  • Monitor both inside and outside for small fires and burning embers and turn sprinklers on if you have them.

  • Be careful outdoors after the fire has passed as trees can be unstable and fall.

  • If your life is at risk, call Triple Zero (000). 


There are currently no total fires bans in the Northern Rivers region.


Thursday 2 November 2023

BUSHFIRE STATE OF PLAY NORTH-EAST NSW & NSW-QLD BORDER REGION: Last two days of October 2023


 


 


Glens Creek Rd bushfire at night
Nymboida, Clarence Valley
IMAGE: NSWRFS


 

Bushfire lit night sky
 Coutts Crossing, Clarence Valley
IMAGE: supplied





 


 


 


 


 

1 November 2022:

The Bush Fire Danger Period is now in place for all local government areas around New South Wales, including along the southern border. If you’re planning on using fire on your property, you’ll need a permit. For more information, visit the #RFS website: http://rfs.nsw.gov.au/BFDP


Tuesday 29 August 2023

Australian Climate Scientist Dr. Joëlle Gergis: "Unfortunately, this coming summer will be a grotesque showcase of what we can expect as our planet continues to warm. As the northern hemisphere summer comes to an end and the El Niño ramps up in the Pacific, it will be the south’s turn under the climate blowtorch."


Excerpts from an essay, “The summer ahead“ by Dr. Joëlle Gergis, ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society, writing in The Monthly, September 2023:


The climate disasters unfolding in the northern hemisphere are a sign of what’s in store here, as governments fail to act on the unfolding emergency…


As one of the few Australian climate scientists who worked on the latest United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global assessment report, witnessing the unrelenting procession of extreme heatwaves, floods and wildfires battering the world right now is becoming harder and harder to bear. After four years spent immersing myself in the minutiae of the global climate emergency, it’s painfully clear that the extremes we are witnessing right now are simply a prelude of what’s to come. For those of you trying to avoid the news, here’s a very quick wrap-up of what’s been going on. So far in 2023, brutal heat has swept across southern Europe, North America, China and South-East Asia. Temperatures soared to 48.2°C on the Italian island of Sardinia on July 24 – just shy of the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe – while Sanbao in China’s Xinjiang province registered 52.2°C on July 16, setting a new national temperature record. In Canada, record-breaking wildfires continue to burn enormous tracts of boreal forest, forcing 120,000 people to evacuate from their homes and polluting the air for millions of people across North America. Meanwhile, biblical rain has pounded many parts of the world, with India, Korea, Japan and China particularly hard hit. In the final days of July, the Chinese capital, Beijing, recorded its heaviest rainfall since records began 140 years ago, logging 744.8 millimetres in just 40 hours, eclipsing its average rainfall for the entire month of July. Torrential rain saw roads transformed into rivers, washing away cars and submerging the ancient courtyards of the Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing.


As the dramatic month came to an end, the World Meteorological Organization declared July 2023 the hottest month ever recorded by modern measurements. António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, responded by declaring that, “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” While cynics might dismiss his comment as hyperbole, the scientific community know he’s not wrong. Using geologic records that extend centuries back in time, scientists estimate that temperatures are now the warmest they have been in at least 125,000 years, when the Earth was last in a lull between ice ages. Current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are 418 parts per million – the highest they have been in at least two million years, around 1.7 million years before modern humans evolved. The IPCC pointedly states that human influence on the climate system is now “an established fact”. The evidence is so indisputable that it’s like stating the sky is blue or the Earth is round. Our report also concludes that virtually all of the 1.2°C of global warming we have experienced since the Industrial Revolution has been caused by human activities, namely the burning of fossil fuels. Or put another way, scientists can now definitively say that humanity’s use of coal, oil and gas is cooking the planet.


Although I’m writing this on a rainy Sunday from the safety of my peaceful home, I can still feel my anxiety rising as I pore over the technical reports detailing the mess we are in. Things are now so bad that scientists like me are starting to wonder how we can be most helpful during this time of crisis. Despite the endless demands of an academic job, many of us feel compelled to keep trying to sound the alarm, even though it often comes at great personal and professional costs. It forces us to face the confronting reality of our destabilising climate in graphic detail; it’s an unspoken occupational hazard that people in my industry now face. But because our profession demands fierce objectivity in the face of hostile scrutiny, sharing our emotional response to our work has long been considered taboo – people fear it will undermine our rationality. Scientists are often pilloried if we dare to share the emotional impact our work is having on us. But experience has taught me that when experts fail to engage authentically in public conversations about climate change, others will step in to fill the silence. Commentators unconstrained by the professional ethics and rigour of our discipline have generated rife misinformation that has led to the shameful complacency plaguing the political response to the climate change problem for decades.


As someone who understands the seriousness of what is at stake, some days it’s hard to not be consumed by despair, anger and grief…..


If I’m honest, most of the distress I feel about climate change these days does not stem from the sheer scale of the destruction we are experiencing in every corner of the world. Although watching communities and ecosystems being needlessly destroyed is incredibly difficult, the real stress comes from knowing that all the solutions we need to stabilise the Earth’s climate exist right now. One of the key messages of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report is that there are options available today across all sectors that could at least halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Most of the reductions come from solar and wind energy, energy efficiency improvements and habitat conservation. Yet despite the enormous potential of these low-hanging fruit, our leaders are instead choosing to support the expansion of the fossil fuel industry to the bitter end.


Here in Australia, the sunniest continent on the planet, less than 15 per cent of our electricity is currently generated by solar power. Despite the federal government’s renewable energy target of 82 per cent by 2030, only 36 per cent of Australia’s energy is generated by clean energy sources. Instead of providing unprecedented support for the immediate deployment and scaling up of renewable energy technologies, our political leaders continue subsidising the fossil fuel industry, the culprits squarely responsible for ushering in this new era of “global boiling”. In 2022–23, Australian federal and state governments assisted fossil fuel industries with $11.1 billion in spending and tax breaks, with a particular focus on gas projects such as the Middle Arm oil and gas hub in Darwin. And just as the world’s warmest month on record came to an end, on July 31 the UK government announced its intention to grant hundreds of licences for new North Sea oil and gas extraction in an attempt to “boost British energy independence and grow the economy”. These moves blatantly ignore one of the key messages of the IPCC report, which states that around 80 per cent of coal, 50 per cent of gas and 30 per cent of oil reserves cannot be burned if warming is to be limited to 2°C. And if we want to achieve the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target, which aims to avoid unleashing millions of climate change refugees, those numbers need to be significantly lower. Banking on carbon capture and storage – a technology that currently only captures one tenth of 1 per cent of annual global carbon emissions – to reverse-engineer our way out of the problem is nothing short of insanity.


Nonetheless, expect to hear more of the carbon capture industry’s virtues during COP28, the next UN climate summit, to be held in December this year. The event is being hosted by the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, and headed by Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Given that COP28 is being run by a top fossil fuel executive who has plans for a large expansion in his company’s production, it’s easy to feel extremely pessimistic about the likely outcomes of this meeting. It is clear that the urgency of the clean energy transition is being downplayed by vested interests with a criminal disregard for science and morality. As researcher Pascoe Sabido from the Corporate Europe Observatory bluntly observed in The Guardian: “The UN climate talks have become an oil and gas industry trade show, not the flagship for climate action. An entire industry has successfully co-opted the process and is leading us in a death spiral to climate catastrophe.”


Despite the IPCC clearly demonstrating that the burning of fossil fuels is causing the type of extreme conditions being experienced right now, our political leaders are not prepared to be brave and shut down these polluting industries fast enough to avoid locking in destructively high levels of global warming. We know – without a shadow of a doubt – that increasing levels of carbon dioxide from the use of coal, oil and gas is leading to a rise in global temperatures, which causes heatwaves to become hotter and extreme downpours more intense. Unless we urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global-scale disruption we experience in 2023 will soon be considered mild compared to what is to come. Right now, climate policies implemented globally have the world on track to warm between 2.5 and 3°C by the end of the century, with temperatures continuing to rise until we begin to drastically remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and reach net zero emissions. The world’s collective policies represent a catastrophic overshooting of the Paris Agreement targets, which promises to reconfigure life on our planet as we know it.


If the political commitment to achieving net zero targets ends up being nothing more than empty promises based on dodgy carbon credit accounting schemes and the “business as usual” exploitation of global fossil fuel reserves, the latest climate models show that under a very high emissions pathway, global average temperatures could warm as much as 3.3 to 5.7°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, with a central estimate of 4.4°C. Under this fossil fuel–intensive scenario, land areas of Australia are projected to warm between 4 and 7°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a central estimate of 5.3°C (note that, on average, Australia has already warmed 1.47°C since national records began in 1910). Such catastrophic levels of warming will render large parts of our country uninhabitable, profoundly altering life in Australia. The IPCC report patiently explains that the risk of heat extremes increases substantially with higher levels of warming. For example, heatwaves that used to occur once every 50 years on average in pre-industrial times will be nearly 10 times more frequent with 1.5°C of warming, and 40 times more likely at 4°C. Even with 1.5°C of global warming, 40 per cent of the largest cities in the world will become heat-stressed, endangering the lives of millions of people each year. Unless we rein in the burning of fossil fuels, we risk a future where humanitarian disasters are likely to play out every summer across the world.


The truth is that some scientists fear that the writing is already on the wall. If we are struggling to cope with the major disruption to society caused by the 1.2°C of global warming we have experienced so far, then what will warming of 1.5 degrees, or 2 degrees, or 3 degrees or beyond bring? Once again, the IPCC report provides detailed information on what we can expect in every single region of the globe. We know from the geologic record that 1.5 to 2°C of warming is enough to seriously reconfigure the Earth’s climate. In the past, this level of warming triggered substantial long-term melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, unleashing six to 13 metres of global sea-level rise that lasted thousands of years. Once 2°C is passed – which could happen as early as the 2040s on our current trajectory – the only glaciers that will be left will be limited to polar areas and the highest mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas.


The current loss of ice means that we are already committed to a cascade of changes – even if we manage to stabilise our greenhouse gas emissions – as the world’s oceans reconfigure to increased influxes of meltwater, altering the behaviour of ocean currents that distribute heat around the planet. This process is now irreversible and will go on for centuries. Bear in mind that a quarter of a billion people already live on land less than two metres above sea level. The IPCC report doesn’t mince its words here, stating that beyond 2°C, adaptation is simply not possible in some low-lying coastal cities, small islands, deserts, mountains and polar regions. We are tragically unprepared for the warming that is already in the pipeline, and we haven’t seriously begun the colossal task of decarbonisation.


Unfortunately, this coming summer will be a grotesque showcase of what we can expect as our planet continues to warm. As the northern hemisphere summer comes to an end and the El Niño ramps up in the Pacific, it will be the south’s turn under the climate blowtorch. Coral reef scientists are already panicking, as global reefs are being besieged by record ocean temperatures. On July 24, sea surface temperature around the Florida Keys in the United States reached a staggering 38.4oC, a level commonly found in a hot bath. Record heat has now triggered severe coral bleaching in the region, which has already seen 90 per cent of coral cover disappear since the 1970s. As awful as this is, these impacts are entirely consistent with what scientists expect. The IPCC warns that even with 1.5°C of warming, which we are set to breach in the early 2030s, 70 to 90 per cent of the world’s coral reefs will be destroyed. That number rises to 99 per cent with 2°C of warming, which could happen as early as the 2040s. An entire component of the Earth’s biosphere – humanity’s planetary life-support system – could be lost in under 20 years. Given that 25 per cent of all marine life depends on these areas, it’s hard to comprehend the domino effect that will be unleashed as these key ecosystems start collapsing globally…..


It’s hard not to feel cynical about the politics playing out here. According to James Cook University’s Professor Terry Hughes, one of the world’s foremost experts on coral reefs, “The Morrison government successfully lobbied individual members of the world heritage committee to ignore UNESCO’s recommendation for an in-danger listing in 2021.” And since November 2022, Labor’s environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has been pressuring UNESCO to ignore the scientific reality of the degradation of the site, saying that there is no need to “single the Great Barrier Reef out in this way”. It’s pretty easy to understand why Australia wants to avoid an “in-danger” listing – tourism on the Great Barrier Reef supports around 65,000 jobs and generates more than $5 billion for the Australian economy each year. Any tarnishing of the reef’s condition on the world stage will cost our tourism sector dearly. But the truth is, warming ocean temperatures from the burning of fossil fuels is the biggest threat to the reef, and our government is still committed to the expansion of the very industry responsible for making things worse. No amount of political spin can hide the fact that the Great Barrier Reef is in terminal decline; we must face the fact that we are soon likely to witness the death of the largest living organism on the planet. I dread to see what this summer will bring.


As overwhelming as all of this is to take in, the imminent demise of the world’s coral reefs isn’t the only thing keeping scientists up at night right now. There is something far more sinister plaguing our minds – the possibility that the Earth might have already breached some kind of global “tipping point”. The term refers to what happens when a system crosses into a different state and stays there for a very long time, sometimes even permanently. We know that once critical thresholds in the Earth system are passed, even small changes can lead to a cascade of significantly larger transformations in other major components of the system. Key indicators of regional tipping points include dieback of major ecological communities such as the Amazon rainforest, boreal forests and coral reefs; melting of polar ice masses such as Arctic sea ice and the West Antarctic ice sheet; and disruptions to major circulation systems in the atmosphere or oceans, including changes in the North Atlantic Ocean. It’s pretty safe to say we are witnessing dramatic new developments in all of these elements right now…..


Read the complete essay at:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/september/jo-lle-gergis/summer-ahead


Wednesday 9 August 2023

Federal parliamentary inquiry into insurer response to the 2022 floods & other matters gets the go ahead on 7 August 2023


Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, media release, 3 August 2023:


Insurance claims handling under the microscope in parliamentary inquiry into insurer responses to the 2022 floods


Today, the Assistant Treasurer will give notice to the House of Representatives tabling a motion to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into insurer responses to the 2022 floods. The motion will be presented to the house on the next day of sitting, Monday 7 August.


The inquiry will take a whole of economy view of the ongoing challenges faced by intense and frequent flood events.


It is consumer focussed - investigating land use planning, affordability of coverage, supply chain issues, labour shortages, claims handling, and dispute resolution processes.


The February-March 2022 floods in South‑East Queensland and NSW are the costliest natural disaster for insurance costs, totalling around $5.87 billion, in Australian history.


The Assistant Treasurer has visited the communities impacted by floods in Southeast Queensland with Graham Perrett MP and the Northern Rivers with Janelle Saffin MP; and following a visit to flood ravaged towns in Central West NSW last month announced the inquiry alongside Member for Calare, Andrew Gee MP.


Today, the Albanese Government has released the terms of reference.


The committee will hear directly from affected communities, holding public hearings across the country in regions affected by the 2022 floods. A final report will be handed down during the third quarter of 2024.


The Inquiry will inform the Albanese Government’s broader program of work to address insurance access and affordability. This includes up to $1 billion over five years from 2023-24 (up to $200 million per year) to invest in measures that better protect homes and communities from extreme weather through the flagship Disaster Ready Fund.


The Government is taking proactive steps to mitigate disaster risk and build climate resilient communities. Currently, 97% of disaster funding is going toward recovery and only 3% toward risk mitigation. We want to flip that on its head.


The terms of reference for the inquiry are below.


The Standing Committee on Economics for inquiry and report by quarter 3, 2024:


1. response of insurers to the claims resulting from major 2022 floods, including:

(i) south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales (NSW) floods of February and March 2022;

(ii) Hunter and greater Sydney floods of July 2022;

(iii)Victorian, NSW and Tasmanian floods of October 2022; and

(iv) central west NSW floods of November and December 2022;


2. the inquiry shall have regard to the following matters in respect of the aforementioned floods

(i) the experiences of policyholders before, during and after making claims;

(ii) the different types of insurance contracts offered by insurers and held by policy holders;

(iii) timeframes for resolving claims;

(iv) obstacles to resolving claims, including factors internal to insurers and external, such as access to disaster hit regions, temporary accommodation, labour market conditions and supply chains;

(v) insurer communication with policyholders;

(vi) accessibility and affordability of hydrology reports and assessments to policy holders;

(vii) affordability of insurance coverage to policy holders;

(viii) claimants’ and insurers’ experience of internal dispute resolution processes; and

(ix) the impact of land use planning decisions and disaster mitigation efforts on the availability and affordability of insurance.


3. the inquiry shall also have regard to insurer preparedness for future flood events


4. the inquiry will take into consideration findings from other reports such as Deloitte’s external review of insurers’ responses to the 2022 floods, and ASICs Claims Handling review. 


The House of Representatives agreed to the creation of this inquiry on the afternoon of Monday 7 August 2023.


Tuesday 6 December 2022

Australian Koala Foundation: human management rather than koala management may be the best way to save the species from extinction

 






The Koala Kiss project comes to town















Australian Koala Foundation announces first 'Koala Kiss Site': A first-of-its-kind Human Plan of Management will see Koala numbers grow over the next 50 years


__________________________________________________________

Australian Koala Foundation

__________________________________________________________


The nation’s first ‘Koala Kiss Site’, which is part of the larger Koala Kiss Project has been announced by the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) today, to ensure abundant Koala populations in 50 years.


AKF Chair Deborah Tabart OAM said they had selected the Gwydir Shire in NSW because it contained secure habitat with the ability to have certain points of the landscape connected, creating the first ‘Koala Kiss Site’.


We see the Gwydir Shire as the perfect pilot project for our long-term vision for the Koalas’ recovery and for the first-of-its-kind Human Plan of Management,” Ms Tabart, also known as the Koala Woman, said.


There are small discrete populations where Koalas are doing well in this area, and if we reduce the threats there should be healthy Koala populations there in 50 years.”


The Koala Kiss Project aims to link fragmented Koala habitats and identify strategic and/or regrowth opportunities. With the ultimate vision of creating the 'Koala Kamino' - approximately 2,543kms of prime koala habitat from Cairns to Melbourne, that can be created into an uninterrupted conservation corridor by connecting key 'kiss points'.


This is possible with the use of the AKF’s scientific, first-of-its-kind Koala Habitat Atlas, which maps the entire geographic habitat of the Koala across 1.5 million square kilometres.


Rather than a Koala Plan of Management, AKF will demonstrate in the Gwydir Shire how a Human Plan of Management, with Koalas as a flagship can create sustainable communities, despite environmental and human threats.


We estimate there are less than 1000 Koalas in the Parkes electorate which includes Gunnedah, Inverell, Moree and Gwydir Shire, but, we believe, with careful management their populations can become robust and sustainable into the future. I have seen so many Koala Plans of Management, but what we need is a Human Plan of Management – manage human development and we will have Koalas,” Ms Tabart said.


It is time for a new way of thinking about Koala conservation and most importantly to not rely on Governments, of all levels, coming and going and changing their laws to allow destruction of Koala habitat.”


Given 80% of Australia’s Koalas live on private land, it is up to us; those that own that land to become stewards of the biodiversity that is on our properties.”


It should be simple and I think it could be. That is why the Koala Kiss Project was born. I know it will thrive because it relies on common sense and I truly have faith in us, the people to do the right thing.”


It is time to write Human Plans of Management that incorporate a holistic approach to each and every landscape with complex and often conflicting priorities.”


The AKF will hold a workshop in Warialda with key stakeholders and community in February 2023 to discuss how a Human Plan of Management can help transform the long-term viability of Koalas in the region.


This workshop will not just be lamenting the loss of Koalas but inspiring abundance. We can do it if we all work together. We are welcoming everyone from all walks of life to join us at this two-day workshop in Warialda - to think through the complexities and also the excitement of thinking Koalas will be in the Gwydir Shire landscape in 2075,” said Ms Tabart.


AKF is all about recovery of the species – with the Federal Government officially listing the Koala as Endangered in parts of Australia earlier this year, a Koala Recovery Plan and EPBC Act waiting to be re-written, we’re not sitting idle - it’s clear we must take matters into our own hands and AKF does not need permission from the government to make this vision possible!


Imagine if we achieve contiguous habitat across the entire stretch of the Koala range, then all creatures great and small could traverse through the bush unthreatened – that is the ultimate goal.”


To find out more about this new vision for the koala visit savethekoala.com/our-work/kiss


The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) is the principal non-profit, non-government organisation dedicated to the effective management and conservation of the Koala and its habitat.

_________________________________________________





Friday 26 August 2022

It’s time. Time that at federal, state and local government level all elected or appointed officials, all public servants and council administrations turned to face what the phrase “climate crisis” actually means in macro and micro terms to coastal populations


 

It’s time. Time that at federal, state and local government level all elected and appointed officials, all public servants and council administrations really accepted that global warming and climate change is real and is happening right now.


To turn and face what the phrase “climate crisis” actually means in macro and micro terms.


Everyone needs to recognise that in 2022 science knows more that it did in the years 1990, 2000, 2010.


What was once thought the degree of global warming that the earth could tolerate (5°C above pre-industrial levels) is now in doubt and the tipping points causing ‘large-scale discontinuities’ are thought to have the potential to occur at as low as 1 and 2 °C – some of which have already occurred.


Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910 leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events. With most of this warming occurring since the 1950s. 


According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in 2020 a number of factors caused by a warming Australia can be identified;

  • Oceans around Australia are acidifying and have warmed by around 1 °C since 1910, contributing to longer and more frequent marine heatwaves.

  • Sea levels are rising around Australia, including more frequent extremes, that are increasing the risk of inundation and damage to coastal infrastructure and communities.

  • There has been a decline of around 16 per cent in April to October rainfall in the southwest of Australia since 1970. Across the same region May–July rainfall has seen the largest decrease, by around 20 per cent since 1970.

  • In the southeast of Australia there has been a decline of around 12 per cent in April to October rainfall since the late 1990s.

  • There has been a decrease in streamflow at the majority of streamflow gauges across southern Australia since 1975.

  • Rainfall and streamflow have increased across parts of northern Australia since the 1970s.

  • There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of the country since the 1950s, especially in southern Australia.

  • There has been a decrease in the number of tropical cyclones observed in the Australian region since 1982.


Again according to BOM, by 2021 the national mean temperature was 0.56 °C warmer than the 1961–1990 average.


In other words, the continent continues to warm and our weather is changing across all seasons of the year and catastrophic weather events are either becoming more frequent or more intense.


The Climate Council in its UNINSURABLE NATION: AUSTRALIA’S MOST CLIMATE-VULNERABLE PLACES, 3 May 2022 report states:


Worsening extreme weather means increased costs of maintenance, repair and replacement to properties – our homes, workplaces and commercial buildings. As the risk of being affected by extreme weather events increases, insurers will raise premiums to cover the increased cost of claims and reinsurance.


Insurance will become increasingly unaffordable or unavailable in large parts of Australia due to worsening extreme weather…..


Across Australia approximately 520,940 properties, or one in every 25, will be ‘high risk’, having annual damage costs from extreme weather and climate change that make them effectively uninsurable by 2030. In addition, 9% of properties (1 in 11) will reach the ‘medium risk’ classification by 2030, with annual damage costs that equate to 0.2-1% of the property replacement cost. These properties are at risk of becoming underinsured….


Climate change affects all Australians, but some federal electorates face far greater risks than others.

The top 10 most at-risk federal electorates by 2030 are:

1. Nicholls (Vic)

2. Richmond (NSW)

3. Maranoa (QLD)

4. Moncrieff (QLD),

5. Wright (QLD),

6. Brisbane (QLD),

7. Griffith (QLD),

8. Indi (Vic)

9. Page (NSW) and

10. Hindmarsh (SA).

  • In these at-risk electorates, 15% of properties (165,646) or around one in every seven properties will be uninsurable this decade….

  • The percentage of properties that will be uninsurable by 2030 in each state and territory is 6.5% in Queensland; 3.3% in NSW; 3.2% in South Australia; 2.6% in Victoria; 2.5% in the Northern Territory; 2.4% in Western Australia; 2% in Tasmania and 1.3% in the ACT.


People living in the NSW Northern Rivers Region’s seven local government areas will recognise that both of their federal electorates are on the Top 10 most at-risk” list.


In the Page electorate this refers to Parts of Ballina, Lismore, Richmond Valley, Clarence Valley, with a combined total of 103,657 properties at levels of risk ranging from medium to high. With 5.4% of properties at high risk to riverine flooding, 0.4% of properties at high risk to surface water flooding and 5.3% of properties at high risk to bushfire.


While in the Richmond electorate this refers to Tweed, Byron, Ballina, with a combined total of 106,445 properties at levels of risk ranging from medium to high risk. With 14% of properties being at at high risk to riverine flooding, 0.4% of properties at high risk to surface water flooding and 5.2% of properties at high risk to bushfire.


The insurance, banking and real estate industries have noticed these statistics for years and now speak in terms of coastal zone properties in danger of becoming uninsurable, sited on land that will no longer have a monetary value.


One co-author of the Climate Council report has advised home owners and buyers to have a deep understanding of the local hazards and to acquire a property-specific report on their risk.


Three years after the first U.N. assessment report containing predictions of global warming and climatic impacts, the NSW Government protected itself and local councils against being held accountable for future deficiencies in decision making with regard to urban and infrastructure planning by establishing a new the Local Government Act in 1993


This Act divested local councils of any and all responsibility by a presumption that local government in all things acts in good faith unless proven otherwise and, local government across the state slowly began to apply a superficial wash of climate change mention in policies and sometimes even planning documents.


Safe in the knowledge, that when considering actual development applications for both large and small land subdivision by predominately professional incorporated property developers, councils In The Chamber, council executives, administrations and all employees had a “Get out of Jail Free” card. Because after all it’s just a game of Monopoly, innit?


This attitude is what drives Clarence Valley Council and a number of property developers with land in Yamba. Who after decades of poring over maps of West Yamba together have increasingly been making decisions about Yamba township with little or no regard for either the wellbeing or concerns of residents and ratepayers.


It’s reached the risible stage in relation to that land zoned residential, accessed via Carrs Drive. Where a long promised Master Plan for the entire urban land release was not proceeded with and its need later denied. 


When land filling resulted in problems on surrounding properties becoming very evident, Council administration was careful to go through a very limited form of cursory community consultation designed not to have a binding outcome and, rather conveniently is now only offering a West Yamba Urban Release Area information page on Council’s website and a printed quarterly update on development progress previously mutually agreed to by property developers and Council.


A move which offers no binding certainty on population density, lot numbers or sizes and still treats land filling on an ad hoc basis.


The lack of any real consideration of climate change impacts is appalling and mirrored in other large subdivisions such as those in Orion Drive, Park Ave and Golding Street.


The video at https://www.keepyambacountry.com/copy-of-more-information demonstrates just how poorly thought through was the approx. 2.8 AHD landfill and drainage at the Park Ave lot which has raised an est. 6.65ha of land above the ground level of a significant number of adjoining and adjacent long established and occupied residential properties. 


Screenshot taken from video "IN-DEPTH DETAILS OF THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT on the Keep Yamba Country website, 2022














Similar scenarios are being played out in other Northern Rivers local government areas. Developers are not stupid. They know that now climate change is not just an abstract idea but something that can be seen and experienced they only have a finite time to offload their coastal zone subdivisions onto unsuspecting residential lot purchasers – before the next catastrophic flood or bushfire devastates a town/area considered to be a desirable place to live and wipes out the urge to buy land there. 


BACKGROUND


Excerpts from Local Government Act 1993 as of 16 July 2022:


731 Liability of councillors, employees and other persons

A matter or thing done by the Minister, the Departmental Chief Executive, a council, a councillor, a member of a committee of the council or an employee of the council or any person acting under the direction of the Minister, the Departmental Chief Executive, the council or a committee of the council does not, if the matter or thing was done in good faith for the purpose of executing this or any other Act, and for and on behalf of the Minister, the Departmental Chief Executive, the council or a committee of the council, subject a councillor, a member, an employee or a person so acting personally to any action, liability, claim or demand.


733 Exemption from liability—flood liable land, land subject to risk of bush fire and land in coastal zone

(1) A council does not incur any liability in respect of—

(a) any advice furnished in good faith by the council relating to the likelihood of any land being flooded or the nature or extent of any such flooding, or

(b) anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by the council in so far as it relates to the likelihood of land being flooded or the nature or extent of any such flooding.

(2) A council does not incur any liability in respect of—

(a) any advice furnished in good faith by the council relating to the likelihood of any land in the coastal zone being affected by a coastline hazard (as described in the coastal management manual under the Coastal Management Act 2016) or the nature or extent of any such hazard, or

(b) anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by the council in so far as it relates to the likelihood of land being so affected.

(2A) A council does not incur any liability in respect of—

(a) any advice furnished in good faith by the council relating to the likelihood of any land being subject to the risk of bush fire or the nature or extent of any such risk, or

(b) anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by the council in so far as it relates to the likelihood of land being subject to the risk of bush fire.

(3) Without limiting subsections (1), (2) and (2A), those subsections apply to—

(a) the preparation or making of an environmental planning instrument, including a planning proposal for the proposed environmental planning instrument, or a development control plan, or the granting or refusal of consent to a development application, or the determination of an application for a complying development certificate, under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and

(b) the preparation and adoption of a coastal management program under the Coastal Management Act 2016 (and the preparation and making of a coastal zone management plan under the Coastal Protection Act 1979 that is continued in effect by operation of clause 4 of Schedule 3 to the Coastal Management Act 2016), and

(c) the imposition of any condition in relation to an application referred to in paragraph (a), and

(d) advice furnished in a certificate under section 149 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and

(e) the carrying out of flood mitigation works, and

(f) the carrying out of coastal protection works, and

(f1) the carrying out of bush fire hazard reduction works, and

(f2) anything done or omitted to be done regarding beach erosion or shoreline recession on Crown land (including Crown managed land) or land owned or controlled by a council or a public authority, and

(f3) the failure to upgrade flood mitigation works or coastal protection works in response to projected or actual impacts of climate change, and

(f4) the failure to undertake action to enforce the removal of illegal or unauthorised structures that results in erosion of a beach or land adjacent to a beach, and

(f5) the provision of information relating to climate change or sea level rise, and

(f6) (Repealed) anything done or omitted to be done regarding the negligent placement or maintenance by a landowner of emergency coastal protection works authorised by a certificate under Division 2 of Part 4C of the Coastal Protection Act 1979,

(g) any other thing done or omitted to be done in the exercise of a council’s functions under this or any other Act.

(4) Without limiting any other circumstances in which a council may have acted in good faith, a council is, unless the contrary is proved, taken to have acted in good faith for the purposes of this section if the advice was furnished, or the thing was done or omitted to be done—

(a) substantially in accordance with the principles contained in the relevant manual most recently notified under subsection (5) at that time, or

(b) substantially in accordance with the principles and mandatory requirements set out in the current coastal management manual under the Coastal Management Act 2016, or

(c) in accordance with a direction under section 14(2) of the Coastal Management Act 2016.

(5) For the purposes of this section, the Minister for Planning may, from time to time, give notification in the Gazette of the publication of—

(a) a manual relating to the management of flood liable land, or

(b) (Repealed) a manual relating to the management of the coastline.

(c) a manual relating to the management of land subject to the risk of bush fire.

The notification must specify where and when copies of the manual may be inspected.

(6) A copy of the manual must be available for public inspection, free of charge, at the office of the council during ordinary office hours.

(7) This section applies to and in respect of—

(a) the Crown, a statutory body representing the Crown and a public or local authority constituted by or under any Act, and

(b) a councillor or employee of a council or any such body or authority, and

(c) a Public Service employee, and

(d) a person acting under the direction of a council or of the Crown or any such body or authority, and

(e) Water NSW, but only with respect to the exercise of its functions in the Sydney catchment area (within the meaning of the Water NSW Act 2014) or the exercise of its functions in any part of the State in connection with the granting of flood work approvals under the Water Management Act 2000,

in the same way as it applies to and in respect of a council.

(8) In this section—

coastal zone has the same meaning as in the Coastal Management Act 2016.

manual includes guidelines.


8 Personal liability

A matter or thing done or omitted to be done by the Project Review Committee, a member of the Project Review Committee or a person acting under the direction of the Project Review Committee does not, if the matter or thing was done or omitted to be done in good faith for the purpose of executing this or any other Act, subject a member or a person so acting personally to any action, liability, claim or demand.