EUCALYPT AND FIRE-PRONE SPECIES TO BE CLEARED from our dwellings.

In our hearts we knew that the gum-trees surrounding our housing were a risk, but with the alternative being a naked block of dust, what other option was there? Any trees are better than none, has been the opinion of all. Until now.

We’ve put up with the ever-present  fire-risk; and the occasional eucalypt falling on our houses and power-lines and cars. And ourselves, too. We’ve put up with the danger and inconvenience for the sake of having a bit of ‘nature’ in our suburbs, in our back yards, and the wildlife it attracts.

But the time has come when we must draw the line. The climate is drying, and as it dries the eucalypts and fire-prone species have the upper hand: they win in the game of survival. Thousands of our people are now homeless, many financially ruined, because of this fashion for accommodating eucalypts and fire-prone species in our environment.

Each one of us is now at risk, and the cities no longer immune. Queensland is at present having a lucky respite, compared with the devastation occurring in the south, but unfortunately our luck may run out. I look at the tinder of the parched vegetation all around, and hope; just hope.

Ancient and magnificent rain-forest in our national parks, and on the elevated areas, is finally succumbing to the dry. We never thought it could possibly happen; there’s no way that forest could resist fire now. If those areas hang on, eventual rains will quickly revive the trees and the moist ground-cover, but if fire goes through, the entire biodiversity may be permanently lost.

This is a frightening time for all Australians to be living through. There is no security. The government of the day is introducing schemes which should have been in place months ago when the outcomes of drought became obvious. Better late than never, but what of all those who have lost everything?

Now, perhaps, the eucalypts and fire-prone species will be cleared away, from both the burned and spared communities. For those ravaged and blackened areas, the ruined houses will remain ruins, but the eucalypts will revive almost immediately, ready for the next conflagration. Let us not welcome them back.

Let us bulldoze the stumps, the trash, and eradicate the coming seedlings. Clear the suburbs of further inevitable eucalypt danger, and maintain the gum-free zones until our chosen fire-resistant species take hold, and shade our environment, mulching and moistening and enriching. Swap a gum-tree, that weed which produces no cover, or humus, parching the lanscape, for a forest tree of dense shade.

Surely, surely now, our love-affair with the eucalypts, and fire-prone species, is over? The sparse, straggling bush must for ever be associated with danger, and loss, and tragedy.