ASHLEY HALL: As the people of Dunalley in southern Tasmania begin the process of recovery after a bushfire destroyed much of their town, questions are being asked about what was done to prevent it.
Many locals say the fire wouldn't have been so ferocious if hazard reduction burns had been carried out before the summer.
The State Government and fire service are promising to review their policies on controlled burns, but they say they'll wait until the fire crisis is over.
Felicity Ogilvie reports.
FELICITY OGILVIE: One-hundred-and-twenty-six properties were destroyed or damaged in the fire that burnt through the coastal village of Dunalley.
One of the residents who still has a home is the oyster farmer, Justin Gock.
JUSTIN GOCK: I believe that if you've got people living in areas where there's substantial forests, there should be significant management plans in place to control situations like this because if these areas were back-burned like they used to and the infrastructure was in place, fair chance it might not have happened.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Tony Disipio lost his house and he is critical about the lack of preventative burns around Dunalley.
TONY DISIPIO: Well 25 years ago they used to burn off regularly around the hills, you know, it was like a winter thing, a winter exercise you know. And I noticed over the years that there was just less and less of it, you know.
FELICITY OGILVIE: The farmer, Sandy Gray, has also noticed that preventative burns have been declining in recent times.
SANDY GRAY: Like they used to in the old days, they used to go around and just quietly do a few, especially on the northern, north-western sides of the townships like Dunalley. It's a pity they don't still do it.
FELICITY OGILVIE: But the Tasmanian Fire Service's deputy chief officer, Gavin Freeman, says there hasn't been a reduction in preventative burn-offs near Dunalley.
GAVIN FREEMAN: I don't believe there has been less done, you know, you can always look back with a bit of hindsight and say yes we could do more, perhaps, but until we get these fires under control and are able to look back and do a proper analysis of where the fires have burnt to and what they burnt through - and bear in mind, under catastrophic conditions, we don't really know whether that field reduction burning would be a benefit or not.
FELICITY OGILVIE: The fire service may do some burn-offs but the responsibility for preparing for a bushfire lies with the land owner. At Dunalley it appears that most of the bushland that the fire tore through is privately owned.
The Tasmanian Minister for Emergency Management, David O'Byrne, says public land accounts for 20 per cent of the area affected by the fire.
DAVID O'BYRNE: Fuel reduction and that sort of management is a joint responsibility between government, in terms of our land, and in the parks land but also in the private land that is around Tasmania.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Is there more the government can do to make sure that private landowners do keep their fuel loads under control by having hazard burns?
DAVID O'BYRNE: Well I think that's important - it's important we have a community conversation around this. Now is not the time for that conversation, we need to get these fires under control. And once we can assess the impact of the fuel loads around, the instance we have across the state, we can have a discussion on the basis of fact and reality as opposed to people's pretty raw emotions at the moment.
ASHLEY HALL: Tasmania's Emergency Management Minister David O'Byrne ending Felicity Ogilvie's report.