{"id":32304,"date":"2026-02-02T20:39:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T10:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=32304"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:26:19","slug":"kicked-to-the-curb-ban-wins-votes-in-city-but-could-leave-regions-to-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/kicked-to-the-curb-ban-wins-votes-in-city-but-could-leave-regions-to-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"Kicked to the Curb: Ban Wins Votes in City but Could Leave Regions to Burn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Uncontrolled bushfires are still burning in Victoria and South Australia \u2014 including the Deep Creek blaze on the Fleurieu Peninsula \u2014 as Australia faces its worst fire conditions since Black Summer. It comes as Wood Central revealed last week that high\u2011risk Victorian communities are now far less prepared than they were in 2019\u201320, with the end of native forestry in 2023 accelerating a drain of skills, machinery and operational capacity across the state\u2019s timber towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the consequences of ending native forest harvesting has been the loss of skilled and experienced operators,\u201d Steve Dobbyns, chair of Forest and Wood Communities Australia, warned. \u201cWe are now seeing that in the bushfire crisis, where multiple pieces of heavy plant \u2014 including dozers and harvesting machines \u2014 are currently stood down because there are not enough qualified people to operate them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forest communities respond to critical shortages <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Now, Wood Central can reveal that experienced contractors \u2014 some with decades of firefighting experience \u2014 say vital machinery and expertise are sitting idle as fire conditions potentially deteriorate again in the coming weeks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been a roading and firefighting contractor for the last 25 years,\u201d said Mick Leanne Crawford, one of thousands of users from Australia’s timber towns who responded to Wood Central\u2019s article on the Forest and Wood Communities Australia Facebook page<\/a>. \u201cAll my gear is packed up at home, ready to go. No phone call. We have been kicked out on our ass and forgotten about.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same here in WA,\u201d added Raelene Osboine, noting that the state also banned native forestry in 2023. \u201cLogging roads have grown over to make access harder to fight fires.\u201d Whilst in NSW, others fear the same pattern is emerging on the north coast. \u201cThey\u2019ve turned 47,000 hectares of state forest into The Great Koala National Park and closed the timber industry down,\u201d said a local nurse from Coffs Harbour. \u201cNext bushfires will be devastating without the logging companies and their machinery to help fight them. You can already notice the deterioration of the fire trails as they aren\u2019t being maintained anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Back in the day when there was logging in native bush (and forests) the companies harvesting would look after the bush tracks and the bush to make sure it was sustainable for future growth, and those cleared patches of bush would be fire breaks and would regenerate back into amazing tmber drawing in carbon from the atmosphere and for future use,” a commenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting chain of events that\u2019s been happening over decades,\u201d another wrote. \u201cThe greenies jump up and down and get some small logging areas shut down, then over the years they get more and more shut down because our city\u2011centric government win votes.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Meanwhile, back at home, they’ve killed off country towns that used to have a sustainable industry, leaving high unemployment and drug problems. Then governments realise they can save budgets by not maintaining bush areas anymore because the city won\u2019t see that, so it won\u2019t cost any votes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey also don’t bother to mention to the cities that severe fires are more likely to break out now because once they killed off the rural towns, there were no operators left who used to maintain any areas they were in as a way of looking after their assets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n