THE POST/SUN, Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - Page 1
monaropost.com.au
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
monaropost.com.au
Your local paper establised in 2006
ISSN 1834-0318
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Rural Fire Service warning By MELINDA CAIRNS HACK A RECENT spate of grassfires in the region has prompted a winter warning from the Monaro Rural Fire Service (RFS) Monaro RFS district co-ordinator, Ash Morrow, said landholders should be aware the winter season does not necessarily mean low fire risk as dry grass presents an ongoing fire hazard. A timely reminder of this occurred last week with Cooma and Dry Plains RFS brigades fighting a grassfire at Dairymans Plains. Four properties were under threat before crews contained the fire.. “The Monaro RFS team is asking for caution over the winter season due to the prevalence of dry and cured grass across the region,” District co-ordinator Ash Morrow said. “Landholders need to be careful in exposing dry grasses to any heat source or sparks, such as farm machinery and equipment. “Gusty and gale force winds pose a problem at this time of year.”
AWARENESS: Emma Roberson volunteer equipment officer, Ash Morrow district co-ordinator, Jim Darrant district manager, Rodney Bishop community risk officer, Adrian Butters operations officer, Esther Strachan district administration officer, Ben Morley brigade captain, John Evans welfare officer, and Langdon Gould inspector. The Monaro RFS is warning landholders to be careful of the current dry conditions across much of the region. PHOTO: Melinda Cairns Hack
■ Read more on page 4
Bombala innovation a ‘world-first’ By KAREN FORMAN BOMBALA will be in a much better position for fighting fires following the completion of four innovative and locally designed tankers. The tankers, that could be a world-first, are designed by brothers Peter and Mark Rodwell of Rodwell Logging at Bombala. They
were brought to life with a $1.4 million Protecting Our Communities (Disaster Resilience) Program grant. The innovative tankers differ from most other firefighting equipment as they can be added to existing all-terrain logging equipment. They also have a large water capacity, can be operated via remote control and have a high driver-
safety rating. “There is something similar in Finland, but their tankers are built of aluminium, not the steel we use and only have half the volume of ours,” Peter Rodwell said. “We believe this is a second-tonone system.” With four tankers built and ready for use in Bombala, Rodwell Logging is now looking at producing
them commercially and sending them around the world. They use a Victorian family company, Kennedy Trailers, based in Bairnsdale, to build the tankers. “They are an amazing piece of kit,” Mr Rodwell said. “We have been in logging forever and we haven’t seen anything like these. It would be good to see them go further afield to help other re-
gions fight fires.” The Rodwell brothers came up with the idea for tankers that could be attached to a “forwarder” after the 2019-2020 Black Summer Bushfires which had a devastating impact on the Bombala district. “The 2020 fires were that serious we had to change the way we were going about things,” he said. ■ Read more on page 8
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