VICROADS' management of the Hume Freeway roadside reserve was blasted by farmers concerned about the risk of fires less than three months before disaster, the Bushfires Royal Commission has heard.
In late November 2008 VicRoads was warned by farmers in the state's north-east that the freeway roadside reserve in that area was ''nothing more than a long fuse that will give a fire a good hold before the arrival of the first fire tanker''.
In a letter to the VicRoads regional director at Benalla, the Wangaratta branch of the Victorian Farmers Federation complained that the roadside reserve was being slashed to only one width of a slasher, a narrower approach than in previous years.
''One width of a slasher is not wide enough,'' wrote branch secretary Keiran Klemm, and it left motorists, adjoining landowners and the general community at risk.
''Who is going to stand in front of the coroner and admit that they had been informed that the small firebreak was inadequate if there's a disastrous fire,'' Mr Klemm said.
A reply from VicRoads to the VFF branch said roadside mowing on the freeway was done ''in excess of statewide standards'' agreed between the CFA and VicRoads. The letter also said there were ''no plans to extend the width of mowing''.
Counsel assisting the commission, Rachel Doyle, SC, told the commission that the Hume Freeway roadside reserve was listed as a ''strategic firebreak'' in district fire plans for the Wangaratta region. She also said many submissions to the commission criticised the state of roadside reserves in Victoria at the time of Black Saturday, with some saying roadsides acted as ''fire corridors'' or ''wicks'' that helped the spread of bushfires on the day.
Ms Doyle questioned a senior VicRoads manager about the Wangaratta VFF letter. Stephen Brown, VicRoads' executive director of regional services, said he was not shown the letter at the time and strongly defended VicRoads' management of the reserve.
Mr Brown said that at the time the letter was sent, the freeway reserve had been cut to a width ''more like'' five metres beyond the guideposts. But he admitted that the slashing had been wider the previous year, and that it was wider in the 2009-10 fire season, 12 months after the VFF letter was sent.
Asked why the slashing was a wider ''full-width cut'' for the 2009-10 fire season, Mr Brown said: ''I think there was an expectation.''
Mr Brown also said that contractors employed by VicRoads to slash roadside reserves met their contract requirements.
The most deadly of the Black Saturday bushfires started in Kilmore East, crossed the nearby Hume Freeway on a wide front and roared across the countryside into the ranges around Kinglake where it killed 121 people.
The royal commission continues its examination of roadside clearing issues today.
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