The Orroral Valley fire inquiry was years in the making but it offered transparency

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a day ago

I'd never heard of Bumbalong.
But during the Black Summer bushfires of 2020, this small New South Wales community between Canberra and Bredbo hit the news when a bushfire swept through, destroying homes, farms and livestock in a single day.
I watched the flames myself, from Bredbo, as they crept quickly along the hills, sending embers ahead over great distances, igniting patches of dry grass in the surrounding paddocks.
The residents who fought the blaze that day would have had little sense of the greater battle still being fought five years on.
Some are still re-building after years living in caravans on their land, without even basic facilities like a flushing toilet.
The findings of an inquiry into the fire by the ACT's Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker brought down yesterday included an apology.
"This matter has taken far too long to be finalised," Chief Coroner Walker said.
"I offer my apologies to those affected by the fire and its aftermath."
It was the first time the hardship suffered by the residents had been officially acknowledged.
This bushfire was no act of nature, it was started by an army helicopter across the border in the ACT.
It's now well known the aircraft made an unplanned toilet stop on a hill in the Namadgi National Park at the head of the Orroral Valley.
A hot searchlight underneath the helicopter ignited the dry grass, and the pilot hastily took off.
The crew said they were focused on safety because they thought the helicopter was damaged.
It would be at least 35 minutes after the fire started before Defence told the local firefighting authorities of the exact location of the blaze.
The focus of the inquiry was what happened in those minutes.
There had been other calls for an inquiry into the fire.
It not only caused serious damage to Bumbalong, it also burned through 80 per cent of Namadgi National Park, and even threatened Canberra's southern suburbs, as it burned for five weeks.
At the time, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he didn't want a "witch hunt", so the ACT's Chief Coroner set up her own inquiry.
In the end, yesterday's findings were mild.
She found there had been an "error of judgement", finding also it was not plausible that none of the crew thought to tell local authorities about the fire immediately.
But there was still great value in the inquiry.
The identities of the crew were suppressed, but they were compelled to give evidence.
This produced a clear picture of how the events unfolded, including the conversations between the crew members which were recorded and played to the court.
The inquiry facilitated a transparency that hadn't been there before.
Before that, events had come to light slowly after questions from the ABC, revealing the helicopter crew never called in the fire during its flight back to Canberra Airport.
Later, pictures taken by the crew emerged.
The inquiry also revealed details, including that it was more than nine hours before the Emergency Services Agency Commissioner Georgina Whelan was told a Defence chopper was the cause of the fire.
Interestingly the Chief Coroner found the delay in reporting the fire had little impact on the response by local authorities.
The smoke had already been spotted from a fire tower within minutes, and firefighters called in.
But as Chief Coroner Walker said, reporting the fire earlier would have been beneficial.
"Failure to report the fire earlier, and failure of the Commonwealth to accept the overarching need to do so, does raise an issue of public safety," Chief Coroner Walker said.
The Bumbalong residents were relieved to hear the Coroner's findings, saying at least someone has been found responsible.
They are hoping the findings will help in their next round, a battle in the Civil courts with the Commonwealth over compensation for their losses.