Talk of the Town: Who is compensating graziers for fires spreading from highway corridors?

This fire started 20 kilometres east of Mount Isa along the Barkly Highway, a highway that splits our property down the middle.

We were experiencing "the best season in 50 years", the grass had dried off and we were looking into buying cattle.

Until the fire started.

A vehicle travelling along the highway sparked a grass blaze when a wheel bearing caught fire, burning along the highway corridor before continuing onto our property to the north.

After days of working to control the fire, it burnt out; but a second fire ignited along the south side of the highway moving south.

After burning over 22,000 hectares of grazing land, it was still on fire as I wrote this on October 26, heading for Mount Isa.

While graziers can reduce the impact of fires moving from highway corridors to adjoining properties with fire break lines, and relocating or increasing stock to minimise the fuel load on their properties, it is Transport and Main Roads that should be responsible for reducing fuel loads on highway corridors.

During the cooler months I notice TMR slashing a line of grass adjacent to the highway. But that seems to be it. No reduction burns, no cool burning.

While the country between Mount Isa and Cloncurry is hilly, there are still many places along the Barkly Highway corridor that could have more than one line of grass slashed to further reduce fuel loads.

The North West Rural Fire Service Area director Shane Hopter said he had seen "a number of fires along roadways" during September.

"Areas that aren't managed by the Fire Warden Network including road corridors, where burns haven't been completed, is where we are still seeing an increase of fires," he told North Queensland Register.

So when fires start from excessive grass on highways that burn onto adjoining properties, does that make TMR responsible? The government responsible?

Who is going to pay graziers compensation for the grass they lost? The cattle they lost? Fences and infrastructure lost? The machinery and fuel costs to fight the fire? Hiring more machinery and contractors to help control the fire? What about the mental load?

Because while I am sitting in a house looking after our children, my husband, his dad and our crew have been getting home between 10pm to 1am grappling to get a fire under control.

They return home every night smelling of smoke, covered in ash, exhausted, dehydrated and saying "the fire was burning 100 metres a minute".

We are not the only ones facing this problem.

Further west along the Barkly Highway, on the other side of the border into the Northern Territory a fire has been burning for well over five weeks, destroying prime cattle country more than five times the size of the ACT.

Graziers there have been fighting the same battle my family is fighting - not just against the flames but also against bureaucracy.

Who is going to compensate graziers for what could have been an avoidable threat with more preparation?

- Samantha Campbell, North Queensland Register journalist.