A passion for keeping young men and women on the land has driven Tarana brothers Robert and Hugh Webb to develop an innovative plan to ensure a supply of off-farm income for young farmers.
The program would give young farmers who may be considering leaving a farming life due to financial reasons opportunities to become involved in a first response, specialist contract fire-fighting team which would be employed during the fire season and also for hazard reduction burning.
Robert Webb said the seasonal employment would give them a guaranteed, off-farm income and for the rest of the year they can return to work on their farms. "There is a missing generation in farming families," he said. "This program would entice them to stay on their farms, instead of heading to the mines or to the city for work."
The Webb brothers have been planning the program for years, registering it as the Natural Asset Protection Agency (NAPA) in 2007, and are moving towards having the government approve a pilot program through the office of the Attorney General. The pilot program would be run over five years across the eastern Central Tablelands (from Mudgee in the north to Goulburn in the south and as far west as Orange and into the Sydney catchment), and employing several young farmers.
The beauty of their idea is that these specially trained young farmers, who will undertake fitness and medical tests, can offer high end support for the Rural Fire Service in the hostile environment of wild fires.
Mr Webb said their plan includes the use of light custom-built Landcruisers, instead of using large and cumbersome fire appliances, which will allow them to reach and deal with the fires as quickly as possible.
The specialist teams will be on ‘roving standby’ on extreme fire danger days, so that fires can be spotted and attended to immediately. Mr Webb said the hazard reduction burning will also be an important part of the staff’s job, allowing them to burn when conditions are right.
Mr Webb said the plan is for the program to be based in Oberon and to employ staff locally, and may be a new specialist industry for the Oberon area.
The specialist staff can help protect both government assets, such as forestry, as well as private property.
Far from trying to replace the RFS volunteers, the program is designed to assist the RFS with fire fighting.
Mr Webb said there is a changing demographic in the RFS volunteer, which shows the volunteers are generally older and sometimes less available, and therefore their program can offer employed trained staff who can be more readily available.
"Sometimes there simply are just not enough men and women on the ground to offer protection," he said.
Mr Webb said many properties around the district are owned by absentee farmers, who are very supportive of fire fighting financially, but often because their properties are their second residences, they can’t always be there to assist with fighting fires.
The Webb brothers have been in talks with the National Parks and Wildlife, NSW Forests and also the RFS, and also have the support of the NSW Farmers Federation. They have had their program submitted to the Senate.
Mr Webb said more negotiations are underway, but they hope that if the pilot program is approved, they will have it up and running in a year.
He said the success of the program would be measured by fewer declarations of Section 44 fires, which are fires that are considered out of control, and hopes that the program will both keep young farmers on their farms, as well as assisting and supporting the RFS in protecting government and private assets.
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