Our family, which was then quite young, annually rented one of the units Geoff Edwards constructed behind the shop. Our first stay was in the early 60s and recurred almost every year thereafter. Year by year the number of regulars grew – and so did the children and subsequent grandchildren. Year by year the Taylors, Whites, Johnstons, Carlins and others surfed at ‘the mouth’, and enjoyed some of Roy Taylor’s morning haul from his secret spots.

When the last development of the Prevelly townsite was made below the shop, in the mid 70s, discussion began about getting a block and building our own house. In 1979 we bought our block in Papadakis Ave and Tom Roberts designed us a rammed-earth house. Giles Hohnen supervised construction and we moved in at Easter 1982.

Since then we’ve spent varying lengths of time every year at Prevelly. We explored, we walked the beaches, salvaged flotsam, we sampled the local produce, we enjoyed tramps in the forest – we made Prevelly and Margaret River our centre. No manicured lawns or regimentally-assembled shrubs. We filled our block with permissible growth. This was our second home, our getaway. And to think that that year, 1979, blocks in Georgette Way were being hawked for $6000!

And now this terrible fire. Our house was saved by the volunteers from Wallcliffe and other units and individuals. The fire came to our doorstep but no further. The fireys fought it off and left us surrounded by sticks and ash, but our house and all its history still stands.

Thank you fire fighters, you’ve given us a bit more time to enjoy our stays at Prevelly Park, to remember when the kids were small, when Roy emptied his fishing bag for you to choose, when Vince greeted you at the shop holding and enjoying his ‘brekky’ steak sandwich. Thank you fire fighters for making it possible for us and our extended family to enjoy our favourite district and the return of green to Prevelly Park.

We sympathise with those who lost their homes, there could have been many more but for the marvellous work of the fire fighters.

Eric and Alison Carlin, Mount Claremont

Vinnies says thanks

ON behalf of the volunteer workers at Vinnies, I would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone in the community who helped us in any way during the past 12 months. Thank you to the local businesses who helped us during the year and thank you for the individual donations of clothing, household items, furniture, bric-a-brac etc.

Thank you also to the loyal customers who patronised our shop in the LIA. The recent fire disaster was a stark reminder of how quickly our circumstances can change. Our affected friends and neighbours are going to need all our support as they strive to get their lives back on track.

Our shop closed at noon Saturday and will reopen on Tuesday, January 3 at 10am. Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas and a happy and rewarding 2012.

John O’Dwyer, chairperson,

Vinnies Shop Committee

Prescribed burning

HOW quickly the bushfire review process moves to isolated cases of arson and the supposed negligence of homeowners and shire councils in the management of fuel loads on properties and bushland.

According to Roger Underwood ‘No firefighting authority anywhere in the world can suppress a fast moving fire in bushland with heavy fuels’ (Spokesperson, Bushfire Front Independent Advisory Group). A statement that is misleading if we forget that the multiple walls of flames, in largely inaccessible areas, that no firefighting authority anywhere in the world could combat, resulted from reignited prescribed burns.

In Prevelly and Ellensbrook on November 20 and 21, in the wake of known hot and windy conditions forecast for November 23, the fires were deliberately lit in a misguided fire management program. Fires were also out of control creating a potential threat to Denmark, Nannup, Augusta, Malloy Island, Redgate and multiple locations along the coast in WA summer conditions.

Time to study the research on the self-managing ecosystems of biodiverse forests and fragile coastal dune areas. Above all protect these areas from the hazard of large scale prescribed burning in hot windy conditions.

And to ask the questions: Why burn on a large scale in multiple locations in the South West forest in summer? Why burn at all if the outcome is 365,000 hectares of devastation in the Margaret River area alone? Why continue prescribed burning programs when right across Australia we have repeated evidence of major loss of forests, fragile dune systems and homes, in authorised burning programs gone out of control?

Carole Peters, property owner, Gnarabup and Kevill Rd

Christmas blessings

AS we gather together with our families to celebrate Christmas let us stop and think about why we have this holiday in the first place. Christmas trees, tinsel, decorations and cards. Presents, holidays, food, drink and parties. Hurry, stress and debt carried into the new year - this is all Christmas means to a lot of people.

How many stop to really consider what Christmas is meant to be about? People debate the dates and what is associated with Christmas. Some choose not to acknowledge Christmas at all. However, whether we choose to believe it or not, Jesus, God’s son, was born into this world, born to fulfil a destiny given him by his God and Father.

At Christmas time we remember his birth because without this event, his death and resurrection at Easter, would not have been possible. It’s at Easter we remember Jesus died for all mankind, because everyone has done wrong, no matter how good they think they may be.

Jesus was God the Father’s most precious gift of love to mankind. His son he gave to us, as the way of coming into a relationship with himself. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John chapter 3, verse 16.

At Christmas when we place gifts under the Christmas tree with each person’s name on it, the present which is meant for that person waits. But if that person does not take or claim that gift from under the tree, it is not theirs. It is meant for them but it does not belong to them. It sits there, unopened, unused. It is the same with God’s gift, Jesus.

Now it’s up to every individual to personally take God’s offer of life for themselves. The Bible says, repent, which means turn around away from doing wrong, towards God, have faith in Jesus and receive all God the Father would give us.

Just as that unclaimed present lies under the tree, so do God’s promises to all men, if they don’t accept what God has provided for each one through Jesus.

So when we gather with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, may you know the peace and joy of God’s Love as you celebrate the remarkable gift he gave to us in his son Jesus. Because of his life and death, we have been offered the precious gift of eternal life.

This is the reason why we can celebrate. God is the ultimate giver who has chosen to give us every good and perfect gift. Choose to go God’s way, which is to know his love and care. As people today say, “It’s my life, I can choose”, in this matter I pray your choice will be for God’s ‘life’ and that you take God’s gift for yourself.

Marysia Romans, Margaret River

New shire offices

I WOULD like to offer an alternative view to all the back-slapping praise about the new shire office. The building is an embarrassment, ridiculously extravagant and pretentious. It will be a constant memorial to the current CEO and the councillors who ignored ratepayers’ wishes.

In these difficult economic times it is a slap in the face to ratepayers who are struggling to pay land rates. With a modest upgrade or second storey to the existing shire office we could have focused on improving services to ratepayers instead of providing a Taj Mahal for the few who work in the new building.

To name a few, we could continue to afford the $50,000 to have green power, bituminise some rural roads, have kerb-side green and general rubbish collections two or three times a year, install sewerage in the older parts of town, put more power underground and fix the footpath outside the front of the primary school.

I have driven on gravel roads for 25 years that have not had one metre sealed or even re-sheeted with gravel. The current executive shire staff are very town centric. Recycle bins at transfer stations were removed as being too costly, but we can afford this monstrosity! The costs of heating, cooling and cleaning will be enormous.

We have now the joys of seeing historic trees felled for a supermarket we don’t need, endless traffic problems in front of the Post Office and police station, disturbing heavy truck noise to adjacent houses and an exacerbation of the traffic bottleneck at the intersection of Willmott Street and Bussell Highway.

The community got rid of a previous CEO who had plans for palatial shire offices and we need to think about doing the same and get executive shire staff that listen to what the community wants and reflects its wishes rather than acts in a paternalistic manner and builds what they think is good for us.

We are a highly active community who don’t need to be told what we need. What we do need is shire staff who listen to ratepayers and make the community’s wishes happen.

Hetty Bogerd, Margaret River

Triple bottom line

THE Brustland Protocol, established in a town called Brustland, Sweden, circa 1997 was attended by the economic advisers of the IMF. They advised the world leaders that any sustainable initiative must comply with monetarist economic principle.

After much debate this protocol was ratified at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1997. The triple bottom line.

The fires were a direct result of this decision-making process.

Rick Grenfell, Margaret River

We need the burns

IN the aftermath of the most devastating bushfire in Western Australia’s South West since the Toodyay fire of December 2009, the residents of Augusta-Margaret River are quite understandably demanding explanations from the Department of Environment and Conservation in terms of their Prescribed Burning Protocol.

In this light, to burn or not to burn, is the most important question to be addressed.

According to the expert opinion in their report Ellis S, Kanowski P, and Whelan R, National Inquiry into Bushfire Mitigation and Management, Council of Australian Governments, March 31, 2004: Bushfires are an inherent part of the Australian environment. They have an irreplaceable role in sustaining many of Australia’s natural ecosystems and ecological processes. Further, we cannot prevent them, but we can minimise the risks they pose to life, property and infrastructure, production systems, and the environment.

With regard to minimising the risks, these experts say that fuel reduction - or prescribed burns - is one of several tools recommended for this purpose. However, it should not be seen as a panacea: it needs to be used to address strategic priorities that respect the range of assets and values in a landscape and minimise the risk to each of them.

Hence, people who think this approach should now be abandoned in the light of the fires in Margaret River are mistaken. A well-managed fuel-reduction program does have a very important role in the reduction of the threat of wildfires near infrastructure and threatened wildlife.

To reduce the chance of a repeat of this disastrous bushfire in our pristine Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park and adjacent areas, may I be so brave as to suggest we do not allow this program to be pursued into the shoulder periods of late-spring and early autumn. I suggest that we employ more people to burn the DEC earmarked areas during the safer times of the year to obviate the need for late spring burns, such as what caused this problem.

Brian Gaull, Bunbury

Shark patrols a waste

I READ in the Mail on December 7 that two three-metre sharks were spotted near Lefthanders surf break south of Cowaramup Bay at 2.30pm on Sunday, December 4.

On this afternoon there was no swell and a slight northerly wind blowing in the bay. I was towing an inflatable raft with my two children on it. I knew conditions would be good south of the bay close to shore and decided to show a friend onboard how close the fires also came to Gracetown.

We towed the children around the area of the shark sighting and did see a plane and a helicopter while we were there. Sightseeing aircraft frequent the area also, and will increase throughout summer. We then went back to the South Point area of the bay and did some free diving with the kids. Other boats were out scuba diving, chasing a few crays in the bay and north and south of it. We did not get any warning of these sharks.

The current system does not immediately warn the public of the risk of where, when, how many and size of sharks. Not even a flare or flashing light is set off for sightings. At present the ranger is notified and he will then get the signs and install them at the area’s boat ramps and beaches, sometimes hours after the initial sighting.

For the $13 million patrols to be of any effect I propose improvements of a phone text register system for notification of sightings be set up. As many skippers carry their phones onboard for safety reasons, and also beachgoers at some beaches could also get the information warnings, it would be more efficient and risk would be reduced to water users. Boats in the area would warn users.

A similar fire warning text register system for the region, for accurate and up-to-date information for wherever the fire is present and a risk, would get the best information possible to people.

If neither of these can be put in place, then they should scrap the patrols and pay the volunteer fireys where the higher risk is present to lives and property.

The only use the shark patrols at present is for some live footage for a Sam Worthington remake of an old classic.

Boyd Burkhardt, Cowaramup

EDITOR’S NOTE: The shark patrol helicopter will sound a warning siren if the crew see a shark they believe could be a danger to people in the water.