Press Releases

1 April 2005

A fire started at approximately 2pm today, near the location of the prescribed management burn conducted last week at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne (RBGC).

The prescribed burn became a problem last week, when it spread and burnt a larger area than planned. Last week’s fire was put out by the CFA and RBGC staff. The burn site has been closely monitored since then to ensure that any hot spots within the vegetation did not re-ignite.

With the warm and dry conditions today RBGC staff have been conducting additional site patrols. One hour before this fire started a patrol had checked the area and there was no sign of fire.

As soon as RBGC staff were alerted about the fire the CFA were contacted. The CFA have been working to extinguish the fire. They are using helicopter water bombers and other fire-fighting equipment in order to quench the fire before the expected hot weather on Saturday.

The Royal Botanic Gardens has a fire management plan that incorporates the controlled use of fire to maintain heathland biodiversity. This plan involves the strategic ecological burning of selected small patches of heathland on an annual basis.