exclusive
Fire aftermath burns: Trauma goes on for poorly-treated victims of devastating Parkerville blaze

A year after the devastating Parkerville bushfire, affected residents are still doing it tough. Last December, the horror blaze destroyed three homes and severely damaged a fourth — including the Moodys’ family home of 20 years. Their dogs were saved but their lives were turned upside down when their belongings perished. Down the road, Mark Norton is living in a caravan after being left with nothing except a car and the clothes on his back. His beautiful property of overlooking the Perth Hills was gutted. Mr Norton has no power to his property and is calling on Western Power to bear responsibility for the fire after he said they “burned his house down”. He and other Parkerville residents want an urgent review into a bushfire that destroyed their homes amid claims Western Power failed to properly cut back a giant tree dangerously close to powerlines. Reporters were initially told the tree was located on private property until The West Australian started asking further questions this week. And it can now be revealed that Western Power was responsible for conducting a risk assessment of the trees on Granite Road where the fire started. An image taken by The West Australian in the wake of the blaze showed trees on Granite Road, where the blaze started, several metres above powerlines. The Shire of Mundaring confirmed the tree was located on shire-managed land. But it said Western Power was responsible for “any vegetation that may overhang or interfere with their network”. A Western Power spokesperson has since confirmed trees in the area were cut back in August, 2023. But a few months later, on the morning of December 21, a giant branch fell on to powerlines, razing the neighbouring area and changing the lives of several families. Large branches on the same Granite Road trees still remain near powerlines to this day, which has shocked residents whose homes were burned down. The local council — which manages 1200km of road verges — said they had not engaged with Western Power to address the trees since the fire. Mr Norton and his partner, Georgia Bolden, were extremely underinsured before their home was wrecked by the blaze. They are now living out of a caravan and power their makeshift home with a generator. “We are in a six by four trailer... it’s just the two of us,” Ms Bolden said. “I’ve got a chronic health condition, and this all has an enormous impact on us.... it’s huge. I don’t like to make a big deal out of that, but at the same time, this is a really big part of our lives right now.” Mr Norton said he had been receiving calls from Synergy — WA’s energy provider — accusing him of illegally using power despite the connection being torched by the blaze. He said issues like this had made his already dire situation so much more difficult. Anxiety, depression and fear of another fire have become part of his everyday life. “Western Power burned my house down, and now their sideline company are harassing me about illegally using power — I can’t use power. I do not have the facility to use any power,” Mr Norton said. He claims Western Power only offered to waive the $500 reconnection cost to the node after they contacted politicians. He would still have to fork out thousands to dig up the cables on his own property and reconnect it to the node. “We’ve had a we’ve had a quote that dig the cable and refill it to the node is $20,000. We don’t have that sort of money,” he said. When asked when Western Power would waive reconnection costs, a spokesperson said that decision would be was made “on a case-by-case assessment”. Nearby, Julie and Craig Moody lost everything in the blaze. Their home that once included a “beautiful” entertaining area has become a ghastly reminder of the December blaze. Ms Moody said the fact Federal Government funding was not activated after the blaze meant after that her family and others did not receive emergency accommodation or proper mental health support. “For me, all I see is black. I don’t I don’t see any happiness here anymore,” Ms Moody told The West Australian. “This was the most beautiful, vibrant garden, and it’s become just black and full of weeds. It’s just devastating, and it’s just so upsetting. “We’ve been here 20 years in this house, and it took us all this time to build our paradise, just to have it taken away in six minutes because of whatever the reason is, whether it’s Western Power’s fault or because of a tree that decided to drop a branch onto a power line. “Everyone just ignores you and wants to neglect the fact that this has happened, and you just fall in the cracks. “We are just busy, basically cleaning up 20 years of accumulated shit, which is what you do when you have a lot of space, you tend to use it. “It’s just a big black hole . . . we’ve made no plans for the future.” Four homes received the maximum $4000 payment through the WA Government, which DFES said helped impacted people “purchase immediate basic needs in their recovery”. But due to the fire causing less than $240,000 of damage to public infrastructure such as roads, no help through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement was provided to residents. This arrangement with the Federal Government can include emergency accommodation and mental health support for impacted communities. Ms Bolden, said the entire situation was a case of “bureaucracy gone wrong”. “There needs to be an inquiry into this at a local government and State government level, because I feel that there have been enormous failings,” Ms Bolden said. “The mental health burden that this has had really needs to be acknowledged and looked into. It’s not OK for people in the community to go through what just going through without mental health support.” The local shire has since said it would look at establishing a single contactable person on council for impacted residents after feedback since the December blaze. Several residents have told The West they were left “confused” and pointed in the wrong direction in terms of accessing support in the wake of the blaze. Shire CEO Jason Whiteaker said recovery was “not a local government issue alone”. “We understand the feedback about having that individual contact to guide impacted residents through recovery processes,” he said. “The State Government play an important role in recovery, through the Department of Fire and Emergency Services who have a dedicated recovery team, who we would look to leverage as support depending on scale and circumstances.” It comes as Western Power was forced to pay up more than a decade after another blaze in Parkerville blaze destroyed 57 homes in the Perth Hills in 2014. In 2022, the WA Court of Appeal apportioned 50 per cent of the liability of the losses to Western Power after a class action trial in 2018. The WA Court of Appeal found the State-owned utility breached its duty of care by failing to have a system of periodic inspection for “point of attachment” poles. After the class action trial in 2018, a Supreme Court judge ruled that the rotten wooden pole that sparked the fire was the responsibility of private landowner Noreen Campbell and Western Power subcontractor Ventia. The company, then known as Thiess, had worked on the termite-ridden pole in the months before the fire. Western Power told The West this week said it had since “implemented changes, including carrying out inspections of private point-of-attachment poles, following this fire.”

exclusiveFire aftermath burns: Trauma goes on for poorly-treated victims of devastating Parkerville blaze

The No. 1 source of news for every West Australian

exclusive
Fire aftermath burns: Trauma goes on for poorly-treated victims of devastating Parkerville blaze