New South Wales Fire Brigades
Field Trip
http://www.nswfb.nsw.gov.au/

Tour of Sydney Olympic & Paralympic Games Venues
Tuesday 7 October 2003
Time 0915 - 1600 (expected return)
Estimated Cost: A$80 per person (includes transport, guided tours, morning tea and lunch).

Visit the world famous Sydney Olympic Park site, venue for the spectacular Sydney 2000
Olympic and Paralympic Games, widely acknowledged as the most successful in history.

On 10 October 2003 the main (Telstra) stadium will be the venue for the Opening Ceremony of the Rugby World Cup followed by the first match (Australia and Argentina). Twenty countries will compete in scheduled matches over six weeks in venues around Australia. Further details can be found at www.worldcupweb.com The field trip will be an intimate “back of the house” visit to four key sites: • Aquatic Centre • Main Telstra (formerly Olympic) Stadium • Exhibition Dome • Superdome

The buildings and the Sydney Olympic Park site are unique because they were constructed using alternative engineering solutions to meet the performance requirements of the Building Code of
Australia 1996 which incorporates fire engineering concepts and principles. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see and experience the cutting edge of fire safety and engineering in public buildings.

The state of the art construction has a fully suspended timber dome over 100m in diameter and features natural ventilation. The Sydney Olympic Park has many unique “green” features to help preserve the environment.

The tour guides will be Senior Fire Brigades Officers who helped plan and conduct the Olympics, and also experts from the former Olympic Coordination Authority. Participants will be able to see first hand how the fire safety of the Olympic athletes and the public was ensured, how similar preparations are being made for the Rugby World Cup and finally will be able to get a unique insight into world’s best fire safety and building engineering.

National Parks And Wildlife Service Trip
http://www.npws.nsw.gov.au/index.html

Royal National Park
Tuesday 7 October 2003
Time 0900 - 1700 (expected return)
Estimated Cost: A$70 per person (includes transport and lunch and field snack/drink )


The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service field trip will look at Australian natural flora’s response to fire. The trip will focus on Royal National Park and look at areas burnt by Wildfire in 2001/2002 fire season and compare these with areas burnt in the 1994 fire season. The trip will include very scenic coastline, the full range of Sydney Basin vegetation and interagency wildfire response.

Royal National Park is the oldest park in Australia and the second area in the world to
be protected for conservation after Yellowstone in the United States. The fact that the park has constant seasonal wildfire, significant urban interface and over 1 million visitors per year, primarily in summer, make for interesting management decisions in relation to fire management. Local NPWS staff will outline how the National Parks and Wildlife Service in NSW manages fire within the considerable land management issues commencing with an overview in the historic Audley dance hall. Eminent fire ecologist Ross Bradstock will talk about the plant response to fire and research undertaken in NSW vegetation communities. Participants will then travel by bus to a number of sites to look at these responses.

Royal National Park is a very scenic park that has spectacular coastline for which the trip will take time out to admire this scenery. Throughout the day, urban interface management issues will be discussed at chosen sites within the park. The day will finish with discussion on the coordinated fire management arrangements and how these worked in the recent wildfires, thus concluding with a visit to the Sutherland Fire Coordination Centre.

Lunch will be provided as part of the cost of the field trip.

Please Note

• All tours will depart from the main entrance of Centre North of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.
• Please assemble fifteen minutes prior to the departure time of your tour.
• All costs are per person and estimates at the time of publication. Please see staff at the Registration Desk for further information.
  

NSW Rural Fire Service Field Trip
http://www.bushfire.nsw.gov.au/

Blue Mountains
Tuesday 7 October 2003
Time 0830 – 1700 (expected return)
Estimated Cost: A$80 per person (includes transport, Aussie style barbeque lunch and
morning tea)

The NSW Rural Fire Service field trip will take participants into the Blue Mountains west of
Sydney. This area, which has a city surrounded by a world heritage listed National Park, is amongst the most Wildland fire prone areas in the world. The urban development, most of which dates back some 50 years or more, is stretched out along the ridges with steep and precipitous slopes falling away into the valleys beyond.

The NSW Rural Fire Service is arguably the largest single cohesive fire service in the world and its truly unique feature is that all of its highly trained fire fighters are in fact volunteers. The Service, which was formed some 103 years ago, provides all forms of fire protection to approximately 99% of the State of NSW. The tour will provide participants with an overview of the Service, its structure
and operational capacity, as well as the opportunity to tour the Blue Mountains District Fire Control Centre and inspect various items of fire fighting equipment.

The problems that confront the Service with regard to the wildland/urban interface will be clearly apparent as the tour journeys through the mountain suburbs where evidence will be seen of both older style development, with little or no preventative measures, and the more modern developments which incorporate recent planning and development legislation and guidelines.

Throughout the tour evidence of the fires that impacted upon the Blue Mountains over the last two years can still be seen.

The tour will take in some of the spectacular scenery that abounds within the mountains such as Govett’s Leap, the Three Sisters and Echo Point. An Aussie style barbeque lunch will be provided in the gardens of a local restaurant with time allowed for you to explore the lovely town of Leura, with its many boutique shops, before returning to Sydney.

State Forests Of New South Wales
Field Trip
State Forests of New South Wales

Macquarie Region Softwood Plantation Fire Protection & Management
Tuesday 7 October 2003
Time 0730 - 1800 (expected return)
Estimated Cost: A$70 per person (includes transport and lunch and field snack/drink )

The State Forests of NSW field trip will take in some of the Pinus Radiata plantations in State Forests’ Macquarie Region softwood estate (situated approximately 3 hours drive west of Sydney). Here delegates will gain a first-hand look at fire protection systems in a highly fire prone environment, regional firefighting capabilities and an overview of plantation forestry practices in New South Wales.

Meeting up with staff of State Forests’ Macquarie Region, the trip will visit the extensive plantations in the Oberon area. Macquarie Region manages 68, 000 hectares of pine plantation worth approximately A$360 million. These plantations are protected from fire by a well-developed fire suppression network involving fire spotting towers, aircraft and helicopters, tankers and earth-moving equipment, and a multi-agency coordinated firefighting approach. Delegates will have the opportunity to view some of this equipment used.

The field trip will also inspect some state of the art machinery used in harvesting operations. Pine products grown in the Region currently account for more than 10% of the timber used in the building of Australian homes. The plantation management and timber processing activities based on these forests provide direct economic benefit to the region of about A$150 million each year and directly employ more than 800 people.

The journey from Sydney crosses the Blue Mountains and there will be opportunities to make stopovers at some of the Blue Mountains natural attractions such as Govett’s Leap lookout and the Three Sisters to see spectacular sandstone gorges and rock formations which are the centrepiece of tourist attractions in the Blue Mountains.

Lunch will be provided as part of the cost of the field trip.

Canberra Tour

 CANCELLED