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OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Halls Gap Zoo owner Yvonne Culell is ready and waiting to welcome visitors back to the popular Grampians attraction, which was unscathed in the Grampians bushfire.
Victorian opposition leader Daniel Andrews will visit Halls Gap today to talk about tourism in the area. Premier Denis Napthine visited the Wimmera yesterday. Picture: SAMANTHA CAMARRI

Contained
By MATT COUGHLAN
and CARLY WERNER
FIRE crews have contained the
Grampians bushfire, but fires continue
to burn in the Black Range near Stawell
and in the Mallee.
Favourable conditions on Monday
helped crews contain the massive
Grampians blaze, which had burnt more
than 53,000 hectares by yesterday.
But the Department of Environment
and Primary Industries issued a watch
and act message for Stawell and the
Black Range last night as a bushfire
continued to burn about seven kilome-
tres south of Stawell.
Unexpected conditions caused the fire
to cross containment lines.
Meanwhile, crews were also working
to contain fires in the Mallee, which have
burnt more than 90,000 hectares.
Department of Environment and
Primary Industries, Country Fire
Authority and Parks Victoria fire-fighters
But fires continue to burn
used air attack and ground resources
to continue building containment lines
around the fires.
Fire-fighters in the Grampians also
had to deal with a number of explosions
in the St Helen’s Plains area while fight-
ing the Grampians blaze on Saturday.
CFA strike teams were in the area
trying to save farm houses when fire-
works and a drum containing flammable
liquid stored in a shipping container
exploded.
The CFA is working to allow residents
back into the Roses Gap and Wartook
areas.
Horsham Incident Control Centre
spokeswoman Jenny McGennisken said
residents were advised at a meeting in
Laharum yesterday that hazardous tree
assessments must be completed before
they would be allowed home. “Personal
safety is a priority – not only for resi-
dents, but also for our fire-fighters,” she
said.
The fires and extreme temperatures
have also caused water issues across
the region.
GWMWater spokesman Andrew Rose
said water issues during the fires were a
result of an unlikely set of circumstances
with large fires in both the Wimmera
and the Mallee.
“The system operated in general really
quite well under the circumstances,” he
said.
Mr Rose confirmed Pomonal ran out
of water on Friday because of a burst
main.
He said residents who decided to stay
and defend their property should always
have their own water supply. “We’ll do
whatever we can, but we’re never going
to put our staff at risk,” he said.
He said Halls Gap and Pomonal had
switched to non-potable water to ensure
the maximum availability of water if
power was lost.
Mr Rose said asset losses sustained
by GWMWater were not going to be a
significant cost and about 30 air valves
had already been replaced.
At Lake Wartook, GWMWater lost
the caretaker’s residence in the blaze.
In coming days the authority will
investigate if any other assets had been
lost.
Mr Rose said one of the main issues
for GWMWater during the fires was
working with thinly-stretched resources
as people were sent to two major fires.
“We learnt a lot from the 2006 fire –
you can always do things better,” he said.
“It was a huge resourcing issue this
time. We were very stretched – we coped
and coped well.
“It was logistically challenging.”
He said GWMWater would review its
processes to look for opportunities for
improvement when coping with high
demand and crisis situations.
“Tomorrow we’re sitting down to have
an internal debrief and examine if there
are things that we can do better,” he said.
Opposition leader Daniel Andrews
will tour fire-affected communities
today.
Premier Denis Napthine visited
Horsham, Brimpaen and Stawell on
Saturday and visited the Wimmera again
yesterday.
● For more fire coverage, see pages
4 to 7.

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