Ben Townsend has spent the past five summers on roster as an air attack supervisor.
'We do four-day rotations on a light aircraft, a helicopter or fixed wing.
'We're the link between the ground crews and tactical aircraft – your Helitaks (e.g. Black Hawks) and fire bombers.'
Last month, Ben got a call early one morning to head up to Halls Gap for a fire at Boroka Lookout in the Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park. It was 20 January, barely a week since the Yarram Gap Road fire had been contained and the town had reopened.
The call came in from Barry Scott, the State Air Operations Coordinator (SAOC) for the event.
'The SAOC runs the air desk during the fire season. We provide a strategic overview of aircraft operations across the state and facilitate dispatch,' Barry says.
That includes liaising with controllers and commanders across the state to manage readiness arrangements – having the right aircraft in place to respond to fires when they occur.
'On any given day we'll move aircraft based on the conditions. If there is lightning forecast in the Wimmera or Far South West, for example, we might move aircraft across from its station in Gippsland where that risk might not be as high.'
When Barry himself got a call for aircraft support for the Boroka Lookout fire that Sunday night, he organised firebombing helicopters from Ballarat and Essendon as well as a local fixed-wing firebomber to respond the next day.
Ben – based at Ballarat – says he had been aware of the fire before he got the call.
'We launched at about 8am [Monday] and were over the fire within about 30 minutes.
'Halls Gap was certainly a consideration. Our first priority was to put the fire out. It put up a bit of smoke and there were a lot of eyes on it.'
