Val Jeffery's legacy is need for eternal vigilance against threat of bushfires

But what he will be truly remembered for will be as a warhorse for Tharwa and as a campaigner for common-sense bushfire management.

His legacy will be the need for eternal vigilance against the threat of bushfires and, more importantly, against a complacent attitude that large and destructive blazes will not hit the ACT again.

Mr Jeffery was born and bred in Tharwa and ran the general store, taking over from his parents Ruby and Clarrie, his father dying when Mr Jeffery was only 14.

Over the years, Mr Jeffery sat on or ran the Tharwa School board, Tharwa Progress Association, Tharwa Community Hall Trust, Tidbinbilla Pioneers Association and Junior Farmers in Tharwa. He was determined that the government of the day not forget the village and its rural heritage.

In 2006, he received the Order of Australia medal for his service to Tharwa, particularly as captain of the local bushfire brigade, a position he held for 38 years until his retirement in 2012. He was also a former chair of the ACT Bushfire Council. But he was actually a member of the brigade for 60 years.

His bushfire knowledge was unsurpassed, learnt early as a boy out in the paddocks putting out flames with hessian bags.

Throughout his life, Mr Jeffery was a constant thorn in the side of governments and bushfire bureaucracies, always pushing for fires to be hit hard and fast as soon as they broke out and for fuel loads to be kept low and manageable. He was an advocate for night-time fighting - done safely - when temperatures cooled off.

He was always campaigning for operational staff experienced in bushfires to be at the helm of our emergency services, not career bureaucrats.

His knowledge came to the fore during the 2003 bushfires.

Four days before the January 18 firestorm devastated Canberra, Mr Jeffery wrote to Tharwa residents warning them there was a very real chance the fires would break out of the mountains and if that happened suppression forces would be overwhelmed so that people needed to be prepared to help protect their own properties.

Many residents regarded that advice — as well as Mr Jeffery leading the brigade in burning a break around the western side of Tharwa on the night of January 17 — as being instrumental in saving the village. Not only that, Mr Jeffery persuaded two young police officers on the afternoon of January 18 not to evacuate Tharwa because residents were well-prepared and needed to be on the ground to protect their homes against ember attack.

That was more than 14 years ago. Many Canberrans who arrived in the national capital after the firestorm may not even know it happened. We cannot afford to be complacent.

The Tharwa - and Canberra - communities were extremely saddened by Mr Jeffery's death last Tuesday. We must honour his life's work by always understanding that bushfires will remain a risk to the ACT community. That means appropriate funding for not only bushfire fighting but also fuel load management. It means understanding that managed fires to burn off fuel will be a fact of life as a means to protect the community. It means taking on personal responsibility and getting our own properties ready for the threat of fire before summer hits.

Vale Val. We should always remember your wise words.