Smoke and mirrors: Fire threat leaves residents breathless

By DANIEL CLARKE

08/07/26

 

Kangaroo Island residents living near burning forestry land have reported breathing difficulties from thick smoke and fear for their homes if fire is not properly controlled by company workers.

 

A number of locals have contacted the Island Independent in recent weeks voicing anger and concern about the burning operations on Kiland properties across the central west of the island. 

 

In April, on the same day Kiland sacked 34 of its forestry workers, a trial burn of logged trees within it’s Binnowie plantation at Gosse breached its boundaries, growing rapidly from a planned eight hectares to about 130.

 

With only a skeleton crew working for Kiland who could be quickly called upon to assist, two CFS appliances attended the blaze to help bring it under control.

 

Concerned residents say the botched trial confirmed their fears that the forestry burns were a “backyard operation that doesn’t have the manpower to stop a fire getting out of control”.

 

Long-time Cassini resident Simon Laundy, who is living with lung disease, said recent burning of felled pine trees in the Huxtable plantation about 2km from his home caused him to “nearly collapse after coughing my guts up”.

 

“I couldn’t breathe at all when I was outside and the smoke got into the house as well,” Laundy said. “It was the worst it's ever been the other day. It was so bad it was at fog level. 

 

“It’s thick tarry smoke from wet pines trees and I have to live with this for how long with cancer? They haven’t even got close to my place yet and it’s this bad already.”

 

Laundy said he fears his home of about 30 years that sits in the shadows of the now felled Kelly East pine plantation will be under direct threat from an escaped fire. 

 

“They haven’t told me when they’re going to burn the ones near my place,” he said. “One day I’m going to wake up and they’ll be burning because they never informed me when they started felling the trees a few months ago. They have no concern for neighbours.

 

“They’ve laid these trees on the ground and they’re going to light them up in rows and you can see how close they are to the roadside vegetation. You only need a few sparks getting in my place and how the hell am I going to stop it?

 

“That's the thing that's really concerning me is the fact these guys have got no manpower to stop it. They’ve sacked 34 workers and they’re really just a backyard operation. They don’t know what they’re doing and they don’t care.

 

“A volunteer of the CFS told me they’re not going to stand around watching these fires. They’ll wait to get a call out when it’s already out of control.

 

"This issue has got to be called out. It's going under the radar but it's bigger than Ben-Hur.”

 

After claiming it was reverting its 4.5 million tonnes of fire-damaged timber into about 900,000 tonnes of biochar in 2022, Kiland – formerly known as KIPT – earlier this year began laying felled trees in rows where they stood in preparation for mass burns.

 

The decision to shift strategy was explained further by biocoke processing company Wundowie Carbon in an interview with Island Independent in May, in which CEO Haydn Smith said log piles on the Macgill farm alone would supply its plant “for a number of years”.

 

Given the biocoke processing facility on Macgill's will not be in operation until next year and that Smith wouldn’t commit to using wood from the dozens of other plantations across the island, Kiland - which has benefited from monetising carbon credits on the trees - has now begun burning that same timber back into the atmosphere. 

 

The Island Independent has witnessed wet burns being conducted in pine and blue gum plantations at Cassini and Duncan in recent weeks. 

 

It’s a situation that has left Middle River resident Caroline Paterson infuriated, having lost her rented home within the plantations to the devastating Black Summer bushfires in 2020. 

 

“It just frustrates me so much that we're 30 years down the track and these plantations are still a total clusterf*** for the island,” Paterson said. “I cannot believe the greenwashing that has happened right throughout this whole process.

 

“Kiland has shown no environmental credibility whatsoever and they continue to use these bloody bullshit sustainability greenwashing statements about how they're working for the community. They are not working for anyone other than their investors. 

 

“I cannot stand to see that resource going up in smoke. Surely enough smoke was released into the environment over Black Summer.

 

“They say they are experienced land managers. Where is the evidence of that? I see no evidence and no credibility.”

 

Laundy agrees, pointing to Kiland’s website which states that the current unused timber “presents a health and safety risk to the local community and further fires could also impact the community in South Australia, due to smoke”.

 

“Kiland’s investment to revert land to agriculture helps manage this risk in a way that delivers positive outcomes for the local community,” the website says. “The alternative of burning the remaining timber would have significant effects on the community and economy.”

 

While acknowledging there are many western residents who want the timber gone “in any way possible”, both Paterson and Laundy say there is a cohort of residents whose concerns should be listened to before public health and private properties suffer.

 

The Island Independent put a series of questions about the burning operations via email to Kiland last week that were not answered. Follow-up texts and a phone call were not replied to. 

 

“They were a beautiful resource,” Laundy said of the pines near his home. “I just can’t believe they wouldn’t use it for something. Most of it around here wasn’t even burnt in the Black Summer fires.

 

“Surely the pine could be used in the building industry or the blue gums as firewood for islanders. We could have firewood for the next 10-20 years.”

 

Laundy said he raised his concerns with Clare Scriven, SA Minister for Primary Industries, Regional Development and Forestry, whose response via a spokesperson was “well, the trees were already burnt”.

 

“Tell the green pines in front of my place that,” Laundy said. “Have they even been over here to take a look?”

In a letter to Laundy last month, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said “we understand that experiencing smoke impacts can be unpleasant and disruptive, especially with additional health concerns”. 

 

“In South Australia, burning in the open is managed by your council,” the letter states. “Councils will continue to manage burning in their area and determine the approach that is best for their communities.

 

“Councils have the flexibility to issue permits and general notices to regulate burning of agricultural or forestry waste, burning off vegetation for fire prevention control or to allow burning of vegetation for any other purpose.”

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However, KI Council refutes this, saying it “doesn't issue permits for burn-offs outside of the fire danger season”. 

 

“There's also no obligation on entities such as Kiland to notify Council ahead of their burn offs,” a spokesperson told Island Independent. “Ideally we'd like to be informed so that we can assist in monitoring the activity and communicate with the public as well.”

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A spokesperson for the CFS said that “management of the burning of felled plantations on the property are the responsibility of the landholder and Kangaroo Island Council, which oversees burn offs, including monitoring provisions”.

 

"While responsibility for fire management of burn offs rests with the landholder and council, CFS is available to respond via Triple Zero when required”.