Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly is concerned that the budget for prescribed burns budget has “taken a hit” along with that of the Department for the Environment.

Speaking on ABC Radio this morning, he said a source within the department had told him that funding to carry out burns had been reduced. 

“Absolutely the last thing we need is to have prescribed burning reduced, particularly here on Kangaroo Island after what happened two and a half years ago,” he said.

“The National Parks team here have been doing a fantastic job for the last couple of years, trying to up the prescribed burning regime and make areas safe.”

“But my big concern is Flinders Chase. That’s two or three years away from parts of that burning again and what we really need to see if when that happens, when that does become ready to burn, that we have some areas in there burnt out, so we don’t have the disaster we had two and a half years ago.”

He said the park had also burnt out in 2007.

“I’m really concerned,” he said.

Prescribed burning is the planned use of fire to reduce fuel hazards in parks and reserves.

The catastrophic January 2020 fires on Kangaroo Island burnt most of the western end of the island, including 96% of the Flinders Chase National Park.

Mr Pengilly was formerly the Liberal Member for Finniss in the State Parliament.