Shoalhaven City Council Clarification of Bushfire Recovery Scope of Works

24 June 2020

Shoalhaven City Council would like to address recent media statements regarding the amount of cleared properties in fire impacted areas of the Shoalhaven.

Property numbers cleaned do not provide a clear guide of bushfire recovery progress, with each property having different circumstances and recovery measures in place.

The bushfire recovery scope of works was determined by the State contractor Laing O’Rourke, on behalf of NSW Public Works.

A total of 916 bushfire affected properties registered for clean-up with Laing O'Rourke, and each of those properties were visited and assessed by the state contractor and NSW Public Works. 424 of those 916 registered were deemed to be in scope and eligible for clean-up works to be undertaken.

Council is pleased to advise that of the 424 eligible properties, 392 have now been cleaned to date, with 32 properties remaining.

Council, with assistance from Laing O’Rourke and Service NSW, contacted a further 42 property owners regarding registration for clean-up, with 10 of which unable to be contacted despite considerable measures to make contact.

Of the 32 properties contacted, Council have been advised from property owners that the property owner will either contact Service NSW and register, have made their own arrangements with their insurance company, are cleaning it themselves, or are choosing to not commence with the clean-up as yet. Council have made it clear to property owners to register for the service while it is still on offer.

In terms of waste removal from bushfire affected properties, a dedicated Bushfire Waste Recycling Centre was set up at West Nowra Waste Depot to handle the non-contaminated waste received from property cleaning. The Centre has received approximately 18,000 tonnes of non-contaminated waste, with over 93% reprocessed as recyclable material. The remaining 250 tonnes of non-contaminated waste was put into landfill. The recycling program was highly successful, and as the demand for the centre has now decreased significantly, the Centre was decommissioned last week with any further waste received to be processed at the waste depot.

Council have undertaken significant efforts to ensure all Shoalhaven fire impacted properties register with Service NSW to ensure each property owner has access to the support and resources they need to move through the recovery process.