A fire brigade leader has called on the Sate Government to make Lake Colac fire ready.
Fireman and Lake Colac campaigner John Martin of Irrewarra said the government needed to fund its environment departments so they could reduce fairy grass and other hazards in the lake.
Mr Martin said he had been warning authorities about fire risks from fairy grass for months but they had done little to reduce fairy grass levels.
Fairy grass seed heads blow onto neighbouring properties and cause fire hazards.
The plant, a native, is prolific on dry lake beds.
Colac Otway Shire Council sent clean-up notices to 600 property owners late last year demanding they clean up fire hazards on their properties.
But the council has no power to send notices to government agencies for hazards on their land or to fine them for failing to do the work.
Mr Martin said State Government agencies Parks Victoria and the Department of Sustainability and Environment were responsible for managing the lake.
He said weeds in people’s back yards paled into insignificance compared with the plants on Lake Colac which were a fire hazard.
“The community’s safety has been compromised by the State Government,” he said.
“We need the State Government to lead by example and make the lake fire ready.
“At the end of the day we have prolific fairy grass growth.”
Mr Martin said he was speaking as captain of the Irrewarra Fire Brigade, although he is also a member of a dry lake taskforce.
He said fairy grass blew off the lake and caused fire hazards where it collected on people’s properties.
“If people clean up their property and live in the vicinity of Lake Colac, that very same property that was issued a clean-up notice is back to square one.”
Mr Martin said authorities were trialling chemical sprays to kill the fairy grass, but he said they left it too late in the season for sprays to be effective.
He said overgrown areas just outside Meredith Park on the lake’s north were the biggest fire threats to Irrewarra.
Mr Martin said a fire could easily spread with north winds to Irrewarra.
“It could burn out half the district,” he said.
Meanwhile, the council’s environment and community safety manager Stewart Anderson said vegetation was taking hold around the periphery of Lake Colac.
Mr Anderson said that while fairy grass was the early coloniser, management agencies had observed other species out-competing it.
“Some of these other species are native and some are exotic,” he said.
“Work is happening to better understand the mix of vegetation growing around the lake.”

THREAT: Lake Colac campaigner John Martin says a fire in vegetation on the lake’s dry bed could “burn out half the district”.