DRINKING water supplies for the towns of Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens were saved during the January 2026 Nerong bushfires, thanks to forethought and on-the-ground planning.
The Nerong fire started in Myall Lakes National Park, just south of Nerong, and was initially the responsibility of the NSW National Parks Service.
Operational control was handed over to the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) late on Saturday, 31 January.
NSW Police set up roadblocks to keep Viney Creek Road clear for fire trucks and equipment streaming down the hill into the pine plantation.
The plantation sits atop the Tea Gardens Aquifer, the source of potable drinking water for more than 5,000 residents of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest.
The fire ripped across bushland on Saturday and reached the pine plantation, making light work of its evenly spaced tall trees.
The aquifer operates by pumping water from underground via several pumphouses, which send it to the central filtration and treatment plant.
Potable town water is then pumped to reservoirs atop the hill overlooking the twin towns.
From there, it is gravity-fed into the town water system.
Mains power was inevitably cut to the pumphouses when power poles throughout the plantation area were hit by the raging fire.
Astute observation by Bulahdelah RFS member Rod Parr during an early inspection ahead of the fire front identified the risk.
Group Officer Nathan Burchill then rallied MidCoast Council’s infrastructure teams to bring in generators to restart the pumps and keep water flowing to the treatment plant.
“We started early in the morning, saw the power lines and realised they would go, getting on top of the fact that the aquifer pumps and water treatment plant power would go with them,” Rod told News Of The Area.
Several large generators were brought to the site and installed by MidCoast Council workers.
While Essential Energy assessed damage to mains lines, the pumps were able to continue drawing water from underground and sending it to the water treatment plant.
This kept the facility operating and replenished the Tea Gardens reservoirs with clean, potable water.
Tea Gardens’ hilltop reservoirs were never in direct danger, nor did their levels drop below a healthy, almost-full level throughout the fiery weekend.
The plantation suffered significant damage, but its orderly plantings and wide tracks for harvesting machinery made it easier to navigate than typical overgrown eucalyptus bushland.
The mill within the plantation became the fireground headquarters, fortunate to have a few bars of mobile phone signal.
A similar fire started in December 2023 due to dry lightning, and the same cause is currently suspected for the 2026 blaze.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
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