It was late afternoon and Greg Thompson, a farm hand, was repairing the farm’s northern gate. This gate kept sheep in the adjoining paddock out of the wheat crop, which was to be harvested in a few days’ time. Today had been one of the worst in Greg’s experience. Since early morning the wind had been blowing from the northeast, which was unusual for this time of the year, and at times had gusted to gale force. In fact, right now, topsoil and pieces of bush, together with bits of material violently torn from trees, were sweeping in copious streams across the open ground. Just one more piece of steel to cut, thought Greg, as he brushed grit from the corners of his eyes and wiped his sweaty brow. Cutting the steel was an easy job, and soon sparks were flying from the wheel of the motorised cutter that was fastened to the tray of his truck. The sparks were ripped away to mix with the flying dust, and soon Greg’s sense of satisfaction with the job turned to shock when he saw that the ground cover was alight. Despite Greg’s efforts to beat down the flames, they roared away into the wheat crop.
The siren’s mournful wail drew volunteers to the fire station like moths to a flame. First to arrive was Bill Perger, the oldest crew member, who had been a fire-fighter as long as he cared to remember. Next was Mary Easter, a mother of three, who was now behind the wheel of the fire truck, gunning the motor ready for a quick getaway. Climbing into the rear seat of the cab was Alan Clancy, who had changed his mechanic’s overalls for his fire-fighting kit. On the other side, ready to go, sat Jack Lee, the owner of the Lake Grace local store. Soon the fire truck was speeding down the main street into a wall of billowing red dust and rolling debris. With lights flashing and horn blaring, it headed for the billowing black scar on the horizon. ‘This is going to be a bad one,’ said Bill. ‘All the local farmers have been alerted, and they are pooling equipment, but this wind is going to create tremendous problems.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Alan. ‘The weather guys say it’s because of a cyclone that’s tearing down the coast.’ ‘With some luck it will be gone tomorrow,’ said Jack.
‘The weather forecasters were right,’ said Dr Chew, as he walked slowly down the narrow gravel road with the Lake Grace sergeant of police. It was a fine, still morning, the sky was blue, but all around there was an eerie silence and a pungent, acrid smell in the air. The landscape was testament to the severity of the fire, for everything had been consumed, except for the blackened protruding sticks that had once been bushes and shrubs. Elsewhere there were wisps of faint blue smoke that drifted from smouldering pieces of material that had been stumps or broken limbs of trees. As they rounded a bend in the track, which quickly dropped away to a dry, sandy creek bed, the horror of what had happened was all too apparent. The scarred fire truck, now only recognisable by some markings on the door, was sitting on blackened
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rims. Huddled together inside of what had been the cab were the bodies of the crew, who had sought refuge together as the wave of fire, at least 20 metres high, had roared up the valley. ‘I don’t envy your job here, Doctor,’ said the police sergeant. ‘But we can’t remove the bodies until they are pronounced deceased by a medical practitioner. Also, you’ll be required to give evidence at the impending coroner’s inquiry.’
This account is representative of country Australia during the height of the summer sea- son. Clearly, scenarios such as the one described here are a major crisis for a small community, but there are a great many more crises for individuals (in other places) who may have been involved with the main participants. Nevertheless, from these crises people move forward. Sometimes the path is through learning positive things from the crises.
Student projects
1 Examine the critical stakeholder elements of this case in terms of the organisational, human resources, political and cultural management dimensions.
2 In the above case, a number of stakeholders are identified. Nominate and categorise them. There are latent stakeholders who have legitimate interests in the events of the case. Delineate and categorise these stakeholders separately. Now, in a group with other class colleagues, discuss your results. What is a salient observation of this discussion?
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