The fireworks are gone, but bonfires are still permitted.

So the second you cook one item of food, it becomes a cooking fire, and the nature of the fireplace (permanent, metal, whatever) becomes irrelevant?

That’s what he implied. The regs don’t make it clear why a cooking fire can be anywhere but a heating fire can’t; perhaps this isn’t what was intended and the wording is just muddled up. Ditto with why a fire for the Queen is celebratory but one for a birthday isn’t.

JB – here’s a link to the range at Bunnings. No prices, sorry.

johnboy said :

where does one get a chiminea?

Bunnings! And they’re not expensive.

We use a terracotta ‘chiminea’, which is a small pottery fireplace that sits above ground, and is enclosed except at the front and chimney.

It works quite well, and is very manageable.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

One government bloke said “Just make sure somebody melts a couple of marshmallows over them. That way they’re cooking fires.” They insisted that government people could, would and did inspect backyard fires, often on tip-offs from ‘concerned neighbours’.

So the second you cook one item of food, it becomes a cooking fire, and the nature of the fireplace (permanent, metal, whatever) becomes irrelevant?

We just wanted some fires in 44 gallon drums to provide heat and light. It wasn’t for the Queen’s Birthday weekend, so the last category of fire wasn’t available.

Apparently:

– a brazier has to be metal. Got grudging agreement that a 44 gallon drum is metal, though on eguy said that it would only constitute a brazier if we made brazier-like adjustments to it – air holes, flap in the bottom for stoking, grill in the bottom.
– a ‘constructed fireplace’ has to have some sort of ‘permanency’ about it – for example, the use of mortar, or a large structure not meant to be moved or dismantled.

One government bloke said “Just make sure somebody melts a couple of marshmallows over them. That way they’re cooking fires.” They insisted that government people could, would and did inspect backyard fires, often on tip-offs from ‘concerned neighbours’.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

I remember trying to get them to define ‘brazier or constructed fireplace’ back in 2002.

Small circle of stones on the ground?

I remember trying to get them to define ‘brazier or constructed fireplace’ back in 2002.

Let me draw your attention to the following….

Air Environment Protection Policy, Page 12

5.5.1. Restrictions on the purposes for which fires may be lit
Outdoor fires are only permitted in accordance with an environmental authorisation or as permitted under Regulation 12 in accordance with conditions listed in Schedule 1 of the Regulations. The circumstances under which environmental authorisations will be issued for outdoor fires are described in 5.6.2 of this EPP.

The fires permitted under Regulation 12 are for purposes which are generally acceptable to the broad community. These are:

•?Fires for cooking food or heating drinks.
•?Fires for heating. If the fire is in a built up area it
must be in a brazier or constructed fireplace.
•?Fires for a display, ceremony, celebration or
similar activity.

On a residential lease such a fire is only permitted
during the period commencing on the Saturday
nine days before the Queen’s birthday public
holiday and ending on the Sunday six days after
that public holiday.

Mr Evil said :

Yep, I bet there’ll be no fireworks this coming long weekend.

Well, of course there will be some. The irony is that I want a catherine wheel and other fizzery things for the kids — but I can’t get those. I have been offered though (by a stranger in pub wearing dark jeans and some kind of t-shirt, with red… wait, brown; or maybe black hair) commercial grade ones on the black market, a box of 12 with one fuse, that go bang on the ground, then BOOM up high, high in the air. A dozen, one after the other. So, I can’t get nice friendly fireworks to follow my cultural traditions, but I can still get nasty big dog scarers.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

That flier is from 2007, and says I can use fireworks.

That’s what the Canberra Connect person sent me when I rang her up. A shame isn’t it? I suppose we can’t expect all of them to know every Canberra law in detail though.

First over the phone she said that the fires are banned, then when I pressed it she sent me that.