Fire pits to be banned?


Bill Maltby, Castlemaine

Recently the metro newspapers carried a story of Melbourne councils moving to ban the backyard fire pit and pizza oven, citing complaints of offensive emissions “of smoke and odour”. Really?
As we live more on our properties due to Covid many people will be looking at ways of enjoying life by being adventurous in outdoor entertaining, like cooking the family a homemade pizza or a charcoaled cooked spit roast, or just the simple barbecue, yet we are seeing a bureaucratic attitude being espoused to a simple way of being creative and socialising with our families (and hopefully soon with our friends) because, just maybe there will be a waft of smoke and an aroma that some of us mightn’t like. The sensational smells of cooking, especially from some of our immigrant families, is a part of our cultural learning. I sincerely hope our current and future Mount Alexander Shire councillors don’t follow this thought process, they should have more important issues on their agendas, like assisting businesses and sporting clubs to get back on their feet when the current pandemic subsides.

Lisa Dennis
Editor of the Castlemaine Mail newspaper and senior journalist on our sister paper the Midland Express. Over the last 24 years Lisa been proudly reporting news in the Mount Alexander and Macedon Ranges communities.