Evacuated residents from the New South Wales beach town of Tathra have spoken of the chaos and confusion caused by a lack of official warnings and substandard communications infrastructure, as authorities prepare to allow a staggered return to the bushfire-ravaged seaside village.

The Bega showgrounds, about 20 minutes inland from Tathra, continued to act as the nerve centre for hundreds of people displaced by Sunday’s fire.

Those gathered in the packed-out hall were still hanging out for scraps of information from the regular briefings from the Rural Fire Service.

On Tuesday, authorities apologised for the conflicting advice and misinformation being given to residents by the various organisations involved in the recovery operation.

Locals remained stoic and relatively upbeat when Guardian Australia visited the centre on Tuesday. Most were anxious to get back to their homes, and patience was visibly fraying for some.

The failure of warning systems and communications infrastructure remained the chief concern of those gathered in Bega. Questions remained about the suitability of phone-based warning systems for areas such as Tathra, where reception is notoriously bad. When the power went out at lunchtime on Sunday, about three hours before the fire front hit, it left little avenue for warnings to be communicated.

Tathra residents wait for news in the Bega showgrounds. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

The dearth of information left many confused and oblivious to the intensity of what was approaching. Tathra resident Neroli Dickson was first alerted to trouble by her teenage son, who came home to tell her there was heavy smoke outside.

“And I actually said ‘No if there was an emergency people would be communicating with us. You need to stay calm’,” she said. “And he said come out on the street. I went out and, I hate to admit it, but my 15-year-old might be across it.”

Two more residents, Ian Alker and Gary Newton, said they got next to no official warning of the approaching fire. Both received texts from the emergency warning system, but they came only at 3.48pm, well after the fire began to hit Tathra.

“There was no reception, my wife was going ‘Where are you? Where are you?’,” Alker said. “She was down at the evacuation point. We couldn’t communicate.”



The bushfire alert which was received by some Tathra residents on Sunday. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Many residents gathered at the surf club, the most obvious assembly point in the town. But they said there was no one there from the Rural Fire Service to give them further directions. They had no idea if the two roads out of the town were safe.

“We just needed a tower so we could communicate,” Dickson said. “That’s all they could have done better I reckon, and that’s an infrastructure issue.”

Busloads of residents were taken on grim tours back through the town on Tuesday, although they were not able to get out and into their homes.

Authorities were working frantically to facilitate a staged return of residents to parts of Tathra. The town had been divided into zones, and residents were scheduled to be returned once each was deemed safe by the council and emergency services. Residents could be returned as early as Tuesday evening, although officials were reluctant to give any guarantee on the timing, saying the environment was still fluid.

Tathra residents were still waiting for the all-clear to return to their town, which was struck by a bushfire on Sunday. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Crews were hoping to have the fire, which spread across more than 1,200 hectares, contained by Tuesday afternoon. About 500 people affected by the disaster signed up to Red Cross’s Register.Find.Reunite service on Monday.

There were earlier concerns about airborne asbestos, and some properties remained cordoned off while testing was conducted. Authorities were handing out asbestos information sheets to residents at the evacuation centre.

Residents were less critical of a perceived lack of hazard reduction work in the lead-up to the fire. News Corp quoted residents critical of the lack of hazard reduction burning in recent years, particularly in national parks around Tathra.

But Michael Hergenhan, a Tathra resident, said there had been large-scale burn-offs in recent years.

“I remember a big one maybe two years ago, because it smouldered for about four-five days,” he said.

Several other residents spoke of seeing recent hazard reduction work around Tathra.

Fewer still were concerned about reports the Rural Fire Service had twice rejected the offer of an urban firefighting pumper to help battle a fire in rugged terrain near Tathra. The RFS issued a statement saying the vehicle would not have been able to access the relevant area.

“The local NSW RFS duty officer who received the offer of assistance, based on the information they had on the location and terrain, identified that the vehicle would not be able to gain access to the area,” a spokesman said.

“As an urban structure firefighting vehicle, the pumper is not suitable for firefighting areas off established roads, and does not have the correct safety equipment to be working in a remote bushland area.”