IMMEDIATE government funding is needed to reduce the risk of bushfires in the Framlingham district, according to Aboriginal activist Geoff Clark.The former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) chairman said fire danger in the district was as high as January 2007 when 1500 hectares of bush and farm land went up in smoke.He is apprehensive about the town's preparedness for the upcoming fire season.He said Framlingham needed improved safety measures including a sprinkler system to be better prepared for potential fire threats this summer."We've had regular meetings with the State Government but we have come away quite frustrated because they're not taking our concerns seriously enough," Mr Clark said."The town is an evacuation point in case of a major bushfire, but there are dead tree branches over the place and we don't have adequate firefighting equipment that we would need if we had a repeat of what happened a couple of years ago."This town is quite close to Framlingham Forest and we had a near-miss last time round and with what happened across the state at the start of the year we need to be properly prepared in case of another major fire."Mr Clark raised his concerns with Polwarth MP Terry Mulder, who visited Framlingham yesterday. Mr Mulder said he was impressed by the Aboriginal Trust's new health centre which was opened late last year. "The indigenous life expectancy has been a lot lower than the national average for some time now, so its good to see the health care centre up-and-running," Mr Mulder said."It would have taken a lot of hard work from the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust to get a facility like this operational and it's good to see that a country town has an adequate provision of health services. "Some other smaller towns aren't as fortunate, which is disappointing." Mr Clark said the health centre was part of a number of initatives to improve local indigenous health."Local people, especially the elderly, had to travel to Mortlake, Terang and Warrnambool to see a doctor until last year," Mr Clark said."It's going to take generations to improve (indigenous) life expectancy but we are on the right track at least."