Former police chief defends Black Saturday pub dinner

MELBOURNE - Victoria's former police chief has admitted she didn't speak to anyone for three hours at a critical time on Black Saturday but says she had confidence in the people delegated to manage the disaster.

While the state's death toll mounted, Christine Nixon had no telephone discussions about the dire bushfire situation between 6pm and 9pm on February 7 last year, it emerged yesterday.

Charged with co-ordinating the state's emergency response, Nixon could not access internet, radio, television or email during dinner with friends at her local pub in North Melbourne, the disaster inquiry heard.

She also kept a private appointment early that morning and worked on matters unrelated to the bushfires despite statewide emergency preparations during the week for the horror conditions forecast.

The packed hearing room heard that Nixon's deputy, Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana, worked tirelessly from 6am until about 1am the next day to keep emergency management staff informed of developments across three control and co-ordination centres.

Fontana said he received little instruction from Nixon on the day but took charge in his role. Police had been "going non-stop" since about Australia Day in January, he said.

"We were on high alert the whole period," he told the commission.

The bushfires killed 173 people and destroyed homes and businesses in 107 rural communities.

Nixon's admission she had no access to media updates during the evening is at odds with earlier evidence that she had gone home and monitored events from a variety of sources.

Fronting the bushfires royal commission for the second time, a defensive Nixon faced intense examination by counsel assisting the inquiry, Rachel Doyle, SC.

When she left the Integrated Emergency Co-ordination Centre in a car driven by Fontana about 6pm, Nixon was dropped home and then walked to the Metropolitan Hotel for a casual meal with her husband and two friends, where she spent about 80 minutes, but consumed no alcohol.

Doyle suggested the omission was made deliberately to avoid embarrassment, but Nixon told the hearing she had omitted to include the pub meal in her submission because she didn't see any reason to explain it. "Whether I had a meal at home and prepared it myself or whether I had a meal otherwise I didn't see as being important."

She said Fontana and Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe were unaware of her dinner date but said both knew they could call her at any time.

"People knew that I had a telephone and that they could contact me," she said.

- AAP