Australia Fires

Danno

Senior Member
Has anyone heard from our friends in Australia as these fires continue to spread. I was just wondering. I had not seen anything from Scott or Kevin for a while or @Ironwood. It just looks bad on the news these days.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Yes, it sounds really bad.
@kevy73 updated something on his Facebook page a few hours ago, but I don't know how far away he is located from the fires.
[MENTION=9753]Scott Murray[/MENTION] isn't around nearly as often as he used to be with his amazing photography. I hope he is hanging in there.
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
I am fine where I live, since Christmas Day, we have had close to 12 inches of rain, so nice and green, but still rather hot. Unfortunately for a large part of the rest of the country, it’s very dry and very hot.

Previously it was common practice to burn off sections of the bush in the cooler months, to reduce the amount of fuel on the ground ( dead grass, leaves, branches etc ) but now the green factor has stopped this practice, creating fire hazards all over the country, many farmers are not even allowed to push fire breaks around their properties. Now when the bush does burn in the hottest times, there is total devastation.
I have heard of one farmer that was allowed to push a 3 meter (10 foot) wide fire break, his bulldozer had a 4 meter wide blade, so that’s what he pushed. He was given a huge fine, I recall in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is what we are up against. I don’t want to get into politics here, so I will leave it at that.

Scott and Kevin are both in the Perth area of West Australia, southern end of the west coast, I am sure they will be ok over there. I am just above the Tropic of Capricorn on the East coast, nearly all of the fires have been well to the south of me.
Many places are going to take a very long time to recover, unfortunately Rainforest doesn’t recover well from fire, so some places may never be the same again.
 

Danno

Senior Member
@Ironwood, I am glad all is well with you. I am also very glad to hear that Kevin and Scott are likely out of harms way. I continue to keep Australia in my prayers. It is crazy how changes to best practices can lead to such vast devastation.
 

kevy73

Senior Member
All safe here - as Ironwood said I am on the West Coast and the massive blazes are all on the East... we have had a few smaller outbreaks here, but nothing too close to home - the closest about 25km's north of us took out a big section of national park, but was blowing North constantly so no threat to anyone south of it.

It is really sad, as Ironwood eluded to, so many bushland area's have SO much fuel as burn offs have almost been outlawed... not sure when the end might be in sight for the affected area's, but it is truly heartbreaking.

Thanks for thinking and checking in on us... :)
 
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cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
So glad to hear that all are doing OK for the moment. We are praying for the country.
We have the same problem here in the states with the lack of controlled burns for many years. I think they are beginning to wake up here to a point.
 

Vixen

Senior Member
Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
I am fine where I live, since Christmas Day, we have had close to 12 inches of rain, so nice and green, but still rather hot. Unfortunately for a large part of the rest of the country, it’s very dry and very hot.

Previously it was common practice to burn off sections of the bush in the cooler months, to reduce the amount of fuel on the ground ( dead grass, leaves, branches etc ) but now the green factor has stopped this practice, creating fire hazards all over the country, many farmers are not even allowed to push fire breaks around their properties. Now when the bush does burn in the hottest times, there is total devastation.
I have heard of one farmer that was allowed to push a 3 meter (10 foot) wide fire break, his bulldozer had a 4 meter wide blade, so that’s what he pushed. He was given a huge fine, I recall in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is what we are up against. I don’t want to get into politics here, so I will leave it at that.

Scott and Kevin are both in the Perth area of West Australia, southern end of the west coast, I am sure they will be ok over there. I am just above the Tropic of Capricorn on the East coast, nearly all of the fires have been well to the south of me.
Many places are going to take a very long time to recover, unfortunately Rainforest doesn’t recover well from fire, so some places may never be the same again.

12 inches!!?? Send some down here greedy. We had 2 inches. I may have to get the lawnmower out for the 2nd time since May. 2 inches of rain did nothing to the 1/2 inch cracks in my front crackle grass. At least we are away from the fires (so far).
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
12 inches!!?? Send some down here greedy. We had 2 inches. I may have to get the lawnmower out for the 2nd time since May. 2 inches of rain did nothing to the 1/2 inch cracks in my front crackle grass. At least we are away from the fires (so far).
Hey Pat, great to hear you are doing ok, at least for now. I would be glad to send some of my rain south If only I could.
I fired up the ride on mower 2 days ago, forgot when the last time was. But the way things are looking, won’t be long till I have to mow again.
I really Hope the conditions ease for the rest of the country and they also get some of this rain, God knows they need it.
I hope we can catch up on better terms once things get back to normal, hopefully there is still a “normal “ after this.
 

Vixen

Senior Member
Hey Pat, great to hear you are doing ok, at least for now. I would be glad to send some of my rain south If only I could.
I fired up the ride on mower 2 days ago, forgot when the last time was. But the way things are looking, won’t be long till I have to mow again.
I really Hope the conditions ease for the rest of the country and they also get some of this rain, God knows they need it.
I hope we can catch up on better terms once things get back to normal, hopefully there is still a “normal “ after this.

This time next year most of the country (at least those not affected) will have forgotten about it as is usual
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Hey all, we are ok here on the west coast.
We do have a fire near Perth which has closed down our freeway, and also had one down near Esperance/Kalgoorlie which closed the Ayre Highway for 12 days. Highlighted in Blue, but its nothing compared to whats happened and is still happening over east.


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