Australian Wildfires

JohnnyG

Honorary Lifetime CEO
Staff member
We in the USA have had our fair share of devastating wildfires, mainly in California, and I have been watching the NEWS on the situation on the other side of the globe in Oz. Best wishes to our Australian friends and here's hoping for a change in the weather to help get this under control. The animal population is under attack and many are volunteering to help with this.
 
Yes, I read that almost 500 million animals are estimated to have died in the fires so far, including ~30% of Australia's koala population. It's been utterly devastating. Fortunately, there are charities on the ground working to help, including IFAW.

Wishing you a safe resolution and a peaceful new year, Australia!
 
More fires are still going on around the country. Lightning strikes without rain started a bunch more along the south coast two days ago. More houses destroyed and more people died yesterday. Over 1000 homes lost in our largest state. Hundreds more around the country. 10 million acres of land burnt so far. A major music festival surrounded by forests was cancelled, along with several new year’s fireworks displays. The navy has been called in to rescue thousands stranded on beaches as the fire approaches.

A ten ton firetruck was flipped into the air yesterday by a mini tornado created by the flames. A young fireman was trapped and died.


We usually have a few major fires each summer, but rarely are houses and lives lost. There’s been a long term drought, so there’s dry grass, fallen branches and dead trees everywhere and the fire travels at the same speed as the wind. Every time the wind changes it spreads in a new direction.

I remember seeing news about the recent California fires, and this is quite similar, but repeated in nearly every state of Australia.
 
It is horrific-the last twenty years has been one drought after another in Southern Australia. Isn't that the big wheat belt? The needless loss of lives -my sympathies to those who have lost loved ones.
 
It is horrific-the last twenty years has been one drought after another in Southern Australia. Isn't that the big wheat belt? The needless loss of lives -my sympathies to those who have lost loved ones.
Yes the south gets rain (sometimes) so there is a lot of forest and natural scrub interspersed with wheat and other farming. The centre is basically red desert, so there’s nothing much to burn.
 
More fires are still going on around the country. Lightning strikes without rain started a bunch more along the south coast two days ago. More houses destroyed and more people died yesterday. Over 1000 homes lost in our largest state. Hundreds more around the country. 10 million acres of land burnt so far. A major music festival surrounded by forests was cancelled, along with several new year’s fireworks displays. The navy has been called in to rescue thousands stranded on beaches as the fire approaches.

A ten ton firetruck was flipped into the air yesterday by a mini tornado created by the flames. A young fireman was trapped and died.


We usually have a few major fires each summer, but rarely are houses and lives lost. There’s been a long term drought, so there’s dry grass, fallen branches and dead trees everywhere and the fire travels at the same speed as the wind. Every time the wind changes it spreads in a new direction.

I remember seeing news about the recent California fires, and this is quite similar, but repeated in nearly every state of Australia.

The fires in California were so horrific that it's hard to even get one's mind around the scale of what's happening right now in Australia. Deepest condolences to all those who have been impacted.
 
Is Polly safe? Wondering if anyone has spoken to her.
 
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Horribly devastating. I hope it all ends soon.
 
Just saw a post from Steele Turkington/ Kentville Drums who makes the kangaroo hide drum skins. The fire got within 4 km of his property then it moved away. One of the other custom drum builders had a close call too, but they’re OK.
 
An overlay of two continents for size comparison. Shocking in it's scope.

ENfwqzHVAAUx2u3.jpg
 
An overlay of two continents for size comparison. Shocking in it's scope.

View attachment 89398

Holy crap. That appears to be way worse than what the news leads us to believe. California's fires are pale in comparison to this.

Didn't realize Oz was that big either. I mean, I knew it was big, but didn't realize it encompasses just as much land as mainland US.
 
A bit misleading - The fires marked on this map represent every fire from the whole season merged into one image. They are not all burning at once, and they are not all overlapping or merging into one giant fire. This also shows some fires in the ocean to our north somehow.
The real problem is been the bottom right corner, where the population is highest and the fires have spread for weeks.
Other than that the scale is correct - that’s the size of Australia compared to the USA.
 
I feel for my Aussie counterparts in the Eastern States where the worst bushfires are. I'm from the West coast. We have our share but our vegetation is quite different. It's more sparse with more wattles. The East coast has far denser ground litter with huge numbers of eucalyptus trees that have leaves full of eucalyptus oil which is flammable.

To all of you.....please stay safe. And to those beautiful, brave Americans who came to our call for help.......I will never, ever forget you.
 
Absolutely support the comments of Benthedrummer. I line in Southern Australia and we have had our fires recently, but the east coast has been hardest hit. I would like to endorse the above remarks thanking all those courageous men from the USA who came to assist our country. They received a round of applause when they arrived at Sydney Airport a few weeks ago. It was an terrible, terrible tragedy that 3 of them lost their lives trying to save our country and our people and homes.
 
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