You will find Warwick's photos a story in themselves.
Dane
Posted 11:13am Friday 6th.
Bushfires
The link below shows the current fire situation. It's updated regularly. That particular fire is now more or less out. It is shown on the map as the red dot below Traralgon. It is referred to as the Delburn Complex in the information below the map.
The one that is concerning me at the moment is in the Bunyip state forest to the northwest of here. We are just north of Warragul. That fire has just broken its containment lines and people living just to the west and north of here have been put on alert. The weather is mild and still today but it is expected to reach 43 degrees with a strong hot north wind tomorrow. It will probably be the hottest February day since records began in 1850. Depending on the fire's progress and the weather, we have been warned to expect smoke and falling embers. Luckily we have no large areas of bush near us - just clumps - but the paddocks are tinder dry.
Fingers crossed.
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/fires/updates ... MT+1100%20(AUS%20Eastern%20Daylight%20Time" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank)
Posted 6:15pm Friday 6th
I was supposed to be going up to the ski club lodge tomorrow to help with some renovations, but decided to stay at home because of the situation outlined above. Just to keep an eye on things.
As of about 2 hours ago the Bunyip fire has worsened and they can't contain it. There are spot fires developing ahead of the main fire due to flying embers. It is moving northeast which puts it's path sort of diagonally to the north of us but still a fair distance away.
Unfortunately, the forecast for tomorrow (Saturday - it's now 6pm Friday) is for 60kph 43 degree C wind from the north. This will push the fire south to the freeway between here and Melbourne.
There is a cool change forecast for Saturday night at about 11pm, but that's a westerly and so the wind will then push the fire east towards us. It's extremely unlikely that it will ever reach us as there is a lot of open farmland in between, but we can probably expect embers and burning leaves to drop on us during Saturday night and they are the main worry.
I have also just learnt that the ski resort (no snow in summer) will be evacuated in the morning and they will close the road to traffic; just in case. That's to the northeast of here. So those club members who are already up there working on the lodge, having taken a day off work to get an early start to the weekend, will have to leave and return home.
Just thought a few of you might be interested in the weather situation in the antipodes. A bit of snow would be nice just now.
I'll report back on Monday when I get back into the office. Should be an interesting weekend.
Posted 10:15pm Friday 6th
I've just gone on line at home to get an update.
Wind speed for tomorrow has been revised to 80kph and gale force at 44 degrees C, but the change may arrive earlier in the day and swing to the south more quickly. If it does, this would push the fire back on itself and over burnt ground - so that's good.
They've been water-bombing the fire-front for most of the day with planes and helicopters, including one of the giant Ericson Skycranes, but to not much effect.
We'll be checking the roof spouting (gutters) and cleaning out any dead leaves in the morning, filling up our weedsprayers with water, and just waiting to see what happens. The last time we had conditions like this was in 1983 when a huge red dust storm hit Melbourne in the middle of the day. Anyone who witnessed that will never forget it. That was closely followed by what has become known as Ash Wednesday; devastating fires across most of southeast Australia. They actually started on Ash Wednesday - Pancake Tuesday would have been preferable.
We should be okay though. Rover is tucked up in his/her shed. This was the weekend that I was going to put the balancer and pulleys back on and take her for a spin.
Just as I finished posting this, it's started to rain lightly!
Incredible! That's Melbourne for you! Who knows what it'll do next.
Posted on evening of Monday 9th
We’re all okay and so is the property. We came through it by the skin of our teeth.
It was coming directly at us all day Saturday from the northwest, and when the forecast southerly change arrived at about 5:30pm, the fire was at our gate – almost literally. It stopped at the edge of the bitumen on the other side of the road, about 20m to the left of the gate. At this point it was a grass fire ahead of the main fire. The house is about 200m back from the road and I was on the roof at that stage watching for embers around the buildings. It literally turned and headed north towards Neerim South and the air became clear again.
A spot fire that had started about 1km ahead on the other side and to the southeast of the house then headed towards us but there were already 4 fire trucks on the side road between me and it. They stopped it getting to the property but it got a neighbour’s shed.
Anda and Hamish left for Warragul in the Peugeot just before the change arrived and after the flames came over the distant ridge, about 1km away. That area was the last large stand of gum trees, so in our area it was only isolated or clumps of trees and mostly grazed land. They couldn’t get home again until last night due to roadblocks. I was intending to take care of any spot fires around the house and if it became impossible, I would drive the Range Rover into the grazed paddock by the river and just sit it out.
Later I found blackened whole gum leaves, pieces of charred bark and twigs all over the place in the grass, but they must have all been cold when they landed. The Rover is in a shed extension on the side of the main shed and this has not yet had the sheet metal put on the big sliding door. The doorway faces away from the weather so it hasn’t been a priority. The doorway faces southeast so it also faced away from the fire and prevailing wind, however on Sunday I found charred material on the ground under the back of the Rover.
It was very close. It wasn’t until late Saturday night that I learnt of the other bad fires. Terrible thing.
Posted 5:50pm Tuesday 10th (Summary of events)
We are the lucky ones. In our immediate area, some neighbours lost sheds and fences, and a lot of trees and other vegetation, but no homes. No lives were lost in the Bunyip fire and most of the destruction caused by our branch of it fizzled out when the cool change arrived when it was almost on our doorstep. The main fire is now to the north at Neerim Junction.
Others haven't been so fortunate and the death toll in the Kinglake, Marysville and Boolarra fires had risen to 173 when I last heard earlier today. It may well have exceeded 200 by now. These aren't deaths that are occurring now but bodies being discovered as authorities search through the wreckage.
The wind change that spared our place just spelt disaster for someone else when the fire changed direction. There is still a sense of unease around here because we are currently experiencing an unusually cold period for the middle of summer, and this must end soon. That could bring it back from a new direction or push it further into the mountains where it can be very difficult to contain. We thought it was 1939 and 1983 all over again, but it is far far worse.
Here is how it unfolded for us.
Noon on Saturday and we are still not too concerned as it is still a very long way away and a change is forecast. The main thing worrying me was that the forecast northerly turned out to be a northwesterly wind which meant it was blowing the fire directly towards us. In the photos you can see the smoke plume gradually move from the left of us to straight at us. The wind temperature was 44 degrees C. It actually reached 46.4 in Melbourne. A new record.
12:30pm
1:00pm
The sun overhead.
3:40pm
4:00pm and the flames appear on the far ridge.
My wife and son leave via a track across a neighbour's paddock and drive to Warragul, away from the fire.
(Red dot in centre. Much more obvious than it appears here.)
5:20pm and wind swings to southwest and temperature drops 20 degrees in about 2 minutes.
The fire stops at the road's edge where neighbours and the volunteer CFA fire crews are fighting it. I'm unaware of this as they are out of sight about 300m away. I'm standing on the roof watching for falling embers around the house and sheds. The house has buckets of water and other receptacles with towels soaking in them placed around the outside of the house. I have a knapsack sprayer full of water near the ladder. The Range Rover is ready so I can drive down to the cleared flats near the river if it gets nasty.
All that I can do is to extinguish embers when they fall near the buildings and set grass or leaves on fire. Fortunately everything falling is cold. If a large fire develops near the house or if a grass fire comes across the paddocks I would just have to move to the river flat and watch it burn, unless a CFA truck arrives on the scene.
The wind change moves the fire to my right and clear fresh cool air comes in from the south and clears the smoke for the first time. As this happens, a spot fire that had been started about 1km ahead of the fire front is then driven back towards the house from the southwest so that I have smoke passing 200m away on both sides and blue sky above. This new grass fire is prevented from reaching our place by 4 CFA trucks waiting at a neighbour's gate on the side road to the southwest. Unfortunately it moved up a gully over the crest of the hill to the south (still out of sight to me on the roof) and almost destroyed a friend's (local artist) art studio, gallery and house. They stopped it as it came up to the rear of the buildings. Unfortunately it did destroy another neighbour's equipment shed.
This photo shows the main front changing direction to the right and the intensity increasing as oil drums in that shed explode.
It was only after the wind change that I could hear the roar of the fire.
We have a wireless internet connection that is relayed from a house across the valley on a higher hill. They can see the repeater tower; we can't. They lost power so we lost the internet connection even though we still had power. (The old Lister diesel to the rescue). I couldn't get on line again until yesterday afternoon when I got back to the office in Warragul. Until then, anyone leaving the area through the police roadblocks wasn't allowed back in again. The family couldn't return until Sunday night and I spent Saturday night lying on the bed fully clothed watching the glow in the sky and wondering if the wind would change again. A north wind would have brought it straight back at us again over unburnt country.
Sunday morning on the other side of the road.
The road to Jindivick on Sunday morning.
An eerie silence. No wind, no people, no traffic, no birds - just dead silence.
Ash and useless rain drops.
A friend and neighbour's disused house used to store old Peugeot parts.
A dead leaf merged into the road bitumen before it cooled again.
Last night's view of the Bunyip fire now at Neerim Junction to the north. This is what this area usually looks like - apart from the smoke.
