I spoke to my brother who is an ambulance officer this morning (Sydney time). The poor bugger was having a sleep in because he goes on night shift today. He said that there has been some rain which has eased the situation a little but not enough to put an end to it.

Just spoke to my sister who is near Wauchope, 400km north of Sydney, and she tells me there is a sprinkling of rain there too. Unfortunately they have lost some of their fruit trees due to the drought and leaves are dropping off the eucalyptus trees increasing the fire hazard.

Many of the fires are covering tens of thousands of hectares and the largest, in the Wollemi area, is covering 185,900 hectares. To put that in perspective that is an area greater than many English counties. Worcestershire county covers an area of 173,529 hectares.

At Port Macquarie (the coastal town near my sister's place) the Koala Hospital has estimated that around 350 koalas have perished in the bushfires, but the loss of habitat and important food trees will put those who have survived into difficulty.

Peter

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