Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Fires and floods

We hear a lot about the fires in Australia at the moment but a little earlier this year the red heart of Australia was tinged with green. We last visited the region in 2010 and Lake Eyre had had water for the previous 2 years. The roads had only been reopened the day we arrived and had been closed due to heavy rain and flooding. Lake Eyre normally has water only once every 10 years or so but has not been completely dry since. In 1964 Donald Campbell established a Land Speed Record on the then dry salt flats of Lake Eyre.

For anyone who has travelled the Australian desert as I have on several occasions this video is absolutely astonishing.



As always viewing full screen is best.

Thanks for the link Peter, an interesting video report.
I never got into the centre, left that to my cousins

Me neither. Thanks for posting

The Google satellite view gives a good Idea of what it normally looks like.



William Creek, which is mentioned in the video, is little more than the roadhouse (general store, petrol, pub) and the next roadhouse along the Oodnadatta Track is the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta (also visible on the map), 205 km away. You need to make sure you have a full tank before leaving. Over 200 km between fuel services is normal in that part of the world.

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Great link what a phenomena - we just get the rain here but we are happy .

We may be in the worst drought plus having major fires, in most people's living memory, but there is still time for humour,




Like some parts of Australia, California often has bushfires in summer.
In the 2019 bushfire season, which was a bad one, California lost around
250,000 acres to bushfires. We are now just 3 weeks into summer in New South Wales (NSW). So far since spring NSW has lost almost 5 MILLION acres To fires and we have 2 months of the fire season to go. It’s insane. And unlike California, where it is generally just that state, there are fires out of control in South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria as well (there’s an additional 2.5 million acres burning across those states).
These fires are not in the remote outback. They are in country towns, they are in the outer suburbs of cities. Sydney is a big city (6.5
million) and sprawls across about the same area as Los Angeles. We currently have one fire, out of control, that covers 1.1 million acres on the outskirts of Sydney - that’s just one fire (the Gospers Mountain fire burning to the northwest) with another almost as big burning to the south of Sydney. We have bushfires pretty regularly, but not like this.

As well as size, our bushfires are very difficult to control. Aussie bush on the east coast is predominantly eucalyptus. If you’ve ever had a bottle of eucalyptus oil you’ll know it’s flammable. When eucalyptus trees get hot enough they literally explode. The oil vapor creates fireballs, embers carried on the winds fall still burning kilometers ahead of the fire creating new fires. If the fires are big enough they create pyrocumulous clouds with their own weather systems (just like
volcanoes) that include lightning flashes that do cause additional fires

And everything is dry. Really dry. We are in the middle of a drought and not forecast any decent rain for at least another month so these fires are almost impossible to contain. And with the country in such severe drought, not only is everything tinder dry to burn, but the water just isnt there to fight it.

Hundreds of houses and thousands of other structures have been destroyed. Entire towns have been obliterated. People have been killed and injured - both firefighters and civilians. And the devastating impact on our iconic wildlife may be irreversible. The koala population in particular may never recover - there is talk that they may face extinction in many areas once the fires are over. There are aircraft, heavy machinery and thousands of paid and volunteer firefighters fighting this (NSW Rural Fire Service is the largest volunteer fire service in the world) but they have been working continuously since September, they are exhausted and there’s no end in sight.
- in scale and ferocity this has gone way way past the experience of California in regards to bush fires

To all TM members, a Merry Christmas, and importantly, a safe and healthy 2020

Ross

Been there, done that, got singed a couple of times when the fire front developed its own wind and advanced faster than anyone could run, just lucky to have an escape route. This was on the northern outskirts of Sydney back in the late '60s early '70s. Since then the city has spread significantly and there is now whole communities where once there were only bush tracks and/or small farms. I have seen some pretty severe fires but what is happening now is worse than anything we could have even imagined then. Not just in severity but the area covered is unprecedented.

In 1969 the whole of Australia had a population of a little over 12 million. Now more that half that number live in the greater Sydney area alone. We are talking about changes that have occurred in just 50 years. Goodness only knows what the next 50 years will bring.

Ross, I can see clouds in your pictures. Canberra is so smoky I don't think I have seen a cloud, or the end of the street for that matter for a few weeks. Getting pretty sick of the smoke.

I am in the CFU which is Community Fire Unit. Luckily I haven't been called because the fires are not in our area and we have very specific zones, I never quite understood why but I think it has something to do with us just being responsible for the area near where we live. I have been clearing excess vegetation around the suburb just in case (getting some sticky beak neighbours asking have you got permission to clear that dead stuff), cleaning out Hydrants to make sure the Stan pipes can go on them in case they are needed (amazing how many get roots over them) and generally trying to make sure if a fire turns up we have the best chance of putting it out. In 2003 the fires got to within 100 metres of my house, that is when the ACT government decided to create the CFU program and ask for volunteers. Very glad to still be a spectator regarding the fires but willing to jump in if and when the fires come closer.

I really find the blue uniform that the CFU wear very uncomfortable but I expect all fire fighting gear is uncomfortable, I feel very sorry for the NSW RFS having to deal with such a huge amount of fires for such a long time.