Thread: A very smoky sunset tonight

Stay safe, Don.

Don,

Your place is so green. We'd love that greenness where we are. Our farm with 50 alpacas is about 25-30 km from the Wollemi fires.

0056s.jpg
Sunset about 6:10 pm, near Mt Marsden

Mike

The 22nd may be a busy day...

Coming in thru the heads into Sydney harbour yesterday morning at 5.15sm I got up early to video it but couldn't see **** until Mrs Macquarie's chair, and when we left we could still see and smell smoke all the way to Nouméa.

We are in East Kurrajong and only about 15km south of the Gospers Mountain fire @ Colo Heights. Nothing green at our place.

We have been lucky so far with the wind favoring us. It was in the north for a while yesterday which was a bit scary but there were no big gusts so all good just now. They have done a brilliant job containing it at Colo Heights and along Wheelbarrowing Ridge Rd which runs down to the confluence of Colo River and the Haweksbury.

No matter how vigilant you are you just can’t keep on top of the amount of leave litter blowing in around the place. I am just focusing on keeping it away from the house and sheds and hoping the wind will work in our favor but we are well prepared.

The RFS have a helicopter refueling/ resupply site at Wiberforce about 10 kms to the north east and these choppers and the water bombers and spotter aircraft out of RAAF Richmond are constantly over head which is reassuring. Interesting tracking them on Flightradar24.

Good luck everyone, going to be a long summer.
Cheers - Simon

Originally Posted by speleomike

Don,

Your place is so green. We'd love that greenness where we are. Our farm with 50 alpacas is about 25-30 km from the Wollemi fires.

0056s.jpg
Sunset about 6:10 pm, near Mt Marsden

Mike

How are you with fire activity today Mike? At a meeting of the Regent Honeyeater Recovery group last weekend we were told there are a couple of spots where the fire has crept down into your valley. I hope you're all ok.
Don.

Edit: I'm watching your weather on your weather station.😁

An Observation by an Onlooker.

It doesn't bear thinking about the Long Term Health & Environmental problems associated with these fires but soon someone will have to.
. They have been going for such a long time with Crews & Control room staff being changed, Equipment & Vehicles going Non Stop & requiring maintenance which can hardly be justified by taking it all off line & a whole host of unforeseen issues while the fires continue unabated. When it is all over & it will be one day, although it won't seem like it to you if you are involved in controlling these fires., what costs will have to be found to get it all back to square one.

If you close Fresh Air makeups with building air conditioning plants for instance to reduce internal smoke buildup, the conditions could be untenable with minimal fresh air that would have to be endured. Some of those affected High Rise are gigantic & contain hundreds or even thousands of employees all breathing this air.. My own recently graduated & admitted to the NSW Bar Grand daughter based in Sydney CBD seems to be right in the middle of all this airborne pollution, so what of her & thousands of others health in future?

From here in the green & moist Adelaide Hills directly behind the city of Adelaide & out of touch with the realities of what is happening interstate, I am amazed at the fortitude of all operational Crews & Staff who are involved with the control of these fires. SA seems to have only a handful of going fires thus far which are mainly well outside of major cities with the active ones being in country areas but as far I can tell are certainly not the size of the NSW fires.

I realise it is early days & Summer has only just begun, but I dips me lid to those involved, I really do..

Hi

Originally Posted by Don 130

How are you with fire activity today Mike? At a meeting of the Regent Honeyeater Recovery group last weekend we were told there are a couple of spots where the fire has crept down into your valley. I hope you're all ok.
Don.
Edit: I'm watching your weather on your weather station.😁

Yep, OK so far. We went to the bush fire meeting last week at Glen Davis. They said when the Wolemi fire comes down the escarpment it will be slower and they have used a bulldozer to widen breaks and they are checking the perimeter with rostered firefighters and volunteers six times a day.

We are about 25 kms away so we get the smoke but its far enough away not to be too worried. But this week a few kms away a neighbour had a hay stack fire that was controlled.

Nice your using our weather station :-) We have heard that pilots from Rylstone Airport use it also as weather, particularly the wind, can vary quite a lot just several kms away and the more stations the better. It's a Davis Vantage Pro.

How are you involved with the Regent Honeyeater Recovery group? We helped out earlier this year with more plantings in the Capertee Valley near Bogee for Regent Honeyeater trees. That was with LROC NSW providing vehicles to do watering of the newly planted small plants. We also have a tree lane on our place that was planted for the Regent Honeyeater and every year or so a person from Birds Australia comes to count numbers.

Mike