Thread: Gippslands burning again

My sincere feeling go out to all that have lots property or are suffering from these fires. I can honestly say I have a fist hand knowledge of what you are all going through.
In 1965 at this time of year I was a 18 year old soldier at Puckapunyal, Gippsland was ablaze then on an 80 mile fire front. Puckapunyal sent every available soldier, vehicle and equipment that was available.
Ten days of working out of, Bairnsdale. I will never forget the day we fought to save a farm's home, right on the edge of a forrest, with many large gum trees that were exploding like bombs going off, the roar of the crown fire, feeding the ground fire, all this causes wind which makes the fire jump and dart about in a very terrifying way and the radiated heat could be felt several hundred yards away and smoke and sparks all make it imposable to have or gain any control overit. All the team I was with were in fear for our own saftey we were young and never experienced any thing like it. But the fear the lady and the two kids went through I will never forget. There are no words to describe the fear and state of mind that those two kids suffered that day.
I don't blame the authority's for evacuating or not allowing people into a fire zone.

I hope all our members in gippsland come through this with as little trauma as possible.

Hodgo

I hope that all those affected survive and that they come out of it relatively intact, but I have to ask, why can the rest of Aus set their clocks to the wild/bush fires in VIC/SA?
What is different about VIC/SA that makes them burn every Jan/Feb?
I spent a lot of the past 10 yrs in Vic and I firmly believe that Vic seasons should be Autumn, Winter, Spring and Fire!
Agree, heat is a catalyst, but Coober Pedy, Alice and Renmark have similar temps and don't burn as readily.
Again, I don't wish ill upon those affected, just can't fathom it!

Ralph

Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

I hope that all those affected survive and that they come out of it relatively intact, but I have to ask, why can the rest of Aus set their clocks to the wild/bush fires in VIC/SA?
What is different about VIC/SA that makes them burn every Jan/Feb?
I spent a lot of the past 10 yrs in Vic and I firmly believe that Vic seasons should be Autumn, Winter, Spring and Fire!
Agree, heat is a catalyst, but Coober Pedy, Alice and Renmark have similar temps and don't burn as readily.
Again, I don't wish ill upon those affected, just can't fathom it!

Ralph

Cooper Pedy and the Alice dont have bush like we do in vic thats not a hard one to work out

Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

but Coober Pedy....don't burn as readily.

VS













Q:What do you call a bushfire in Coober Pedy?
A: When both trees catch alight!

thanks for posting the pics matt, camper looks alot worse than it actually is, got escorted out to my place for an hour yesterday to get supplies, have to praise the cfa, did a great job, besides the camper we only lost the back yard and a bit of the front. Will try get back out todayand will stay there for good, will post some real pics up when our internet is restored, using my phone kind of sucks!

Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

I hope that all those affected survive and that they come out of it relatively intact, but I have to ask, why can the rest of Aus set their clocks to the wild/bush fires in VIC/SA?
What is different about VIC/SA that makes them burn every Jan/Feb?
I spent a lot of the past 10 yrs in Vic and I firmly believe that Vic seasons should be Autumn, Winter, Spring and Fire!
Agree, heat is a catalyst, but Coober Pedy, Alice and Renmark have similar temps and don't burn as readily.
Again, I don't wish ill upon those affected, just can't fathom it!

Ralph

Originally Posted by Sleepy

VS













Q:What do you call a bushfire in Coober Pedy?
A: When both trees catch alight!

I think that about sums up the stupidity in your question perfectly

Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

I hope that all those affected survive and that they come out of it relatively intact, but I have to ask, why can the rest of Aus set their clocks to the wild/bush fires in VIC/SA?
What is different about VIC/SA that makes them burn every Jan/Feb?
I spent a lot of the past 10 yrs in Vic and I firmly believe that Vic seasons should be Autumn, Winter, Spring and Fire!
Agree, heat is a catalyst, but Coober Pedy, Alice and Renmark have similar temps and don't burn as readily.
Again, I don't wish ill upon those affected, just can't fathom it!

Ralph

Fire seasons move down the east coast of Australia with the sun, ie on the north coast of NSW the most likely time for bushfires is September into October. Their fire season is usually over by November when the summer rains arrive. Around Sydney the fire season will build during late October and then taper off during January, Vic gets its seasons Late December through to February. The later the season normally the more severe as forest fuels have had more time to dry out and then burn during the hotter weather.

BOM - Australian Climate Extremes-Fire



Some of the largest fires (area) occur in the tropics due to the annual build grass (savannah) growth, in fact northern Qld fire authorities burn millions of hectares each year from aircraft.
In central aus there is rarely the amount of fuel to allow major fires (this year may be different maybe Phantum could comment ?)

As I stated earlier the SE of Aus is one of (if not the) most fire prone areas in the world.

Heat isn't the catalyst, it is just one of the factors. The single most important factor is the moisture content of the fuels. It would be very hard to get any significant fire burning on a 40 degree day if it had been preceeded by 5 days of very wet weather.

Hazard reduction, should also not be regarded as a silver bullet, it's not designed to stop fires, but to reduce the intensity of a fire and hence give more control options to fire authorities. This will increase the potential for house survival at the same time.
On really bad fire days the energy release from hazard reduced areas may still be too high for firefighters to effectively intervene. ie 1994 and 2001 in NSW.


Martyn

Thanks Martyn
A measured and factual response to what I assume was a valid question.