One friend has left from there but I have other friends that are still there. We didn't meet at the Alpine Gate Cafe today for our usual bike ride due to the thick smoke. I got a call early this morning cancelling it!!!
Friends in Bright stayed to defend as they were expecting ember attack but it didn't eventuate. Was a long night for them.
Keep watching. Vic Emergency app is pretty good as is the local ABC 106.5 and keep safe.
If you need somewhere to park your van and camp, my driveway is free but it is very smokey here too. I'd recommend heading west.
All the best,
Leroy
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Just checked the Vic Emergency map and we've been demoted to "Watch and Act" as of 1910 hours.
Amazing what a few drops of rain will do.
Also been listening to ABC Wodonga on VAST....good coverage of the situation.
If forced to leave, was thinking of heading to Lake Hume Tourist Park (rather than Wang, which will be a total madhouse), but rang them this morning and they advised they were under a very heavy blanket of smoke....then thought about Corowa....but same story apparently.
Last 24 hours the smoke here has been unbelievable....have been wearing a workshop mask all day (very grateful for a plentiful supply of Strepsils), and the eyes look like I've been on a bender.
Looks like we might be getting a reprieve for now, but for how long..........?
Thanks for the kind offer....much appreciated.
enf (05-01-20),hinekadon (05-01-20),LeroyPatrol (06-01-20),lsemmens (06-01-20),ol' boy (05-01-20)
Thats exactly what happened over here in the west in 2011. We stayed to defend and they roadblocked the area and we had to watch a dozen houses on the opposite hill slowly burn to the ground .
There is an article written by Associate Prof. Michael Eburn PhD, of the ANU College of Law, and cited as a "leading researcher in the area of emergency services, emergency management and the law" (), that casts some light on this.
The article is called "Australian Emergency Law - Discussion on the law that applies to or affects Australia's emergency services and emergency management" and is located at .
The whole discussion is extremely interesting and the section two thirds down the page, headed "Conclusion", sums it up very nicely.
The power to call up the reserves cannot expand the Commonwealth’s authority. The reserves may be called out for full time service with the ADF but that does not expand what the ADF may be used for or when the Defence Force may be ‘called out’. In effect the reserves can be called up to sit in their barracks. There is not (and I would argue could not be a legitimate) call out of the Defence Force under Part IIIA of the Defence Act so the ADF itself must continue to operate as it has been, as a support to the civil community.
I understand the "civil community" in the topic under discussion to be those States requesting their aid.
Thala Dan, you'll have to head west to get out of the smoke or nw. It's terrible today. It's like fog.
The rain will slow things down a little. We shall see what happens over the next few days as it starts to warm up again.
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Thala Dan (06-01-20)
I wonder what the long term repiratory health problems the fires/smoke will have on affected communities ?
Spoke to my baby sister in Canberra last night who was having some serious problems breathing due to smoke
Pic taken from her house, nowhere near any current bushfires, its like the end of the world, and to some ppl/towns thats exactly what it is
Stay safe ppl !!
Thala Dan (06-01-20)
The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.
enf (06-01-20)
I'm out of Lager, will have to try another one called Stout. Does anyone know if that is as purifying?
Seriously, I ma over 100Km from the nearest fire and we are seeing smoke here. Not on the same scale, but you certainly can smell it.
I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...
Thala Dan (06-01-20)
I'd say it's worse today than yesterday.......don't know if it's tied up with the amount of moisture in the air, or whether it's a case of smoldering fires putting out more smoke than burning ones. One thing I've noticed though is that the smoke is nowhere near as acrid or irritating as it was yesterday....or maybe I'm just acclimatising
A pic from the front yesterday:
We've only managed 3.5mm since yesterday.......welcome, but not a game-changer.
Given up on any idea of trying to outrun the smoke if we have to leave.......the further you go, the further it is to come back.......just have to settle for some place that isn't actually ablaze
Still hoping for the best though.
You've been fortunate so far.....even though you've had that controlled burn on the hill, there's still plenty of susceptible country around you....I hope your luck holds out.
LeroyPatrol (06-01-20)
And just over the border completes the picture. Nasty bit of work around Corryong and further N.E. to Tumba and Batlow. They were interviewing CFA firey at Batlow and he mentioned the hospital was burnt down. That's not far from the main street! Lucky the town is still there.
Couple of interesting maps covering our backyard, Leroy.
First one shows all the bushfires between 1970 and 2000.....a total of 30 years.
The second map shows all the bushfires between 2003 and 2019....a total of 16 years.
Not a pretty picture.
The trend seems fairly obvious.........the reasons.....?????
Source:
hinekadon (06-01-20),LeroyPatrol (06-01-20)
I was reading today about the number of arsonists already been caught. There have been accusations that many fires have been lit by the globull Whinging/ climate extinction supporters which of course they and the looney left supporters have denied.
In thinking about it and the previous behaviour demonstrated by these people who glue themselves to city streets, Attack people for no reason, lodge often violent and disruptive protests and just display an overall level of fanatacism for their cause, I have to say it seems MORE likely these people qualify as would be arsonist's to further push their cause than not.
alpha0ne (07-01-20),hinekadon (06-01-20),VroomVroom (07-01-20)
I watched an interview today with the Green cult leader Dinutali going hammer and tong at morrison for not doing more about climate change and blaming him for the fires.
I couldn't believe this moron would have the hide to stick his head up and accuse anyone of anything after the disgusting accusations of the jackboot wearing Lezzo they wheeled out calling fire fighters wife bashers among all their other grandstanding on the deaths and homelessness of so many.
It's well known that a Major factor of the current situation is the direct fault of these green obsessed morons that have corrupted all levels of Gubbermint into not allowing anything more than weeds to be removed from private property let alone land management process where they have been practised before.
I was thinking the Greens will become extinct next election but maybe they will still get one seat. There are a lot of looneys out there that support this whole Climate crap and I doubt anything could sway their obsessed loyalty. OTOH I also think that they would get a significant amount of votes from people just wanting to give the finger to the majors.
These people I think will be appalled by the carry on of the greens and won't think to give them so much as thought other than disgust.
I know this much, if any green championing scumbag comes to hand me some how to vote piece of garbage, I will make a scene and call them all the names I can lay my tongue to in order to make them think long and hard about the vermin they are promoting.
BLACK FRIDAY 1939
The bushfires of 13 January 1939, known as the Black Friday fires, followed a long drought and a severe, hot, dry summer.
Fanned by extremely strong winds, these fires swept rapidly across large areas of Victoria, causing widespread destruction. An area of almost two million hectares was burned across the state, with 71 people losing their lives. Whole townships were destroyed, many sawmills burned to the ground and thousands of sheep, cattle and horses were killed by the intense heat and flames.
Three weeks after the bushfires, a Royal Commission was convened with Judge Leonard E B Stretton selected to lead inquiry. The Judge was instructed to inquire into the causes of the January 1939 fires, the measures taken to prevent the fires and to protect life and property.
Judge Stretton also investigated what procedures had been put in place to protect life and property in the event of future bushfires.
'When millions of acres of the forest were invaded by bushfires which were almost statewide, there happened, because of great loss of life and property, the most disastrous forest calamity the State of Victoria has known. These fires were lit by the hand of man.' - Judge Leonard Stretton, 1939
THE LEAD UP TO BLACK FRIDAY
Black Friday was the culmination of a long, dry and hot summer following a drought period that had lasted several years. Many creeks and rivers had dried up and people living in Melbourne were on water restrictions.
Dry heat and hot winds sapped much of the moisture from the ground, leaving forest floors and the open plains tinder dry.
Prior to January 13, many fires were already burning. Some had started as early as December 1938, but the majority had started in the first week of January 1939. Some of the fires could not be extinguished while others were left unattended, or as Judge Stretton wrote, the fires were allowed to burn '"under control", as it is falsely and dangerously called'.
High temperatures and strong northerly winds fanned these separate fires on the day. The fires eventually combined and created a massive fire front that swept mainly over the mountain country in the north east of Victoria, and along the coast in the south west.
THE BLACK FRIDAY DISASTER
The fires of January 1939 were to be etched in the memories of those involved for the rest of their lives.
Flames leapt large distances, giant trees were blown out of the ground by fierce winds and large pieces of burning bark (embers) were carried for kilometres ahead of the main fire front, starting new fires in places that had not previously been affected by flames.
A total of 69 sawmills were burned and 71 lives lost. At one sawmill settlement near Matlock, east of Melbourne, 15 people died while trying to escape from the fires.
Over 1,000 homes were burned, and the townships of Narbethong, Noojee, Woods Point, Nayook West and Hill End were destroyed. The townships of Warrandyte, Yarra Glen, Omeo and Pomonal were badly damaged. Intense fires burned on the urban fringe of Melbourne in the Yarra Ranges east of Melbourne, affecting towns including Toolangi, Warburton and Thomson Valley. The alpine towns of Bright, Cudgewa and Corryong were also affected, as were vast areas in the west of the state, in particular Portland, the Otway Ranges and the Grampians. The bushfires also affected the Black Range, Rubicon, Acheron, Noojee, Tanjil Bren, Hill End, Woods Point, Matlock, Erica, Omeo, Toombullup and the Black Forest.
Large areas of state forest, containing giant stands of Mountain Ash and other valuable timbers, were killed. Approximately 575,000 hectares of reserved forest, and 780,000 hectares of forested Crown land were burned.
The intensity of the fire produced huge amounts of smoke and ash, with reports of ash falling as far away as New Zealand.
The devastation ended late on Sunday January 15 after rain fell across the state.
That's a very good read. I remember all the vic ash sapplings up Big Hill and up to Falls Creek that were growing after the 2003 fires. I was living in Tawonga South/Mt Beauty at the time when the 2006 fires came across Tawonga Gap and they were all saying nah it won't burn again and it burnt all those sapplings. They were also too young to seed. They apparently reseeded the area. Pics in the link showing the dead vic ash trees that are still all around today.
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Thala Dan (06-01-20)
You could change the dates shown in that article, and the names of a few of the towns, and then stick into tomorrows newspapers, and nobody would know the difference.
There is clearly a degree of inevitability about this type of natural occurrence....although it was interesting to note that the Judge observed that "These fires were lit by the hand of man.".......something that appears to continue to be a contemporary problem.
I would make one observation though...........in 2019/20 we know a damn sight more about the Australian landscape, we have advance knowledge of impending weather patterns, we have satellite monitoring of environmental conditions, and we have all manner of observation, measurement, and computational technology.
One could be forgiven for thinking that such capabilities would have put us in a far better position, both pre and post-event, than those poor buggers in 1939.
It would seem not.
We often go over Falls to fish the Upper Mitta valley..........it is still a forest of skeletons.
Last edited by Thala Dan; 06-01-20 at 10:45 PM.
LeroyPatrol (06-01-20),lsemmens (07-01-20)
NSW fires cause problems for Snowy Hydro 2.0 with machinery lost and town half-destroyed
Cabramurra is the traditional and historic heart of the Snowy Scheme, this nations greatest-ever engineering achievement..........a feat the likes of which I doubt we'd ever be able to duplicate today.The beleaguered Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme is facing another setback, after bushfires hit the renewable energy project on multiple fronts.
Snowy Hydro has lost more than half of the homes at its operational town of Cabramurra, high in the Snowy Mountains.
This is a significant loss of heritage.
And now Khancoban is in the firing line.
Dammit! Is nothing sacred.
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