Australian Bushfires

[Syncop8r]

I don't watch the news and have only seen snippets on the internet. I'm surprised I haven't seen anything on here.
How are our Australian members getting on? None too badly I hope?

Where I am in New Zealand we have had a lot of haze in the sky and warmer than normal temperatures because we have been getting the hot air directly from the bushfires over 2000kms away. 

[Gerhard Gerber]

I try to avoid news, don't have TV anyway.  What I have seen is mostly about the poor animals dying in large numbers....and this

[Syncop8r]

That was interesting (I have heard claims regarding Greens and backburning).... a bit political for this forum though. 

[Chako]

On this side of the pond...never heard of this issue. We are so inundated with Trump Impeachment that it is all consuming. Yes, I have tuned out of that constant news shade, as I am well aware that he will never be impeached because the Senate will never have a go with it. Making the whole mess look like a divided US tearing itself apart.

Hope I didn't get too political there. 

[Syncop8r]

Well this wasn't meant to be about politics at all. 
More about whether the people affected are OK. 

 

[Chako]

Likewise. Just stating that currently, all I hear about is the US impeachment on the news.

Thanks for highlighting this issue. I did some googling and yes, that is definitely a big issue. Reminds me of California to be honest and the backlash of climate change.

[Gerhard Gerber]

That was interesting (I have heard claims regarding Greens and backburning).... a bit political for this forum though. 

 

Apologies, I do not partake in politics so I have difficulty identifying it.
I was actually made aware of this dude by one of my favourite knife-youtubers, (Pete at Cedric&Ada) promoted one of his videos about being sued by an Australian fat cat.

Considering what is going on politically in my own country, his video resounded with me very much.  His contention was the economy is in the toilette due to these industrialists, he has no money, he has no future, so to summarize: Go ahead, you cannot get blood from a stone.

We have national and presidential elections tomorrow, while two ministers got the chop last week for their involvement in the FishRot scandal.......further fall-out from the Panama Papers.
 

[gerleatherberman]

Hoping the fires die down soon in Australia soon!


One of the worst things that ever happened to our species is when science(and religion to a smaller extent) became political.

[Aloha]

Thanks for getting back on topic 

Sure hope the fires get under control.  As for California, we seem to be always on fire.  Sadly each year more devastating than the last.  My well wishes go out to all in its path.     

[pietervn]

G'Day,

We went for a bike ride today through some parts where the fire tore through. The amount of damage is extreme is some places where full trees are black and completely dead. I have not been in Oz that long, but these fires have been the worst and closest I have experienced.

Days after they were put out, the burnt smell is still in the air. Parts have some smoke too. We rode up to a favourite breakfast spot, Grey Gum cafe, on the Putty road north-west of Sydney. Most of the 100km we rode there, was next to burnt out forest. A few properties were lost too, but out of respect for the owners I did not take any pictures. It is quite sobering to see just how hot the fire burnt, cars that the rims and most of the structure melted. Incredible!!!

We stopped on the side of the road on our way back to take these pictures. There was also a 50c coin that I pictured and picked up. The side facing the head is much darker than the other "colder" side. My heart goes out to the communities that lost EVERYTHING. We were so moved that we had to pause for a while just to take it all in. Four mates and very few words were said.

Cheers, Pete

[gregozedobe]

I'm OK in Canberra, all we've had is a lot of smoke & ash, depending on the wind direction. 

But there have been so many fires in so many places, many totally out of control, causing so much heartbreaking damage.  We've even had cases of backburns getting out of control dues to unexpected weather changes.

Two things really make my blood boil:

1  Many of these fires have been deliberately lit by (IMO) deranged thrill seekers.  It's bad enough that some fires have been started by lightning or electrical faults, but I just can't understand the mentality of a person who goes out on a high fire danger day and starts fires, knowing what damage they will cause.

2  Politicians trying to gain political advantage by blaming other politicians for the fires.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Terrible 
How's the drought?

We're into our rainy season this side and it's been underwhelming, we will run out of water next winter.

No matter who you talk to, nobody has seen the country looking this bad.....so barren

[gregozedobe]

How's the drought?

We're into our rainy season this side and it's been underwhelming, we will run out of water next winter.

No matter who you talk to, nobody has seen the country looking this bad.....so barren

Like most Australian droughts there are large areas that are really suffering from the lack of rain (this includes where I live), but other areas have had plenty of rain (eg SW Victoria has had almost too much rain).

Around here we are losing lots of old gum (eucalypt) trees that are usually fairly drought hardy, so this drought is turning out to be a bad one, and the forecast for any decent rain in the near future is quite pessimistic.

The major rivers in the SE of Oz (particularly the Murray & Darling rivers) are also suffering from mismanagement, with consequent bad effects on all the communities they usually support.

[Nix]

I've been following the fires through the BBC news website. (Fires are a big issue here every summer, more often lately.) In some ares the fires seem downright apocalyptic. I hope everyone comes through these events unscathed. 

[pomsbz]

Best of luck to all there. My wife was in Sydney recently, she flies to Australia multiple times a year, she told me that already leaving the airport it was foggy and smelled of smoke. We've had to bug out for real due to forest fires so can very much empathise.

[pietervn]

The major rivers in the SE of Oz (particularly the Murray & Darling rivers) are also suffering from mismanagement, with consequent bad effects on all the communities they usually support.

This is very sad.

Two years ago we did a trip to the Centre of Oz and on our way back we followed the Murray for a bit. It was wide, clean and very impressive.

This year we did a similar trip and our return was similar too. The same river was no more than 10 -12 metres wide in some places. A ferry crossing we did on the first trip had a couple of hundred meters of water to cross. This year the ferry was stuck in mud and we could walk around on the river bottom. The pics tells it all.

For a country that has a constant battle with water, our "leaders" have very little regard in managing it properly.

Cheers, Pete

[pietervn]

Usually one can only see the tops of the trees sticking out of the water.

We were standing inside the river, probably 100m from the usual edge.

Pete

[Gerhard Gerber]

Like most Australian droughts there are large areas that are really suffering from the lack of rain (this includes where I live), but other areas have had plenty of rain (eg SW Victoria has had almost too much rain).

Around here we are losing lots of old gum (eucalypt) trees that are usually fairly drought hardy, so this drought is turning out to be a bad one, and the forecast for any decent rain in the near future is quite pessimistic.

The major rivers in the SE of Oz (particularly the Murray & Darling rivers) are also suffering from mismanagement, with consequent bad effects on all the communities they usually support.

Walking the dog around the neighbourhood where I grew up I see trees older than me dying or dead.  Imported conifers went first but even locals species are dying.   

[Aloha]

SO sad to hear.  Fires clearly are part of many of our environments.  Here in California we had a "fire season" now its year round. 

[Syncop8r]

Fires clearly are part of many of our environments.

I believe some plants (in Australia at least) require fire to open their seed pods.

[TazzieRob]

Sadly, two New South Wales fire fighters have been killed and three injured when their tanker rolled over after being hit by a falling tree.

[ThundahBeagle]

Just seeing this, as we had not gotten this in our local or national news cycle. Evidently other things haven taken precedence here.

I sure hope everything is going to be alright. My sympathy to all affected.

While fires are so destructive at least if you have water, you can look to next year, the year after for things to grow back quickly. But if you aren't even going to have water...with there was something to do about it

[Nix]

This from this morning's BBC webiste. Hope all our Aussie friends are doing well!

And why we keep a bug-out bag ready.   

[Syncop8r]

This has been going on for so long now and it's not even the height of Summer yet. 

[sak60]

Had these sent to me by someone travelling in NSW when central coast area was bad.
At first I thought the dark line was seaweed washed up. Its all the airborne burnt ash and leaves washed back in.

[Nix]

Nasty.

[Aloha]

Local news here in Cali just broadcasted the fires.  I hope the can be contained soon.  Stay safe y'all. 

[Gerhard Gerber]

I've seen some videos of the fire....unbelievable, so sad.....

[Nix]

Temperatures have been hotter down under, I thought that would make fighting the fires harder. I was shocked to find this graphic when reading up on the state of things:





Best wishes for all Australia! 

[Syncop8r]

   That really puts it into perspective.

Best wishes for all Australia! 

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Except their cricket team