Australian Bushfires

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 22 Feb 2009, 09:05

I hope our Australian members and their relatives and friends have managed to stay out of harm's way during the bushfires which have devastated the southeastern state of Victoria. Today Australia observes a National Day of Mourning to commemorate the loss of more than 209 lives in the worst bushfires in living memory which ignited just over two weeks ago and continues to burn.

I hope an effective solution will be found to cope with these fires which seem to be an almost annual occurrence exacerbated by lunatic arsonists.

Clogzz · Post by **Clogzz** » 22 Feb 2009, 15:16

Thanks for your concern, David.

We’re safe in humid Queensland, with no dry undergrowth to set fire to the tree canopies.
Preventative, controlled back burning during the cool months has been neglected for years because there’s no political mileage in it.

These two recent pictures from the south full of dry leaf matter, where a cigarette butt can start a fire.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 22 Feb 2009, 20:15

Hi Clogzz

I heard you were inundated with floods of biblical proportions in Queesland. All you need now is an earthquake and a cyclone and you will have completed the four classical elements of air, earth, fire and water.

Clogzz · Post by **Clogzz** » 27 Feb 2009, 13:22

Hi David,

Thanks for that,

and I’ll have the air first.
It’s rained a fair bit of recently, but we’re still 1,000 miles from both the fires and the floods.
We do live in an area at moderate risk of low-intensity cyclones, with roof tiles tied to the battens.

The earth is the last I want to live; it’s the worst possible, with even the underground pipes ripped apart.
I did sleep through a 5.5 earthquake many years ago; just vibrations … I thought that the girls next door were coming home.

Next week’s forecast for Victoria is again hot and windy.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 02 Mar 2009, 08:20

Thank Heavens I've never been troubled by water or fire, but I once passed through the eye of a hurricane on a ship in the Caribbean bound for Liverpool. For hours before the air had been white with flying foam and then everything became quite calm...very strange. Fortunately the ship was fully laden with a cargo of sugar so she was really stable. The storms raged right across the Atlantic so when we reached the Irish Sea between Ireland and England the storms there were as bad as I've ever seen them. All the ferries had been cancelled for days and we came across a Polish yacht which was clearly in distress bobbing about like a cork in the huge waves. The Mate and Boatswain very courageously went down on deck and managed to get a line over them with a rocket but it was no use as the risk of smashing them against the side to the ship was just too great so we decided to call out the Hollyhead lifeboat and stood by so the yacht could shelter in our lee until the lifeboat arrived. As the radioman on board I had to call out the lifeboat using an "Urgency" (Pan Pan) call which was the closest I ever got to sending an SOS or Mayday.
It was a very memorable experience.

Clogzz · Post by **Clogzz** » 10 Mar 2009, 14:56

Hi David,

Looks like you’ve got rescues in your system.

I’ve been through the eyes of small cyclones … very eerie calm, and blue sky bordered by a ring of thick cloud.
We’ve just escaped a cyclone now, but we’re not out of the woods yet:

http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00035.latest.shtml

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 10 Mar 2009, 19:24

Hi Terry,

Of course you call them Cyclones not Hurricanes on your side of the World.
I'm not so sure the woods is the the best place to be in those conditions.

That's a pretty impressive overhead image.

David

addo · Post by **addo** » 10 Mar 2009, 21:03

To keep the thread back on topic I'll add the NSW branch of the Citroën Car Club, donated about $2K in total, to several selected charities.

One was a privately run animal sanctuary (other similar places having burned down) that is doing a lot to care for and rehabilitate fire-damaged native animals.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 11 Mar 2009, 06:39

How nice to hear from you Adam after such a long time.

A worthy cause indeed.
Let's hope this poor little fellow survived in tact.
]

addo · Post by **addo** » 11 Mar 2009, 11:00

Hi David, I'm fairly sure that one did survive. A lot of the native animals picked up were treated by agencies such as that I referred to.