General News
31 January, 2025
Barry's Corner
A lightning strike started a fire towards the southern end of the Gariwerd/Grampians national park late last year and could not be stopped for some weeks. It is still not declared dead yet without substantial rain.
One factor to make it hard was the gale force winds that were unrelenting for the first few hours and extending into days. Combined with the rugged nature of the hills that made conditions rather awkward and difficult for the Forest Fire managers and any CFA. Much work needed to be carried out by using hand tools
Similar conditions have been creating havoc in Los Angeles and will end up costing a fortune to repair some of this damage.Since this column was put together there has been a serious fast moving fire in the fire prone Little Desert with multi thousands of hectares involved. It has been so dry, windy and hot. No matter how many trained staff and new equipment that are set up and ready will not make a difference to the speed and size of an outbreak.
On the other hand in the Gariwerds we had structural losses and some live stock.
These mountain fires are dangerous and are growing more so as conditions deteriorate even further. On foot there is no protection from hot flames.
We need a new way to work with fire. Winter has been too warm to carry out much cool burning. It needs a discussion combining cultural burning and efforts to eradicate potential
We are losing too much valuable biodiversity and causing too much disruption to the region with these mega fires. This also means its mega expensive
The sooner we have our heads around this issue the better
for big bush fires.
That would mean we might have to hold our collective breath when we come across flames that appear suddenly on our radar. The local managers require flexibility. Hills and mountains will be with us for a while yet and while we let them carry heavy vegetation there will be risk and grief. This means putting more fire into the landscape not less.
It is hard to know long will it will take to prepare the bushlands for the next potential level of fury. It needs to be a long term program that will survive changing staff .
Tell me again how climate change will work.