Australia is burning

Hi everyone. This wasn't to be my post today. It is the start of 2020, a time of looking forward to the new year. 
But it is hard to be upbeat when Australia is burning and has been for the last few months. 
I want to keep information current and accurate, but the situation is changing daily, so please click on the links to go to news reports.  

Thankfully I do not live in the current fire area, as I live on the west coast of Australia, and most of the fires are on the east coast. But I fear it will be a very long hot summer. The devastation for those directly involved is immense.

Image from - australia-fires-explainer

 The problem has been fueled by exceptionally high temperatures and extended drought in Australia. Many point to climate change and global warming as a major factor. You can see the changes in the environment all around us. 

 "Bushfires are normally a natural process in Australia. But the combination of drought, record-breaking heat and strong winds have contributed to the devastating proportions of this year's fires". CBS News

"Australia is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades -- the country's Bureau of Meteorology said in December that last spring was the driest on record. Meanwhile, a heatwave in December broke the record for highest nationwide average temperature, with some places sweltering under temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (about 113-120 degrees Fahrenheit)" CNN News

And according to the report on CNN there is no end in sight. Please go here to find out more - CNN-Australia's deadly wildfires - I urge you to at least scroll across the pictures to get some sense of what is happening here in Australia.  

Link here to a video - The Guardian - video
And here from the Australian Broadcasting Commission -  ABC Perth

From ABC Perth video

As of 5 January the situation has not improved. Over 200 fires are burning and fanned by strong winds and high temperatures fires are merging into mega blazes. In the worst hit areas the sky is black as night during the day time. For latest updates you can go here - ABC News

Here are some of the facts: from CNN dated 3 January 2020
- Australia is being ravaged by the worst bush fires seen in decades.
- There have been fires in every Australian state, but New South Wales and southern Victoria have been hardest hit.
- A total of 23 people have died nationwide, and at 5 January 6 are missing.
- State and federal authorities are struggling to contain the massive blazes, even with firefighting assistance from other countries. There are 2,000 firefighters working on the ground in NSW - the US, Canada, and New Zealand have sent additional firefighters to help.
- the biggest blazes have been burning for months. 
-  Earlier in December, the smoke was so bad in Sydney that air quality measured 11 times the "hazardous" level.

Image from - australia-fires-explainer

- As of 3 January, more than 5.9 million hectares (14.7 million acres) have been burned across Australia's six states -- an area larger than the countries of Belgium and Haiti combined. The worst-affected state is New South Wales, with 3.6 million hectares (8.9 million acres) burned. In NSW approx 1,300 homes have been destroyed and over 440 damaged. 

The map below may give you some idea of where the fires are burning. 
 I hasten to add that some of these fires have been lit by arsonists.  I won't tell you what I would do with them when and if they are caught.I don't understand why people would do this.

map 31 December 2019

 In the Northern Territory, and northern Western Australia, and central Australia, bush fires are considered a natural occurrence during summer, and many are left to burn if they are in unoccupied land, although they too can get out of control.
The attached link takes you to a list of current alerts at My Fire Watch - Aust.Gov

Bushfires have also ravaged Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.  Massive bush fires are raging throughout East Gippsland and the Alpine region of Victoria. There are many road closures due the fires, making it difficult for people to leave. The roads that are open are choked with people and vehicles trying to leave. Communications are hindered making it difficult for people to get in touch with loved ones or help.

In Mallacoota in Victoria, 4000 people were evacuated to the beach on 31 December, including residents and tourists who were there for their annual summer holidays.
The Australian Navy is currently evacuating people by sea. 

Off the coast of South Australia, one third (abut 170,000 hectares) of Kangaroo Island has been burnt and two men who had been working on the firefront have died.  

Image from Washington Post

 Whilst in Western Australia, where I live, although nowhere near as bad as in the eastern states -  the West is burning too – 
- over 12,000 hectares just before Christmas in communities just north of Perth.

- The Kalgoorlie to Esperance Highway and the Eyre Highway on the Nullarbor is currently closed to all traffic due to blazes around Norseman, which have been burning since before Christmas. This fire has closed one of only 2 of WA’s bitumen road accesses (the only other bitumen road access is in the far north near Kununurra). Over 270,000 hectares have been destroyed by seven separate fire fronts. Travellers coming from the east are stranded at Caiguna Roadhouse, 400 kms east of Norseman. Supplies are running low and fresh supplies, including toilet paper are being flown in. There are no towns on the Eyre Highway, just remote road houses. The township of Norseman is isolated by the fires. If people are travelling from the eastern states they are advised to turn back and delay travel plans.

- A bush fire in the Stirling Ranges National Park in WA’s Great Southern region has burnt more than 40,000 hectares since being sparked by a lightning strike on Boxing Day.  Much of this area is an important biodiversity hotspot, which could take years if ever, to recover species which exist nowhere else.

I fear there are more bushfires to come in the West as it is only just the start of the summer season. 

For current bush fire alerts in Western Australia: Emergency WA

My image post 2015 bushfires - Western Australia

And while the bush is burning, the environmental damage and disaster is horrific. Habit and wildlife is being destroyed, including critically endangered species which may never recover. This includes the critically endangered the Western Ground Parrot in Western Australia's far south.

Image from - australia-fires-explainer

 A few months after the massive bush fires in Western Australia's south west in early 2015, we went to one of the bush fire devastated areas. It was heartening to see the bush starting to recover, but I wondered looking at the devastation how do animals escape the inferno, like this young echidna we saw in the fire ravaged area. I fear that endangered species may never recover.

Young echidna - image by JHarrison

What to do in the case of a fire emergency? Here is an interesting article from The Conversation blog -  Where to take refuge in your home 
Sheltering in your home however should be the last resort, with leaving early the preferred action. Take notice of warnings and the advice of fire agencies.

 Unfortunately it is only the start of the summer season. Record high temperatures were recorded in December. Normally, summer temperatures peak in January and February, meaning Australia could be months away from finding relief. No or little rain is forecast. 

Bushfire aftermath - Image by JHarrison

I listen to the radio news every morning and watch the TV news every night, the dominant story is the fires. I listen, hear, watch, see the images, the stories from survivors and firefighters. I see the devastation, the loss, the heartbreak. 
 I have never been in a bush fire so I cannot begin to understand what they are going through. All I can do is watch, cry and pray for them.  There is nothing else I can do. 

If you wish to donate to the Red Cross Bush Fire appeal, please click here - Red Cross - New Years Eve disaster & relief fund  

With all the "hubbub" of Christmas and New Year, I know what is more important than gifts and eating - there is only one thing - the lives of our families. 


Thank you to CNN and ABC News for much of the information and images on this post. 
See more imagery at Washington Post

You also be interested to read: 
Kathy Marris's article - 50shadesofage.com - Australia has been Burning
Little Wandering Wren - It's not a Happy New Year in Australia

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

   
All Seasons
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf

Our World Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday 

ThroughMy Lens 

Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity.

The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

December randomness

It's December and the summer heat has struck and it's beginning to look a little bit like Christmas is just around the corner.  How is your December going?  Today I am going to share a little December randomness from our corner of the world.

Below is the Candlestick Banksia (or slender banksia) - Banksia attenuata - which flowers from October to February in the south west of Western Australia. I always think the bright yellow candlestick shape flowers which grow up to 20-3-cm tall and 5cm across, are very appropriate for this time of year around Christmas. 
I blogged more about banksias here - Celebration of the Australian Banksias

Beauty from the ashes

In January 2016 summer bushfires devastated the tiny township of Yarloop, as well as farmland and bushland in the Waroona-Harvey area south of Perth and also near Esperance on our south coast. I blogged about it here - Western Australia is burning. 

Nine months later they are still cleaning up in Yarloop but residents are starting to return to the town. You can read more here -  Yarloop to reopen 

I haven't visited Yarloop since the fire. The town was closed for many months, and people were not admitted. And I didn't think we, outsiders, had any right to be there "sight-seeing" the devastation of people's lives. It was not a "tourist attraction".

Last weekend we past through a stretch of bushland east of Harvey that was totally destroyed by the January bushfire. It was eerie walking amongst the blackened trees and across the bare black earth.  

 Many of the trees may never recover, and we could see where very big trees had fallen and been burnt to ash and charcoal. However there was hope too as some blackened trees were starting to sprout new leaves. 

Amongst this devastation there were little patches of beauty. Tiny orchids were pushing up through the blackened earth. It was amazing to see them. I "think" this is a Silky Blue Orchid. The black background in this image is a burnt log.

And below you can see a Jug Orchid, Pink Fairies, Cowslips and two more Silky Blue Orchids. 

Below are Snail Orchids. You sometimes see them growing like this in "colonies" like here in the leaf litter on this burnt log.  

Bushfires are very much a part of the Australian landscape. It is a natural part of regeneration. In Australia's past, the indigenous Aboriginal people practised mosaic burning - a system of lighting patches of small, low-intensity fires to sweep through the understorey of the bush. As a result, large intense bushfires were uncommon. You can read more about mosaic burning here - DePAW - Traditional Aboriginal burning.  

Burning the bush is needed to reduce fuel loads. Local authorities have a program for doing this but in the last couple of years we have seen massive bushfires that have raged uncontrolled for days. Bushfires are sometimes caused by summer lightening strikes, however bushfires are sometimes also deliberately lit. I don't know how anyone can do this. 

We saw a lot of evidence of out-of-control bushfires in the Kimberley in July-August this year. This one, you see below, on the way to the Mornington Wilderness Camp had been burning for two months.

We saw some of the 2015 summer bush-fire devastation east of Harvey along the Harvey-Quindanning Road which I blogged about here - Bushwalking at Hoffman's Mill
 and on the Bibbulmun Track near Grimwade here - A walk with Bibbulmun Track Volunteers  

The plants green tops you see in the top left-hand-corner image are Balga Grass Trees. They like fire. Bushfires burn the foliage and blacken the stump, but then it regrows

 This afternoon we went out to a patch of bushland on the Preston to Yarloop road that had been completely burnt during the January 2016 bushfires. Our photography group had alerted us that there was a profusion of spring wildflowers, including orchids growing amongst the burnt bushland. 

 It was amazing to see how thickly the undergrowth (along with a lot of weeds) was regenerating after our good winter rains.  I found these orchids you see in the mosaic below, clockwise from top left, - 

Blue China, Pink Fairy, Spider orchid, Donkey Orchid (I think a Pansy Donkey orchid), Cowslip, Red Beaks, Leak Orchid, another of the Spider orchid family, and in the center a new find for me - the Rabbit Orchid. I'm always excited to add a new wildflower to my collection. 

 I love searching for wild orchids. They can be difficult to find because they are often very small and hiding in the undergrowth. My husband has become very good at spotting them. 

Here are a couple of my blog posts about orchids which you might enjoy - 
Where wild orchids grow 
IN search of wild orchids 
A walk through Ambergate Reserve 
Harmony through flowers 

 I've been asked how I get the orchid photos to "pop". First you need to use Aperture Priority on your camera. Use a small number like F4.6 to blur the background and make your subject, the orchid, stand out from the background. Use a macro lens on a DSLR for best results, or try a close up filter on your lens. Use a tripod to avoid camera shake. Although I rarely do in the field. If you are using manual settings you can up the ISO enabling you to hand-hold in low light. After that I have just used a little post-processing to sharpen the whole thing up some more and add extra pop. 


I hope you have enjoyed my post today. Last week we camped in the Dryandra Woodland, a remnant area of natural bushland in our wheatbelt. The wildflowers were stunning, but they will have to wait for another post. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
 

Mosaic Monday 
Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

Western Australia is burning

It is the summer fire season in Australia and there are devastating bush-fires raging over Western Australia in the Waroona-Yarloop-Harvey area south of Perth and near Esperance on our south coast (Esperance update pm Sunday - has now been downgraded to Watch & Act).

 The bushfire in the Waroona-Yarloop-Harvey area was started by a lightning strike and  even though  the bushfire is over 60kms from where I live I have felt paralysed the last few days thinking about the two men who died in their homes, the infrastructure and over 100 homes destroyed, over 72 thousand hectares of farmland and bushland that has been destroyed, the farm animals that may have been lost, and the wild animals that have lost their lives in the fire.