Bush fires south of Perth

Just wondering how many members of the forum are being affected by the fires in the south west.Last I heard was poor buggers in Yarloop were copping it real bad.
Lets hope it gets sorted real quick and there is no loss of life.

Cheers

Phil

only way south is coalfields hyway ,, worst fires I've seen in many years ,

I live in Allanson which is 8kms from Collie, the traffic on Coalfields Hwy with all those on holidays returning to Perth will be horrendous as when going to Collie it took over 1/2 hour to get there. Also there is road works occurring on the road as well so I can see some stressed out drivers.

The wind is calm at the moment however late yesterday and this morning we are getting ash landing all around from the fire.

I can only feel sadness for those in Yarloop as 95 homes destroyed which is 90% of the town, just hope no lives get lost.

Ian

it's looking very nasty down that way, i was travelling the s/west highway only a few days ago.
let's hope the destruction is limited from here on and no lives are lost, it has virtually wiped out a township.
it's like a lucky dip when summer arrives, whose lives are going to be turned upside down this year.
i have family down that way in safe zone area's but you wouldn't want to be a asthma sufferer with all the ash and smoke in the air.
wishing all affected the best

jase

Very serious situation and it is a miracle no human life has been lost however the toll is high for birds and animals.
The belief is authorities are listening to the bleating minority who complain about the smoke and ash aggravating their health.
A few brief coughs, running noses and eye irritation fades into oblivion when you think of the devastation Yarloop residents are going through and recent Esperance tragedies, Margaret River and all the others in years gone bye across our country.
Not forgetting the hundreds of fire fighters who risk life and limbs.

That poor old fella on last nights news in a broken down state talking about his 50 year old home gone.

50 years ago in early April I climbed the "lookout trees", (Diamond Tree was one) dotted around the SW, they were manned to keep a look out for bushfires. While atop of the Diamond Tree I could see smoke in many directions and asked the fella on duty whether he was concerned?
His reply was, "Don't worry about those they are the settlers doing "cool burns."
This I believe is the one main problem in this day and age.
Cool burns should be reintroduced!
Of course this will fall on deaf ears because no sooner has the ash settled and homes rebuilt the next generation will be here and they would have a dumb look on their faces if you asked about the devastating fires across the land.
Take a drive around the Darling Range to the East of Perth which is a major hot spot that will, with out doubt, be the scenes of massive destruction in the near future.
Take a drive around Dunsborough, Yallingup & Margret River (devastated only a few years ago) to see the build up of understory below the thick bush.
The list goes on and on and our fearless leaders in their protected glass houses don't want to rock the boat and upset their seats.

CALM or what ever they are called now, used to do controlled burn offs. But the bloody greenies ended that.
Even FESA have stated quite a few times that the hills surrounding Armadale will go again and we know what happened the last time.
It has also been proved that the big reason our dams are getting less water is due to the build up of the undergrowth and leaf litter restricting run off but they won't do burn offs anymore as it upsets the locals and the farqin greenies.
Just my opinion

My comment might not be relevant to the current situation but I believe that there is a serious problem with the planning approvals.

Some years back we took a drive down to Molloy Island near Augusta. They showed us several 1/2 acre blocks with a half a dozen tall trees marked as the building envelope. After these few trees were removed and a house built there was absolutely no room for any sort of fire brake. To remove any more greenery than the trees marked was breaking the law.

We decided that we couldn't live with the fire risk so chose to not buy on the island. If they continue to build on small bush blocks without room for fire brakes these sorts of devastation will continue. Most of the problems occur in the hills around our coastal cities.

It must be only a matter of time before someone who loses property, stock or heaven forbid family will challenge in court the discontinuation of "controlled/cool burns."
By law private property must be protected by fire breaks and reasonable measures taken to be "fire safe", why is crown land exempted?

Once a upon a time the farmers used to get out with the local brigade and burn the sides of roads in Vic,well they stoped that.
Another thing is they want people to plant native plants,well look around have a look at all them right up close to houses,that is asking for trouble.
Has to be a rethink on burning the bush.
Regards Frank

We took the opportunity today to clean out our wardrobes. We took out bags of good used clothes, suits and shoes that we haven't worn for ages. A local lady in Capel put together a collection for the fire victims so hopefully some will appreciate them.

Bignuggs wrote:CALM or what ever they are called now, used to do controlled burn offs.  But the bloody greenies ended that.
Even FESA have stated quite a few times that the hills surrounding Armadale will go again and we know what happened the last time.
It has also been proved that the big reason our dams are getting less water is due to the build up of the undergrowth and leaf litter restricting run off but they won't do burn offs anymore as it upsets the locals and the farqin greenies.
Just my opinion

Hey Cliff, another reason for low runoff is Alcoas mining operations are in the water catchment areas and in the rehab process the mining pits are all contoured to prevent water runoff into the forest as this causes turbidity (dirty water) go on google earth and have a look at these areas, around Serpentine, North Dandalup, South Dandalup,Samson Brook and Waroona Dam.ps around Serpentine and South Dandalup it's not so obvious where the pits were as the forest has regrown but they were very extensive around these dams.

Hey shorty,
Personally I don't know what Alcoa do with rehab but I work for another company that mines the same way they do. I'm not sure in your knowledge of the rehab guidlines that the mining companies do around the southwest but this region have one of the strictest ones I have seen in mining. The invoromental regs make sure things are placed back as close as they can to the original state. Also from experience of surface mining in this area they spend a hell of a lot on the rehab more than production mining costs. I think with the topogatphy of wa(sw) more emergency assistance like air support and control burns will be the best thing to point too.

Environmental sorry guys .... Bloody auto spelling !

This weekend we went bottle hunting east of Yarloop where the fires passed through.



Nature has had just one month to fight back.



You can see by the lack of ground cover this fire burned everything but the jarrah is fighting back.



Stands of blackboys are sprouting new leaves.



This flowering blackboy must have seen many bushfires over the last hundred years or so.



There's not much life out here but these flowers are covered with bees.

It's not a very nice environment to be out in right now but there's potential for it to be lovely and green within a few months.

Great photo's