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Saturday, January 21, 2006
Victoria Is Burning Again Victoria is burning again. A bushfire is raging in the Moondarra State Forest near Mt Baw Baw threatening small towns including Erica, Rawson and Willow Grove. Believed to have been deliberately lit it has already burned out more than 4000 ha. It arrived with an air of inevitability. At twilight the night before last I noticed an eerie but tell tale red glow in the sky and observed to a friend that there was a fire burning somewhere not too far away. I came inside and checked out the Country Fire Authority's website. This latest fire is yet another example of the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria's inability to manage vast areas of locked up forest and bushland. Nowhere near enough control burning has been carried out in past years to reduce record fuel loads. If this blaze escapes into the Alpine National Park, given favourable wind conditions, it will complete the job started by the fires of 2003. We may be about to witness the second chapter in the destruction by holocaust of Victoria's greatest natural asset. I hope to Heaven we get a heavy fall of rain with the forecast cool change due tonight and not more dry thunderstorms. As usual country people, CFA volunteers, are out there fighting the flames and risking their lives while bureaucrats, green lobbyists and and Labor politicians like Environment Minister, Twitter Thwaites, sip on Cafe Latte in an outdoor cafe in Prahran or take a cooling dip at Brighton Beach. You get the picture! Of course, Twitter may make a brief appearance near the front to inspire firefighters on to even more heroic efforts while his PR chick slips him cans of Diet Coke to keep his whistle wet and his vocal cords active, enabling him to mouth more meaningless platitudes to country Victorians. As if we haven't heard enough. The next four or five weeks are going to be critical to the well being of Victoria's forests. Even if this latest fierce outbreak is brought under control we still have to face the danger month of February. If these 40 C plus temperatures persist and are accompanied by wild northerly winds then God help us all. As I type this post the sun is rising and daylight is spreading over the river flats. But I can barely see the fence at the end of the garden and Mt Gordon, which usually looms large in the background is completely invisible due to smoke. Victoria is burning yet again. Don't rely on Twitter to save it. Philip Maguire blogs at http://bundarrahdays.blogspirit.com Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Great Divide at 2:36 PM |
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