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A few images from 2009 in the Victorian High Country showing effects of bushfires.
Note- widespread fires before 2009 and after 2009
A collection of screen dumps from the Government "Hot spots" taken in the period of the Currowan and other fires in the Braidwood area. The covered area is well known to members of Access for All.
In about 2019 the hot spots were known as "Sentinel Hot Spots". More recently there is a new system called Digital Earth Australia Hotspots which can be found at:
Safety in the bush is especially important as we approach a high fire danger period and we all should be more aware of our own situation.
In our area of prime concern there is a very popular destination - Bendethera.
With essentially two steep 4WD tracks in and out, one should be more aware of the dangers of bushfires that might threaten this popular camping destination.
It would be worthwhile taking stock of many factors including:
- people arriving at Bendethera might be spread out over several days - what happens if they all want to leave quickly (and with trailers, and with traffic possibly coming in the opposite direction)
- what happens if there are trees down across the 4WD tracks which might stop an exodus and lead to an extreme situation
- how will you know what a fire situation is if it is out of mobile phone reception (some reception is often available at Dampier Trig or Bendethera Trig)
- if planning to leave very quickly, do you take the trailer and create a greater risk of blocking the routes
- seriously consider staying put - the threat of fires may have eased or passed. Fires tend to burn uphill so staying in the cleared valley floor is probably the best option.
There is an excellent article about bushfire safety which I would encourage you to read. It is written primarily for bushwalkers and others going to remote areas like canyons but there is a host of valuable information including "last chance options".
Link to article:
MEDIA RELEASE - 20 Feb 2020 Prime Minister
Note (PK 2023) - The Royal Commission has completed its report - it can be downloaded from HERE
A national Royal Commission into Australia’s devastating Black Summer bushfires
will be established following agreement from the Governor-General, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd).
The Morrison Government has today released the Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, informed by feedback from states and territories.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the scale of the Black Summer bushfires presented new challenges for all levels of government, which required a detailed national inquiry.
“My priority is to keep Australians safe and to do that, we need to learn from the Black Summer bushfires how nationally we can work better with the states and territories to better protect and equip Australians for living in hotter, drier and longer summers,” the Prime Minister said.
“In particular, we need to consider the need to establish new powers for the Federal Government to declare a national state of emergency to trigger direct Federal Government responses to national disasters, including the direct deployment of the Australian Defence Force. Currently, there are no such powers and Federal responses are supposed to only be undertaken in response to State requests and authorisations.
“During the Black Summer bushfires, we entered a constitutional grey zone by directly initiating defence force deployments, utilising the first ever compulsory call out of Reservists, with over 6,500 ADF personnel serving in support of state and territory response efforts. But we did that without clear rules.
