I've just listened to the news; Canberra 37C, winds around 40 - 50 kph from the northwest, the towns of Wee Jasper and Michelago, both about 20 K's (in different directiuons) away on high alert to evacuate - very similar to the conditions of 18 January.

I posted above, about 8 hours after the fires did their thing and before I knew the end result was 4 people dead, 3 still in intensive care in Sydney with 3rd degree burns and approx. 520 houses destroyed, and I said there were going to be questions asked.

Well, they are being asked and bloody right, too.

20 years of self government in the ACT (which very few people voted for), by governments that couldn't rule in their own right, who accepted money from any radical group that wanted to be heard just so they could (pretend to) balance the books, who are now saying "Oh, this was a one in a one hundred year event" that hasn't happened in the last 99 years (although it nearly did just 12 months ago) and for which the government was totally unprepared (or didn't know how to prepare without upsetting those certain radical elements), despite the fact the fires started (by lightning) 10 days previously and were moving slowly, but inexorably, towards Canberra during that time.

Too bloody right questions should be asked!

Okay, rant over. Be aware, for those interested, I've posted a correction to The Innisfail Song, referred to in nutty's post of 21 January, to the original thread.

Allan