BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009-2020

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Janie
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 12:03 AM

Thanks for the links on the current fire season.

I hear you Frank. I find myself wondering - how long will the water last. Without much knowledge to back up my thoughts and intuition, I can't help but think of Australia and the American West, among other places, as canaries in the coal mine.

The capacity for denial by our species is phenomenal. (Of course, we may the only species with a sufficient capacity for foresight to have developed the psychological defence of denial.)

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Tangledwood
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 08:20 PM

Lots of wind but no dust, not even in Broken Hill. In fact, the place was sparkling,

Literally, probably - there is such a high metal content, silver, lead and zinc, in the dust which comes of the skimp dumps. I lived there for a few years in the '70s.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Stringsinger
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 02:12 PM

Much of these unfortunate tragedies are at the expense of the denial of global warming.
The desertification of the world is a major byproduct of this denial. We will see more
burnings and ecological disasters until this issue is recognized and acted upon.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 03:34 AM

thanks for your good wishes, Tam, the only visible dust in my place has been here for so long I don't want to disturb it.

Big red hits NZ as dust storm crosses Tasman

Truckloads of dust ripped from barren land

Janie, Summer 2009/2010 fire season has started early & will probably not be minor as rains are down.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 01:25 AM

Living in rural Oz I miss out on such radio programs. But I've just returned from Alice Springs, where I celebrated a friend's significant birthday at the Araluen Homestead; she was the Director there for a while.

No dust and not even wind until I left Coober Pedy but it was a 60kph beauty all the way south; fortunately a tailwind. But no dust until Glendambo, which is upwind of Lake Eyre, where various people reckon Sydney's dust came from; once again, Glendambo provided rain in the middle of its dust storm.

The tailwind kept up 'til I got to Port Augusta, where it started to rain and filled up Adelaide's dams; the rain lasted 'til I got to Yunta but the wind kept up. Still, no dust. Stayed overnight at Mannahill (now, there's an experience) wondering if we'd still have a roof in the morning. Lots of wind but no dust, not even in Broken Hill. In fact, the place was sparkling, showing no sign that the visibility during the previous afternoon had been down to about 10 metres. All the road trains and semi trailers had stopped, as visibility was so bad and even new trucks had sand penetrating seals.

No dust until Wilcannia, where the landscape was shifting across the road; all the sheep and feral goats had stripped the vegetation so that te wind could just blow it away. The tailwind lasted all the way home (New England) but the only evidence of dust was the colour of oncoming vehicles. Today the carwash places are doing a roaring trade.

All the best, Sandra.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 04:00 PM

ooops! got so side tracked by Andrez' vignette, I forgot to send good wishes to Sandra.

How's it going? Keeping your crafts clean I hope.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 03:59 PM

snork... so great.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Janie
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 12:58 PM

Mopping spit coffee from the keyboard!

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 11:07 AM

OMG Andrez. That is hysterical.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Andrez
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 05:39 AM

Just in case people around the world actually feel too sorry for Sydney siders just because they got a little dusty, you have to know that this is the town that generated the following gem sometime recently:

Dodgy Humor: Click entirely at own risk!

Now if you've been brave enough to check the link out, I ask you doesnt this kind of show make the entire town and everyone who laughed, a candidate for plagues of locusts, pestilence, dry rot eternal damnation and any other conceivable plague? I mean they even throw the football behind them when running towards their goal instead of kicking it toward the goal! What kind of a town does that?

I rest my case M'lud

:-D

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 10:45 PM

Thanks for all of the links. I learn a lot from what you Oz'landers post about the environmental happenings and events on the other side of the world.

I hope this fire season is much less horrific than the last.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 08:22 PM

Dust storm 'started 12 months ago'

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 08:19 PM

News Radio user submitted photos - Sydney & other areas

more user submitted photos - from Sydney local radio listeners

I had intended to submit some of my pics, but time got away.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 08:08 PM

Sydney yesterday

I woke at 8 to a very yellow world - unfortunately by the time I went out after showering & washing my hair it was merely creamy white. I walked along the streets I use when I have my evening walk & took photos in the usual places - I'm about half a km from the CBD & love the views of the city skylines. A few structures could be almost seen thru the dust - others like the Harbour Bridge were totally invisible.

6 photos in Scenery album along with pics without dust!

Yesterday lots of folk were holding scarves over their mouths, others wore masks, my eyes were watering by the time I came back from my 30 min walk. Fortunately I have eye drops I use when my eyes get sore, but I bet lots of folks had to buy drops. Asthmatics were warned to stay indoors with windows closed & medications close at hand.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 12:53 PM

Sydney is now a dust bowl. Can the plague of locust be far behind?
How are you all?
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 04:19 AM

Euphemisms, spin and the Bushfires Royal Commission

an interesting par -

The focus of the measures put in place by the Victorian Government in the days after the commissioners released their interim recommendations was an announcement of 52 towns at particular risk of bushfire this summer - and the declaration of a "bushfire preparedness" week in October.

As the summer 09/10 fire season has already started it might be a bit late.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: JennieG
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 07:47 PM

Poor little Sam....the thought of her taxidermied furry corpse seems very sad.

Cheers (sniff)
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Andrez
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 07:52 AM

Just a small point of clarification or pedantry as the case may be but Sam, contrary to popular belief, was female not male as implied by the name.

May she rest in peace!

:-)

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Janie
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 08:20 PM

Thanks, Rowan, for letting us know, and thanks, Sandra, for the link.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 06:54 PM

Sam the bushfire koala dies

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Rowan
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 06:43 PM

For those of you who remember the truly remarkable photo of the firefighter giving a thirsting koala a drink from his water bottle (there was a link to it earlier in the thread but so far up I haven't found it) the sad news from Friday last is that Sam (the name given to the koala when taken into recovery care) died on the operating table in an attempt to remove painful cysts associated with a sever case of chlamydia. [Chlamydia is an infectious pestilence that has affected large numbers of koalas in several populations across Oz in recent times, and not for reasons that might occur to smutty minds.]

Sam's remains will be mounted taxidermically and used in a Victorian museum display that deals with raising consciousness about affects of human activity on the landscape.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Rowan
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:57 PM

The Royal Commission into the conduct of the response to the fires still has a long way to go but, so far, the evidence from participants suggests a complete breakdown in communications and coordination at almost every level; the awesomeness of the predictions (as well as the fact that almost all fire behaviour variables were well off their various scales, meaning the various fires' behaviours were essentially unpredictable) was not fully realised nor properly communicated, radio systems were separated between agencies and urban and rural areas of particular agencies, vital messages were not communicated until after their window of effectiveness had passed.

These are just some of the conclusions available from basic news reports of the Commission's proceedings.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Joybell
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:37 AM

OOOOOOh Sandra. Stay away from land-slides.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:32 AM

Joy, I very occasionally travel to Bondi Junction in a (slow) bus that wanders around a few suburbs to make what is a 10 minutes trip in the express bus! But I used to have a friend who lived up the road & often walked past that park

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Joybell
Date: 30 May 09 - 03:21 AM

Janie, I doubt that grass trees (Xanthorrhoeas) would get out of control. They're very, very slow-growing. There are smaller ones without the trunk -- but they're slow too. However we do need to consider such things, don't we? Also we have to be concerned about illegal removal of them as they become fashionable. A hundred years is a long time to grow them to maturity from seed.

Sandra! I was hoping you were safe at home when that hole appeared.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Janie
Date: 29 May 09 - 09:34 PM

Sandra, thanks for posting those links.    Really brings home the reality that this planet really is one unified ecosystem.

Kat, I don't know anything about grasstrees, but feel obliged to offer a cautionary thought - has it been determined that they do not become invasive when moved out of their native habitat where there are natural controls?

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 May 09 - 08:11 PM

story - Bushfire aftermath: smoke trapped over Antarctica

sandra

on a different note, check out the video of a huge, car-swallowing hole in a suburban Sydney street & park

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 May 09 - 07:59 PM

video - Smoke haze from fires hanging over antarctica (May 28th) see Video section & scroll down

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 May 09 - 03:09 AM

no worries, kat.

& my thanks to Mary for the link, I've bookmarked The Week in Pics URL

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 May 09 - 10:13 PM

Oh, Mary, that is a beautiful picture! There were some other really good ones on there, too. Thanks for the link.

We might actually be able to grow them here...it rarely gets lower than 20 above zero and there would no problem with it being well-drained and plenty of sunshine. Might have to look into that! Thanks that link, Sandra!

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 May 09 - 08:20 PM

Maine has frost from early October through May with an occasional Nor'easter and several feet of snow to tear the place apart. I don't think so...

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 May 09 - 07:50 PM

wow! there are some very interesting pics in that list - love the sand dunes.

info about Grass trees from an American site so you buy one if you want one.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 May 09 - 04:59 PM

Found it.
Open link
Go to browse in left hand column
Photos
The week in pictures
It is #17 or 18.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 May 09 - 04:48 PM

No. It was on line - one of those "The Week In Pictures" but from a newspaper. Total devastation and a tiny bright green tree. I will find it and figure a way to link it.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 May 09 - 11:37 AM

latest about Marysville on News Radio site

I think I remember a similar pic somewhere on the news site - & think I mentioned it sometime in the fire period, found it! - or is it?, well, its a pic of an epicormic shoot (wazzat?) on a burnt tree 4 weeks after the fire. It's the first pic on this slideshow.

I can't find a pic of shoots on 2 local paper sites.

Mary - is this the pic? if not, what's your local paper's name?

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 May 09 - 08:26 AM

In today's paper there is a photo of a single tree, a new bit of green in Marysville. Can't seem to get it to link but it's worth a look.
M

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Joybell
Date: 20 Mar 09 - 05:57 PM

Thanks for the links, Sandra. It's to be expected that residents in the areas of the fires are angry but statements like,

"In previous times these royal commissions have been undertaken and put into a cupboard,"

are quite wrong. The studies undertaken after the Ash Wednesday fires have added to our knowledge in a huge way. The fact that the recent fires were much more severe just means that we need to add to that knowledge.

It's still hard to be "Green" at the moment even out here away from the scene of the worst fires.
Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 08:26 PM

(oh I see the Wambaugh book in question was nonfiction. . . . )

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 08:22 PM

I'm not sure of the merits of publicising such techniques but I suppose those who are committed would be able to find them out, anyway. The one described by kat has been around for quite some time; it was described at the first Bushfire Ecology Conference (Adelaide, 1966) I mentioned above, in the session that was closed to the press. The depiction of the technique's effects was the main reason why that session was so closed.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 08:20 PM

Wambaugh was a cop in the LA region, and reputed to use a lot of personal experience in writing his books. The arsonist in question had some training in firefighting, also in the LA basin, so maybe it's a technique they all know about. . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 07:49 PM

heric, thanks for the info. I hope that arsonist didn't learn the cigarette burning thing from John Orr the guy I posted the same link about a few pages back.

From the article about Joseph Wambaugh's book about the case: At Ole's Home Center in South Pasadena, a small fire began in the vicinity of a potato chip bag, which Mr. Wambaugh describes as ''a sack of solid fuel.'' It was ignited by what would become this culprit's signature delay device: a cigarette burning down until it reached a pack of matches, with a sheet of yellow paper to enhance the flames.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 05:53 PM

And thank you for the links, Sandra.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 05:41 AM

thanks for the information, heric

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 09:45 PM

(Santa Ana winds are hot dry winds in from the desert every October, after the summer has dried everything out.)

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 09:44 PM

Just happened so very short summary in LA Times

A Riverside County jury today called for the death penalty in the trial of Raymond Lee Oyler, who was found guilty of arson and the murder of five firefighters for setting the deadly Esperanza fire.

The decision marks a rare case of an arsonist facing a death sentence.

The deadly wildfire was set early on the morning of Oct. 26, 2006, a few feet off of remote Esperanza Avenue in Cabazon. Investigators said Oyler, who once trained as a firefighter, had set fires throughout the San Gorgonio Pass in the months leading up to the blaze -- each time aiming for bigger infernos.

He chose a night when Santa Ana winds were blowing exceptionally hard. After making a device out of matches fastened with rubber bands around a Marlboro cigarette, prosecutors said, Oyler lit the cigarette and tossed the device into the brush. A fire was soon roaring up the San Jacinto Mountains, eventually reaching speeds of 40 mph and consuming 41,000 acres. Early the next morning, it rolled over the crew of U.S. Forest Service Engine 57 as they struggled to save a house in a steep canyon.

Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 43; Jess McLean, 27; Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20; and Jason McKay, 27, died immediately. Pablo Cerda, 24, died a few days later. Four of the five were based in Idyllwild.

-- David Kelly

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/the-riverside-c.html

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 09:01 PM

can you provide a link heric.

ta

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: heric
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 07:21 PM

oh my goodness S. Calif. wildfire arsonist just sentenced to death.

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 06:49 PM

Residents sceptical on bushfire royal commission, hearing told

Call for bushfire early warning system

Arson squad probes string of fires (10 fires in last 24 hours)

Bushfire risk to water quality 'could last years'

Californian church donates to Bendigo fire recovery

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country ...


DNA pinpoints firebug suspect two years on

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Rowan
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 05:32 PM

To help prepare the questions they will ask at the forthcoming Royal Commission, the Commission staff are conducting community forum sessions. The first was in Myrtleford yesterday.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Bushfires in Australia - Feb 2009
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Mar 09 - 05:14 AM

One of the thing I bought in Bendigo was an Akubra! My normal summer hat, a straw boater doesn't like rain & always needs to be put into a plastic bag for protection in et weather, so I've been wanting something more substantial for a while.

My new hat has been rained on a few times since I bought it, first time was in Bendigo when we had 3mm of rain!

sandra