It’s blowing a gale in Warrandyte!

I haven’t been checking the Bureau of Meterology website so I can’t tell you how fast the wind has been blowing, but some of the big gusts have been… scary.

I’ve actually had to close the fire resistant shutters on the north side of the house [wind direction] to protect the French doors from flying junk. Not so paranoid when you see the huge tree branch that landed in my fish pond. I dragged it out to save the fish, and so I could take some photos of it.

 

I stuck my foot in the next photo to give you some perspective.

 

I don’t have a Yeti sized foot, but that is still a thick bloody branch. The length is 5 and a bit metres, and it came from the top third of a gum tree.

When I built this house, I chose a spot that was lightly treed. After the 30/10* ruling came out I only had to chop down two trees, both within just 8 metres of the house.  Now I have close to 15 metres of defensible space around most of the house. That is one reason why that massive tree branch only made a mess of the fishpond.

Had that branch hit the house, it would have done some damage. Broken windows would have been the least of my worries. Something that big could have damaged the sprinkler system on the roof…

Had that branch hit the house during a bushfire, I doubt the house would still be standing. It’s simple really. The shell of a house can withstand quite a lot of fire… until something breaches its integrity – i.e. a broken window or a smashed roof. Once the embers can get inside it’s all over, because everything inside the house is going to be paper dry. Woosh!

And now to end on a happier note, I can finally show you that photo of an emu I took with my mobile phone.

 

* after Black Saturday, and while the threat of further bushfires was still acute, the then Brumby government decreed that residents of fire prone areas would be entitled to cut down trees within 10 metres of the house. And clear scrub within 30 metres of the house. Without having to apply for and get a permit from their local Council. In Nillumbik, getting a permit to cut down a single tree is as likely as winning the lottery. I know, I’ve tried.

Eltham Gateway Deathtrap – important bushfire information.

I don’t think it will surprise any of you to know I’m paranoid about bushfire. What you may not know is that even I can be surprised. In a bad way.

The link below will take you to a very well thought out, well researched document about the extreme bushfire danger threatening not just the Warrandyte area, but also the far more built up suburbs to the west and north of Warrandyte. I’m talking Eltham, Research, Diamond Creek etc.

http://www.elthamsdeathtrap.com/

The reason these areas are in such danger was illustrated not long ago when an out of control grass fire threatened new housing estates in Epping, a northern suburb of Melbourne.  Epping and surrounding areas are poorly serviced by through roads. When the bushfire alerts went out, the roads leading away from the path of the fire became gridlocked. Not only could residents not evacuate safely, the fire services were having trouble getting to the fire. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

In my area, the danger is complicated by the fact that the Yarra River literally cuts us off from the suburbs to the south, and there are just two narrow bridges crossing the river. One bridge chokes the north-south exit from Eltham,  while the other is 13 kms to the east at Warrandyte. My bridge chokes the east-west exit.

As I live in Warrandyte, I have known about the danger posed by that east-west bridge for years, but it was not until I read the Eltham Gateway document that I realised we were pincered between two bridges and the river. Have a close look at the CFA map if you don’t believe me.

The worst fires always come from the northwest. That means people have to evacuate to the south. But the river is in the way. Can you imagine the chaos, and loss of life, if a bushfire like Black Saturday forced us to flee across either of those bridges?

I can, and the image of mangled, burnt out cars lining the roads to these bridges scares me to death.

Even if you think you know all about the possible dangers, please, PLEASE read this document. It is quite long but worth reading, especially for those who plan to evacuate in case of danger. Leaving at the last minute may not be possible, and even leaving early-ish may be more dangerous than you know.

Stay safe

Meeks

 

 

Update to the Firebug post.

I recently wrote a rather angry post about a possible firebug in the Warrandyte area. I honestly thought we’d never know for sure how that fire started, so I’m really thrilled to be able to tell you it wasn’t a firebug, it was a campfire.

This is the comment I received from Andrew, a member of the CFA :

‘Hello All, For your information, This fire started as a result of a campfire that was not extinguished properly. The fire Started along side the Yarra river and burnt 4 hectares of bushland south east up steep terrain in Warrandyte State Park not far form the Clifford park scout center in Wonga Park.

VERY fortunate the weather conditions were favorable for firefighting.

Regards Andrew (CFA Volunteer)‘

Thanks Andrew, not just for providing that welcome information, but also for doing such a great job keeping us all safe. The CFA volunteers put their own lives on the line in so many ways : they fight bushfires and give up huge chunks of their time every summer. All without getting paid or receiving much thanks.

You guys [and girls] are much appreciated even if we don’t say it enough.

-hugs-

Meeks

Firebug? Or some kind of stupid?

CFA map, 26/1/2013

Warrandyte earned its first ‘Watch and Act’ this morning thanks to two separate bushfires in the Wonga Park area. The CFA map shows the position of the last fire to be brought under control. It’s still not completely safe but as rain is predicted for tonight, we can all start breathing again.

The reason we were placed under Watch and Act was, I think, because both fires are located in state parks/reserves that follow the Yarra River as it snakes its way towards Warrandyte. If we had had an easterly wind, it would have pushed the fire right at us. Thank goodness it’s a cool day with very little wind.

But how did two separate fires begin in parkland on a cool day with no lightning?

That is the question, especially in view of the Kangaroo Ground fires of recent weeks. I hate to sound alarmist, but my money is on a firebug who thinks it’s great fun to watch people shitting themselves.

I may be wrong but if these fires are not the work of a nutter, then we must have some very stupid people lighting campfires and letting them get out of control. Either way I hope the authorities find the person or people responsible and give them hell. I’m not a violent person, but even I would be tempted to knock some sense into them with a very big stick!

I’m sorry to rant on like this but I’m angry.

This whole area is a tinderbox thanks to a long, dry summer and the negligence of those who should know better. Most residents are not prepared. Warrandyte has one ‘Safer Place’ * of last resort in a building adjacent to a football oval. I know that spot and I wouldn’t like to trust my life to it.

Why is commonsense in such short supply? How can we live in a place like this and not take the threat of bushfire seriously?

My only hope is that these dress rehearsals will shock some people into reassessing the danger… and taking some responsibility for their own lives and those of their neighbours. I’m not holding my breath.

*’The signs, [for Safer Place] are on Taroona Avenue in Warrandyte, … and point to two brick buildings at Warrandyte Reserve.’ This information appeared in  theage.com.au. You can read the full article here.

Meeks

Bushfires in Australia – 2013

I had a small epiphany today, and it was this : when fire runs out of fuel, it stops.

Seems so obvious doesn’t it? That simple fact is behind the theory and practice of firebreaks and containment lines;  take away the fuel in the path of a fire and it will [eventually] stop. Yet despite the obviousness of this fact, we continue to talk about bushfires as if they’re malevolent demons out to get us, while completely ignoring the part we play in our own destruction.

A man died yesterday. I am not saying he was in any way to blame for what happened to him, but his remains were found in the burnt out wreck of his car. I can only assume he was trying to out run the Gippsland bushfire.

The death of this one, unidentified man is a horrific reminder of the 173 who died in the bushfires of Black Saturday. After those fires we had a Royal Commission that recommended all sorts of sensible, practical measures to ensure nothing like that happens again. Coincidentally, we also had a number of years of above average rainfall. That has had consequences.

After eleven years of drought, the rains following Black Saturday were sorely needed, however they triggered a sort of collective amnesia we could have done without. The Bushfires Royal Commission handed down its report, the State Government changed hands, and we all pushed the fear of bushfires onto the back burner. After all, it was raining for godsake!

In the years since Black Saturday, the CFA sounded warnings about how lots of rain also meant lots of new growth, new growth that would dry off over summer and burn, but we largely ignored the warnings, and the fuel load built up.

Now here we are, back in the middle of an unusually dry, hot summer, with bushfires raging in almost every state, and the worst of the fire season still to come [in February].

I look around my own small corner of Victoria and all I see is neglect, and an almost wilful optimism that ‘we’ won’t be affected. Some home-owners have done the right thing, but far too many haven’t. I guess they’re the ones who’ll  leave in a panic and get caught in the bottle-neck of the bridge.

I understand panic, and when we had that fire at Kangaroo Ground recently, I sent the Daughter off without realising that half of Warrandyte would be trying to do the same thing. She was caught in that bottleneck. That won’t happen again, not to her, but I shudder to think how many Warrandyte residents will do the same thing the next time, and pay the price.

Bushfires are incredibly complex phenomena, and no one thing is ever to blame, but there are a few simple facts that we must acknowledge :

- fires need fuel,

- people who do not clear their blocks provide fuel for fires,

- people who do not clear their blocks endanger their own lives because leaving may not be possible, or it may be more dangerous than staying,

- people who do not clear their blocks put all our lives at risk because fires do not stop at the fenceline.

- and Local Councils who budget the barest minimum for fire-mitigation works – because they refuse to acknowledge the part fuel plays in a bushfire –  are culpable and should be tried in a Court of Law for wilful manslaughter.

Too harsh?  Not harsh enough. We can’t change our climate. We can’t change lightning strikes, and we certainly can’t lock up every fire-bug in the country, but we can change attitudes… if we try hard enough, and if there are legal and financial consequences for failure.

I love living in Warrandyte but there are no free lunches here. All that beauty has to be paid for in vigilance and maintenance. Burying your head in the sand won’t save the rest of your body when the fires visit us again. And they will you know, because Warrandyte is a fire-prone area and we’re living on luck, not good management.

Battening down the hatches – updated at 10:15pm

I just checked the weather and it’s still 36C [96.8 F]… at 10 o’clock at night. What happened to the cool change we were promised?

I know I sound like a whiny little kid but,  after a day sweltering in 41C [105.8 F ] temperatures, I’m finding it hard to be grateful for a 5 degree drop. I am, however, VERY grateful that we had no fires anywhere near us today.  I am also very grateful to the nice repairman who came out and serviced our air-con yesterday. It is struggling now, after a day of constant work, but it got us through. So thank you Amon and thank you to  whoever invented air-conditioning!

Sleep tight,

Meeks

The weather bureau has predicted a week or so of hot weather, and it seems they may be right. It was stinking hot yesterday – 37C in the city but more out here – and today is meant to be even worse, with 41C temperatures and a hot north wind to fan the flames of any bushfires that do start.

The whole state is on high alert and I’ve been doing my bit. Critical areas of the garden have been watered and now all that’s left is to start up the fire-fighting pumps to make sure they’re working properly, clear the back deck of flammable deck chairs, drop all the fire-resistant shutters and turn on the radio.

Radio, you ask? Why would that be part of any bushfire plan?

Well, it’s not just any radio station I’ll be listening to today. ABC 774 is the official bushfire warning channel and during fire season they broadcast alerts whenever they arrive. This is critical because back during Black Saturday, 774 provided the only real information that any of us had about where the fires were, and where they were headed.

To be honest, the official warnings broadcast by 774 during Black Saturday were pretty useless as the authorities had no real idea of what the fires were doing. Nonetheless 774 was invaluable because of the listeners who rang in and provided anecdotal information about what the fire was doing in their area.

I just wish someone had been listening to, and co-ordinating all this anecdotal information at the time. Perhaps then 173 people might not have died.

I’m still angry about Black Saturday, and I’m still angry about the way Nillumbik Shire Council weaseled its way out of all responsibility for their negligence. I don’t care what anyone believes, be that religion or conservationist policy, but when it comes to lives, the only deciding factor should be facts. Ignoring those facts is criminal.

I don’t want to get into a major rant here, but it’s time we accepted realities, and one of those realities is that Australia is not a gentle place. If humans want to co-exist with native flora and fauna here, we have to accept the dangers and take sensible precautions. The policies still being enforced by most local councils are not… sensible.

I doubt that anything horrible will happen today, but fire season has just begun, and this year Warrandyte [as well as the rest of Victoria] is much dryer than it was at the same time last year. By February the whole state will be a tinderbox again and we could see a repeat of Black Saturday.

If you live in a fire-prone area, and that includes all of Warrandyte,  please, PLEASE get your property as fire-proof as possible. Chest high scrub and dry grass on one property will only make the spread of the fire worse for other properties. So even if your plan is to get out early, do your maintenance first. Not only will it help your own house to survive, it may help your neighbour’s house survive as well.

Last but most definitely not least, my thoughts are with those people who are still living in the areas devastated by Black Saturday. I can only imagine the fear you must feel on days like this. I pray you remain safe.

-hugs-

Meeks

Fire season, alpacas – and the things that burn

A few weeks ago I did a series of burns to prepare my block for fire season. I kept these bonfires very small for fear they’d get out of control, even with everything so damp. As a result, I had to struggle to keep my fires going, yet even so I learned some interesting things about what does, and does not, burn in my part of Australia.

As expected, the dry leaves and twiggy branches of gum trees burn very nicely, thank you very much. However I also discovered that even relatively fresh gum leaves will burn. As these leaves contain highly volatile oils, I should not have been surprised by this either.

Still on the subject of leaves and volatile oils, I threw some lemon tree prunings onto the fire and took a big step backwards, expecting the branches to explode into flames. The leaves did burn quite nicely but the branches seemed to burn no better than any other green wood.

Next I tried the dry stalks and flower heads of agapanthus. [Picture courtesy of wiki]

Once these flowerheads and stalks dry off, they burn like paper. The green leaves however took a long time to dry out and eventually burn. For me, the lesson here was that clumps of well maintained agapanthus may help extinguish embers. At a certain temperature, however, anything can and will burn.

While cutting out the dry agapanthus stalks, I also trimmed back some branches of a very hardy, invasive and hard to eradicate shrub whose name I don’t know. I remember finding pictures of it  once, as part of a listing of ‘weeds’ in the Warrandyte area.

I took the two pictures below in the hope that someone would recognize it and name it. [Thanks for the camera tip Metan!]

The reason I want to name and shame this plant is that it snap, crackles and pops on the fire… even when it’s fresh and very green. This thing seems to burn even better than gum leaves, and in a bushfire I can imagine it merrily shooting off burning embers in all directions.

I know Nillumbik Shire Council considers it to be a noxious weed because it is not indigenous to the area, but they have done nothing to force residents to eradicate it. Nor have they, themselves, eradicated it from roadsides and other public places. This stuff should be attacked without mercy because it burns so well, not because of any airy, fairy conservationist principles.

Now that I know how dangerous this unnamed plant truly is, I’ll be blitzing it with a vengeance. If you know what it’s called please let me know asap!

The most welcome thing I learned from my burning off was that I can discourage the alpacas from pooping close to the house by :

a) relocating their poop piles and

b) burning off on the spot where the piles used to be.  I suspect the smell of the ash and charcoal masks the smells that tell the alpacas  ‘Here be  the toilet’.

For those who haven’t been following my adventures with alpacas, these big, woolly lawn-mowers like to leave their poop in neat piles. Unfortunately a couple of their preferred toilet spots are rather close to the house. That is a problem because, although the smell isn’t really all that bad, the green volcanos that grow up around them are both unsightly and difficult to mow by hand. Trust me, you do not want to accidentally mow into a pile of wet poop.

I’ve tried sprinkling lemon oil over these unwanted piles but it didn’t work as a deterrent. The burns will work, so long as you repeat the process until the alpacas ‘forget’ and move on to somewhere else. They can be rather stubborn so even this is not a magic bullet.

As always, I would love to see my fellow residents taking a more proactive part in keeping Warrandyte safe[r] from bushfires.

cheers

Meeks

Warrandyte – proposed rezoning lunacy

I have just learned that the state government is proposing to rezone Warrandyte to allow more people to move into this bushfire prone area – without providing any safeguards against the horror that killed 173 men, women and children on Black Saturday.

As a resident of Warrandyte I call this criminal.

Warrandyte is not a nice, safe, inner city suburb where house fires are either accidental or the result of arson. Warrandyte is a fringe suburb that burns. Regularly.  Major burns occurred in :

1851 – February 6 “Black Thursday”
1939 – January 13 “Black Friday”
1962 – January 14–16

Warrandyte also experienced less destructive bushfires in 1965 and 1969. All the old-timers say we are well and truly overdue for another. So what has changed to make Warrandyte a less fire prone area? Nothing. Not a single damned thing. If anything the danger has become more extreme because of the ideological madness of successive governments and local councils doing even less to reduce fuel loads in the area. If you are interested please see previous posts on bushfire preparedness here and here.

To be brutally honest I don’t give a flying fruitbat for the preservation of the Green Wedge in its present form. I am not interested in ideology. I am not interested in preserving anything in a bubble. Change is inevitable and we are not going to preserve our native flora and fauna by trying to turn back the clock to a time before white settlement. Nonetheless on the issue of rezoning I am siding with the conservationists but for very different reasons. I truly believe that increasing population density in Warrandyte is a recipe for disaster… for people.

Whatever your thoughts on conservation I ask that you go to the website below by following this link or by cutting and pasting the url into the address bar of your browser. Once you get there please sign up to make your views heard.

http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/planning/theplanningsystem/improving-the-system/new-zones-for-victoria

This forum is our only chance to tell the government exactly what we think without having to go through committees or MPs or other representatives. If enough of us raise our voices then maybe, just maybe someone will listen.

Open letter to Nillumbik Shire Council

To the Shire Councillors, past and present, who allowed so many men, women and children in our shire to die on Black Saturday I say ‘who do you think you’re kidding?’

I just took a look at the budget allocations you have made and they would be quite funny if 173 people had not died during the Black Saturday bushfires. You did not take the fire risk seriously before Black Saturday and it is obvious that you are still not taking the risk seriously.

Let’s have a look at those budget allocations shall we?

The highest rating shire in the state of Victoria has allocated :

$500,000 to the upgrade of AE Cracknell Reserve [park] in Panton Hill. Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$300,000 for further development at Edendale.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$290,000 for the Hurstbridge Skate park.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$320,000 for new toilets at Elthan Lower Park.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$105,000 to seal some carparks at ovals [sporting grounds] in Hurstbridge and Diamond Creek.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$150,000 for renewal works at Alistair Knox Park playground.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$1.15 million for roadworks. Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$445,000 for improvements to leisure centres and community halls.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$280,000 for road sealing.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

$200,000 for new footpaths.   Contrast this with just $650,000 for fire prevention.

So, out of a total budget allocation of $4,390,000 you have allocated just $650,000 to the saving of lives?

Why is it that everything else has more importance in your eyes? Do you really think the scrub has stopped growing in the years since Black Saturday? Do you really think it is going to stay green forever more?

I live here and I know that most of the shire is groaning under the fuel load you refuse to acknowledge, especially areas like North Warrandyte that did not burn last time.  We are all living in another tragedy that is just waiting to happen.

Did the Royal Commission into those 173 deaths have no impact on you at all? Does the fact that North Warrandyte, one of the most fire prone areas in the shire, has not one  ‘safe place’ mean nothing to you?  This whole shire is getting set up as one gigantic bbq, yet instead of using this grace period to make the shire safer you are building skate parks and prettying up leisure centres. What kind of priorities are these?

This Council does not look after a nice, cosy, safe inner Melbourne suburb where councils can afford to spend their money on ‘nice-to-haves’. Nillumbik shire is on the edge and we will burn again. Stop pretending that the problem has gone away for good. There are over 60,000 people living in Nillumbik and a huge proportion of that population is living in fire-prone areas. How many more of us can you afford to lose to the horrors of bushfire?

If Nillumbik Council’s budget is anything to judge by then clearly most of us are expendable.

Nillumbik Shire Council was not brought to account for the deaths that occurred during Black Saturday but I swear that if I survive the next one I will not rest until I bankrupt this pathetic excuse for a local government. Shame, Nillumbik, shame.

Yours most sincerely.

 

Bushfire season 2011/12 is over

I hope I haven’t jinxed myself but I honestly can’t see how a fire could hit Warrandyte now – the air is crisp and cool, the grass is a vibrant green and you can almost smell autumn in the air…oh wait, that could be alpaca poop.

For those who don’t know, alpacas almost always poop in nice, discrete piles, as if they invented the idea of latrines. This highly civilized way of defecating means that you can walk around outside without having to wear gumboots all the time. Unfortunately it also means that the smell is rather concentrated. There is a pile of poop about 10 metres from my office window so when we have a  north wind blowing I have to seal the office off. Nonetheless I’m  not complaining. How could I when the alpacas have manicured the grass so nicely?

I have about 1/2 an acre out the back and at the moment it is as well cared for as a putting green! Except for the piles of poop of course; they look like small green volcanoes with a black caldera in the middle. The black part is the poop while the green part is the well fertilized grass around the poop. Not surprisingly the alpacas won’t eat the grass that’s too close to their piles. Can’t say I blame them but the green volcanoes do look a little odd.

Alpaca volcanoes aside though I am pleased to say that the alpaca experiment has been a qualified success. They have done a very good job of keeping the grass down directly around the house and their clawed toes are much kinder to the soil than other introduced grazers such as cattle or sheep. The one downside in using them as part of my fire prevention strategy is that they will only eat the native grasses when there is nothing else to munch on. This was partly my fault as I sowed some special alpaca feed* in the flat spots around the house during the last winter of the big drought. These grasses stay green even when the rest of the grass has gone your typical summer brown but with all the rain we’ve had the last couple of years the alpacas have been spoiled for choice and have ignored the brown stuff with disdain. Even so they have kept the area around the house well mowed and that is all I can ask for now. Come winter I am going to try and extend their pasture further downhill. If it doesn’t take because of the steepness of the slope I’ll have to think about putting in a bit more terracing [gah...more work].

So having alpacas is not a magic bullet but they are better than mowing by hand or, as seems to happen a lot in Warrandyte, not mowing at all. I know that everyone is busy and I know that many of the people in Warrandyte are new to the area but removing fuel load is part and parcel of living here. It is NOT an optional extra.

I know it’s not feasible but I’d love to see herds of alpacas wandering along Brogil  creek and keeping us all safe. They might be a bit of a traffic hazard but at least they’d do a better job of reducing the fuel load than Nillumbik Shire.

Yes, I know I’m a grumpy old ratepayer but you’d think that at $656 per quarter our local council could do something a little more practical than  telling us to clear out our gutters. Every time I receive one of their expensive newletters full of hot air and self congratulations I wonder how a shire that let, nay caused so many people to die on Black Saturday can escape all accountability.

-sigh-

I truly do wish that being elected to local council was like being chosen for jury duty – an unpleasant civic responsibility that no-one in their right mind would want to do. Then at least we might get some local government that was truly unbiased, a-political and not driven by ambition or self-interest. Come to think of it that could work at state and federal levels too…

Back to reality. Alpacas are herd animals and need the companionship of two or more of their kind or they get a bit psychotic – much like people in solitary confinement – so having just one is not a good idea. One way around this problem is to join together with your neighbours in owning and caring for them. I am one of a group of three neighbours and our four alpacas keep a total of about 2.5 acres mowed. To make things easier we invested in side gates that link our three properties. We all get on really well and that helps too.

The bottom line though is that Warrandyte is a fire prone area so if you live here then you must find some way of keeping the fuel load down on your own property. The danger may be past for this season but it will return and when the next fire does come through we will all be on our own so it makes sense to do what we can now.

If you don’t believe me do the math : there are three CFA fire stations dotted around Warrandyte, North Warrandyte and Research. As far as I know each of those fire stations has 2 fire trucks. That makes 6 in all yet even if there were twice that many they would not be enough to protect the 7393 people living in Warrandyte [2006 census figure].  So yes, the reality is that when the next bushfire sweeps through Warrandyte we will be on our own so doing things to help ourselves should be as much a part of the culture as enjoying the ‘serenity’ of living among the gum trees.

And with that homage to The Castle,  I’m going to go out amongst my own gum trees to shovel some alpaca poop. At least it makes good compost.

* Note : ordinary lawn seed is NOT good for alpacas as it can make them bloat which is serious!