OZ: Bushfires ? are threatening the state of NSW.

[digrar]

They're obviously native down here, we won't be controlling them any time soon.

I don't think I've heard of any of them being started by power lines. Although it wouldn't be the first time. We fought one on Christmas day about 10 years ago when a mates farm went up after a isolator failure.
Some will argue that control burns have been inadequate. Others will argue that the taking of firewood out of state forests has been curtailed to the point where too much fuel is being left on the ground. Others that we didn't have these sorts of fires when stock were allowed to graze in the parks. I personally believe a few executions of arsonists wouldn't go astray. Make the under 12 fire bugs watch.
The drought is obviously playing a part and climate change is a driver. Although I'd have thought if Australia had gone as green as we possible could have (or used up a bit of our uranium) as early as we could have, we'd be experiencing the very same drought we're experiencing now.

 

[BravoZulu]

"My country" by Dorothea Mackellar written between 1904 and 1908. A poem learnt by heart by all school kids when I went through primary school in the 1960's, especially the 2nd stanza...nothing is new under the sun

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

 

[HisRoyalHighness]

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Police are now pointing the finger at arsonists.

Understanding an arsonist’s motives may help stop future fires

With people deliberately lighting almost half the bushfires this season, experts are calling for more research to better understand arsonists – and stop them before their ideas catch alight.
For every 1000 people you pass on the street, one of them probably wants to light a fire and see the world burn, according to Melbourne University bushfire expert Janet Stanley.

ARSONISTS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

“There’s almost no treatment for people who light fires,” Prof Stanley said. “And there’s no support to prevent them doing it again.”

The academic is advocating for a different approach entirely – stopping an arsonist before their actions get to a critical and life-threatening point.

“It’s all very well to put out the fires lit by arsonists, but you should be able to stop them before it comes to that,” Prof Stanley said.

“From 4-6pm – after school is finished – and Saturday night – when kids are bored,” are the most likely times bushfires will start.

Most of the time, arsonists live a “short bicycle ride from where they do it (start a fire)”.

“Most communities have a pretty good idea about who’s lighting the fires.

“School teachers often know the problem kids, know who’s been lighting fires around the school and in rubbish bins and things.”

With greater research and funding, she believes these people can be stopped before a town goes up in flames.

Arsonists: why understanding their motives could stop Australia’s bushfire problem

With people deliberately lighting almost half the bushfires this season, experts are calling for more research to better understand arsonists – and stop them before their ideas catch alight.

amp.news.com.au

Australia should implement a 'register of arsonists': Smith

Sky News host Chris Smith has called for a “register of arsonists” saying the public has a right to know “where they reside and what they’ve been convicted of”. “Don't tell me an act of arson is not potentially catastrophic or deadly… It is,” he said. Mr Smith said Australia is “a country that suffers from drought-fuelled firestorms” and that a “single act of arson” can have “incredibly destructive results”. Mr Smith said the proposal is one “worth considering, when this [fire] season is done”.

Australia should implement a ‘register of arsonists’: Smith

Sky News host Chris Smith has called for a “register of arsonists” saying the public has a right to know “where they reside and what they’ve been convicted of”. “Don't tell me an act of arson is not potentially catastrophic or deadly… It is,” he said. Mr Smith said Australia is “a country...

www.news.com.au

I don’t mind throwing convicted arsonists into a volcano as sacrifices to whatever diety is currently pissed off but creating a culture of fear around suspected arsonists is not a good idea.

 

[BravoZulu]

183 people have been charged over 200+ fires in New South Wales alone since November 2019...but global warming ya know!

 

[Mordoror]

183 people have been charged over 200+ fires in New South Wales alone since November 2019...but global warming ya know!

One doesn't exclude the other. In fact i'd say that both are worsening each others deeds.

 

[Mordoror]

As we are on a military board, i'd notice also that this episode of mammoth brush fires is showing a concerning vulnerability of the australian infrastructures and responses SOPs/capabilities and this could be used in case of military (or terrorist) action.
Is anybody aware if this is taken in consideration in any military contigency or operational planification ?

 

[Chris O`Crooh]

Fcuk, you`re right... Just think of Spain or Portugal in August...

 

[primer]

Aussie bush fires smoke blankets Chile , Argentina skies. We had some ash on our window in NZ presumably from Aussie.

 

[digrar]

Is anybody aware if this is taken in consideration in any military contigency or operational planification ?

No doubt it's on the books, Defence has been heavily involved (not that it's been acknowledged by the media, as it doesn't gel with the narrative) with the fires since early November. We're constantly setting our own ranges on fire during exercises, we're well aware of fire in our environment and the impact of it.

 

[BCNTM]

Looking at the footage of all the fires there seem to be a lot of houses with trees round them? Why did they not clear the trees for 100 yards round the buildings? just struck me as odd - I would have had a bulldozer in there and scraped it clean

 

[primer]

Have to have a permit to remove big trees? Is that a bylaw or some other rhyme or regulation?

 

[digrar]

Knocking down trees willy nilly is a pretty good way to give yourself an education on how the Australian legal system works.

 

[BCNTM]

Knocking down trees willy nilly is a pretty good way to give yourself an education on how the Australian legal system works.

on the news this morning they seem to have taken up my idea - they were cutting trees down

I have been reading that the abbo's say its all down to bad land management? they used to do a controlled burn to get rid of all the undergrowth etc.
Something else to blame the white man for

 

[BCNTM]

Have to have a permit to remove big trees? Is that a bylaw or some other rhyme or regulation?

same problem in the UK - I had to remove a very large nasty ash tree and had a huge argument with the tree preservation woman - I said shall we go down to the house and have a cup of tea to discuss what tree it is? She realized she was on to a looser when she saw all the books on trees , including all the main monographs unlucky

 

[digrar]

on the news this morning they seem to have taken up my idea - they were cutting trees down

I have been reading that the abbo's say its all down to bad land management? they used to do a controlled burn to get rid of all the undergrowth etc.
Something else to blame the white man for

After a fire, tree falls are one of the number one hazards to health. So cutting them down becomes critical.

It's not just the indigenous people (not the done thing to call them abbos in polite society) saying that land management has been lacking. It's being shouted from the roof tops all over the place. Hazard reduction burns still happen, it's just the volume of work required is not getting done, due to a host of reasons.

 

[BCNTM]

After a fire, tree falls are one of the number one hazards to health. So cutting them down becomes critical.

It's not just the indigenous people (not the done thing to call them abbos in polite society) saying that land management has been lacking. It's being shouted from the roof tops all over the place. Hazard reduction burns still happen, it's just the volume of work required is not getting done, due to a host of reasons.

sorry I hung out with too many Aussies in the 80's

 

[Euroamerican]

Emergency orders and a proactive fire protection unit coming into your area might be a nice way to clear the way on the official paperwork if you need some old shabby trees removed! Then again, if you've really never tried to keep things clear from your house and time's of the essence, you might be on the losing end of a triage for what is worth the work to save and what's marked as not worth the effort.

 

[digrar]

sorry I hung out with too many Aussies in the 80's

Me too...!

 

[primer]

Substantial rainfall near the east coast, flooding. Very extreme.

 

[digrar]

Too slack to look back and see if it's been mentioned, but flash flooding, land slides and contamination of water supplies and creeks/rivers is a common after effect with rains after fire due to the water repellent effect the fires have on the soil.
In saying that, it looks like the flooding up on the Gold Coast and Brisbane, is just flash flooding from a 100-200mm event.