Frank Gaglioti
The spring season has started in Australia with unprecedented bushfires devastating rural areas in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW). The fires, driven by extreme weather and drought conditions, have affected large swathes of the landscape, destroying homes and livelihoods.
From early September, blazes hit part of the Gold Coast hinterland in southeast Queensland and the Sunshine Coast, 100 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane, as well as the southern Granite Belt region. About 15,000 hectares were burnt out across the state over a week, fanned by strong winds.
A fire on North Stradbroke Island, 40 kilometres east of Queensland capital Brisbane [Credit: Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Facebook]
Several homes were destroyed at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast, where the police declared a state of emergency. At the height of the crisis, hundreds of residents were forced to abandon their homes and flee to evacuation centres.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) North Coast Chief Superintendent Michelle Young told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that fast winds fanned ember attacks at least two kilometres ahead of fires, threatening areas from Peregian Beach to Marcus Beach.
Young said wind gusts of 50 kilometres per hour caused embers to travel huge distances, sparking spot fires because of the dry conditions. Residents at Castaways Beach, Sunrise Beach, Sunshine Beach and Noosa Springs were told to prepare to leave their homes.
According to fire authorities, 87 fires were raging across the state, including on the Atherton Tablelands in the far north. Eleven schools had to be closed in the affected areas. Approximately 97 properties suffered damage.
“Those fires went through like a freight train, it was like a plane going past, they were moving so fast,” Tracey Beggs, a Gold Coast hinterland resident, told the ABC.
The fires in that region ravaged sections of rainforest. This is unprecedented, as these areas were considered too wet to burn. Historic Binna Burra Lodge, located in the rainforest, was largely destroyed, potentially leaving 70 workers out of a job.
A firefighter battles the blaze in Queensland [Credit: Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Facebook]
Meanwhile, 50 fires were burning across NSW, destroying numbers of homes. Large planes were used to dump fire retardant, while hundreds of firefighters confronted the fires on the ground.
Although more benign conditions have since returned to the fire zones, authorities are warning of a disastrous fire season. Very dry conditions are affecting much of NSW and southern Queensland. Fires are still burning in less accessible areas. Firefighters said that only sustained rainfall will put out these fires, but this is an unlikely occurrence.
QFES Predictive Services Unit Manager Andrew Sturgess said: “It is an historic event. [We’ve] never seen this before in recorded history—fire weather has never been as severe, this early in spring… So this is an omen, if you will—a warning of the fire season that we’re likely to see ahead in the southeastern parts of the state, the driest parts of the state, where most of our population is.”
Scientists are pointing to the significance of the fact that sections of rainforest were burnt out. This is extremely rare, although areas in central Queensland were affected last year. While the dominant eucalypt forests are adapted to fire, as a regular feature of the environment, fire will kill trees outright in rainforests.
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