Gippsland Bushfires

Luckily most of us are untouched by bushfire risk.

However, we were holidaying 3 weeks ago at Heyfield where the current bushfires hit.
The road from Heyfield to Licola (where we were) is closed and the fire swept through an area only 2 or 3 kilometres from the township of heyfield.

My sister's in-laws have a farm there and the fire burnt through 500 of their 700 acres.
Luckily the house and sheds were in the untouched 200 acres.
They have an earthmoving business and used water trucks to make sure the area around the house was well soaked.

But all the images on TV and the net, showed areas we had driven through or spent time holidaying.
It was a cool 9 degrees at night when we were there and we even had sanctioned camp fires!
On New Year's Eve some of the campers even had fireworks!
It just shows you how close to home these things can get when the conditions turn around.

The thing that still strikes me is how close that area is to dairy country where there is endless green grass and irrigation channels. But so close to the forested High Country.

It wakes you up a bit to the high environmental vulnerability of these communities.