Fires update and other nature events

Ok - so the fires in Victoria still go on but there was a bit of better news today with a revision of the expected final death toll back to approx 220 - they have been able to trace 70 + of the missing, believed killed to being alive.

Unfortunately the death toll currently stands at 210, which includes 3 firefighters - 2 volunteers and a professional firie who was working out of area to help out. Also there have been a couple of reasonably serious injuries, including members from brigades near me who were providing assistance. (Consider the fact that I live 800miles -1200 kms away from the fire scene and the enormity of the task might become a bit clearer)

On the other end of the continent, we have witnessed major flooding which has isolated communities and properties for weeks, with a number of deaths by drowning and one case of being taken by a croc (why any parent would condone, let alone allow a child to play near or in floodwaters beggars belief - floods are similar to wildfires, mother nature is running rampant and is totally unpredictable and unforgiving - to call playing in floodwaters "a rite of passage"
is akin to letting children play hopscotch in the middle of a major freeway.

Nearer home there has been major floodingto the south of me (Coffs harbour, Bellingen, Kempsey and a few areas south to Newcastle. I am under minor flood alert which is not a real issue to me at the moment - the river was rising on Tuesday so I pulled my pump etc out to high ground (dont need the pump at the moment, the tanks are full and rain is pattering on the roof as I type) ,and the cattle will work to the higher ground if the river does rise towards major levels, so all is well in my world in that respect as we needed this rain now to give us a chance to get some winter feed in the paddocks and some ground water back into the soil.

" Climate Change ???" - Mankind and the enviroment

Over the last week , we have witnessed the savagery that nature can inflict in Victoria, Australia,
with fires of a magnitude that has been equalled to the equivalenty of 660 Nagasaki / Hiroshima events.

Whole towns have been completely destroyed, approximately 200 people are dead and another 100 are feared dead at this stage -most of these towns are classified as crime scenes whilst the police and other specialists undertake the gruesome task of searching for bodies in the rubble, and also try to determine the actual cause of the fire - arson is suspected in some cases ( 1 arrest has been made in relation to one particular fire)

For those of you who have not had access to the dramas that unfolded - consider that one town that was almost completely razed - pop 500 - they expect to recover 100 bodies .

The talkback radios have been full on with comments , critisms , and debate over the causes and management/ mismanagement that led to this whole tragedy unfolding ( and the fires are still burning) , but the greatest lot of bull that I have heard on this was on the news tonight with the Xspurts blaming climate change for this event, and even going to the lengths of obtaining opinions from forestry fire fighters in the US -they might know there flora, but they dont know ours.

The bottom line seems to be the extreme influence that the radical "Green" element has imposed on the management of the Australian "bush", which has led up to the declaration, then basically locking up, of large areas of National Parks - with an ever increasing number of beauracrats & "Xspurts", and a 3 fold diminishing of the staff who were responsible for the on ground maintenance of these areas for the safety of the flora and fauna, and responsible for the control of exotic flora and fauna in these areas - and also their attitude that they can control what someone who owns property adjacent can or cannot do on their own property - perhaps thjey should look back on their own achievements in recent years - 3 dead employees at a prescribed burn + 7 hospitilised for months, properties and livestock destroyed because they refused to allow a backburn to be put in to contain an out of control fire -etc this all in NSW.

Whilst they wring there hands about the possible extinction of the "lesser known double spotted frog " and his ilk , perhaps they should consider that once there were mammoths ,dodos etc. These are now extinct, and thousands of other creatures, and perhaps we are the lesser for their passing, but it must be remembered that we live in the enviroment that is here now -and mankind has made many grave errors over the last200 years or so, which we must endeavour to rectify as far as possible, and endeavour to not worsen the damages done, - but also, we must ensure that the enviroment that we create is safe for us, and the flora and fauna that is a part of that enviroment. Destruction such as is happening in Victoria is unforgivable ,especially when it is known that a few people with "common sense" instead of a degree could see the problem, but were shouted down.

Perhaps I should mention that I am a (volunteer) firie of 30+ yrs experience and count as fellow brigade members and friends a collection of people (including 2 Yanks) who are conservationists, people who are willing to put in the hard yards to try to prevent large scale fires and devastation,whilst also trying to maintain a secure haven for our native friends on and in the earth.