Bushfire and Beachside Getaway

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Today we’re definitely starting to feel a hint of the summertime heat and humidity that’s coming.

The high today is 30 to 31 deg C, and while the low is expected to be around 20 deg C this evening, I’m not sure we’ll enjoy it all that much as today we’re getting a hint of the humidity levels to come.

Earlier this morning the humidity level was 75% and now it’s dropped to 50%. That, combined with the heat and the extreme UV level, means a lot of time spent outdoors gardening is not an option right now! It would be extremely hot and sweaty work.

Six days ago we experienced quite an eventful afternoon and evening. A bush fire was raging across the other side of the hill directly opposite our property. Apparently someone lit a fire on their property without a fire permit (required during our dry season) and then let it burn without supervision!

Our first hint of what was happening came when we spotted this smoke across the way from our house!

The unsupervised fire took off into the bush and became an out-of-control vegetation fire that came very close to some houses.

That arrow shows the location of our property – it’s on a smaller hill opposite the hill that’s on fire.

In an effort to get the bush fire under control seven fire fighting brigades were called – both volunteer Rural and Urban crews – and the rural fire brigade helicopter was up twice during the afternoon attempting to map the progress of the fire.

The helicopter circled around the hill directly across from our place many, many times throughout the afternoon.

Our own District Rural Fire Brigade needed the support of five other rural brigades and two urban fire brigades. It took hours of work, including work with a grader operated by one of the landholders whose property was at risk, to contain the fire to an area of mostly inaccessible land between Alligator Creek Road, Oaky Creek (which runs behind properties on the other side of the hill in the photo) and a very large firebreak at the far end of the hill.

We watched as the smoke came closer and noticed how dark the smoke was in some areas where the fire raged quite fiercely.

The fire was not put out entirely by the fire crews and it started making its way over the hill, down the other side towards Oaky Creek which is a dry creek bed running along the bottom of the little hill where our property sits. One edge of our property adjoins Oaky Creek, so we had to stay up most of the night watching the fire as it crept down the hill closer to the dry creek bed.

Thankfully, the night was still and there was almost no wind the next day. The fire burnt itself out before it had the chance to jump the creek and make its way up our little hill. Our property was safe!

We had already booked a week’s break for our wedding anniversary and as it turned out, it coincided with the day after the bushfire was almost out. We decided to head off for our getaway as there was almost a negligible chance our property was at risk by then.

We did have hoses and sprinklers set out along the fence line, just as a precaution, and our lovely neighbours were happy to keep an eye on the place for us, but Mother Nature conspired to keep the weather nice and calm and the fire extinguished itself.

We enjoyed a fantastic break at Mission Beach, about 240 kms to the north, and returned yesterday to view across to a slightly charred hillside!

Here’s a few shots from Mission Beach:

The view to Mission Beach from our balcony.