Kate's Blog

The Blue Mountains, where I grew up, are a World Heritage listed area to the west of Sydney. Bushfires are a common feature of summer there. As I write this, there's a fire burning out of control near where my mother lives in Mount Victoria. 80 km away, in Sydney, the sky is tinged with orange from the smoke. It's a familiar sight to anyone who has spent a summer in Sydney – the first reports were from 1788 when the British first sent convicts and settlers here, so it is clear that the Koori (Australian Aboriginal) inhabitants experienced it too.

It's difficult to say if the fires have become worse over the past few years – one of my early memories is being evacuated to Sydney because of bushfires. My father was a member of the local bushfire brigade – of course, now they use the more professional sounding term “ Rural Fire Service” - but look at their URL and you'll see they haven't changed that much. Before the fire swept through the Lower Blue Mountains where we lived, I remember the smell of eucalyptus smoke in the house for weeks – he would come home from work at 6:30 pm, then go out “ fire-fighting” until midnight, back to work the next morning (I suppose he must have slept on the train). A fire can smoulder away in almost inaccessible places (like the Grose Valley, where the current one is) for weeks at a time, then, when conditions are right – generally a hot north-westerly wind – it will jump the gorges and gullies and burn until it reaches the Nepean River at the foot of the mountains. In the Blue Mountains, most houses are built on the top of the ridges, where the fire is hottest, and houses are regularly damaged or destroyed.

Today looks like being one of those days where the fire may “run”. The fire has already broken the containment lines, and a strong westerly wind is forecast. You can see photos of the fire at the RFS site, and read the latest status here.

The current fire was started by lightning strikes a week ago, but often they are started by people: either deliberately set, or when a “safe” fire gets out of hand. Most plants in the Blue Mountains are adapted to bushfires, requiring fire for the seeds to germinate, so they have been a normal feature for a long time (we know that Kooris deliberately set fires to attract game to the lush new growth that appears after the fires). But on days like today, the fire will burn too hot for many plants and animals to survive. Hopefully this fire will be stopped, or at least no people will be injured or property destroyed.