I must begin this article by offering my very sincere thanks for the kind messages of support and concern we have received from so many ipernity members. It really has brought home to me that this is a very caring community group, not merely a photo sharing site. The essential point you need to know is that Pauline and I, and our furry friends, are safe and well and apart from being covered in soot and losing power and communications, our property has not been affected by the fires. As at writing, the nearest fires were stopped a few kilometres from us.

Beyond that, where do I begin? Probably, for the benefit of those overseas, a little background on fire seasons and conditions here. There has been a fair amount of what I would have to (politely) call 'disinformation' from some in our national government (the correct term relates to taurine excrement).

Yes, Australia has always had some bushfires, though on nothing like the scale seen this year. Our climate means that, in the southern part of the country, the summers are dry and winters wet, while in the north it's the opposite way round. We also have droughts, sometimes lasting several years as the current one has done across much of the country. Putting those factors together gives the basis for fires. UPDATE 9/1/20 The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has just issued a report that 2019 was the nation's hottest and driest year on record.

What has changed though, is that (despite what the climate change deniers want us to believe), temperatures in Australia are rising. www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate . The item above has a graph showing average temperatures, with new record highs being set regularly. Higher temperatures result in lower humidity, meaning the vegetation dries out more and that makes it more inflammable. Climate change also results in changes to the way weather patterns move, so sometimes making rain less likely or hot dry winds more likely in certain areas, or even bringing extreme rainfall events, particularly in the tropics.

Putting these together results in more erratic weather and fire conditions. In the north of Australia, Queensland has some beautiful rainforest in its southern mountain areas. You may refer to this kind of forest as “jungle”. This has been saved as National Parks and, many years ago when I lived in that area, I used to go walking and camping there. It was always moist (usually dripping water). Fires there were virtually unknown. In the past few years I have been amazed by the news of extensive and intense fires in these areas, from which the forest may never recover in its original form (eucalypts are more resilient to fires and are likely to take over).

Further south, where I now live, I am old enough to have seen a number of droughts. That said, I do not recall ever seeing the vegetation as desiccated as it has been recently. Put that together with lower humidity and the tendency to more intense fires becomes obvious. It is interesting that a delegation of 23 retired senior fire commissioners, from around the country, tried to warn the national government about this many months ago tinyurl.com/y4px8z4m but they have been ignored and the Prime Minister would not spare the time to meet them.

The retired fire experts noted that, in normal years, “controlled burning” (low intensity intentionally lit fires) would be done during calm cooler weather when vegetation had built up excessively. With rising temperatures and drier conditions, the opportunity to do that safely has now been reduced greatly.

What has been tremendously heartening, among all the gloom and awful devastation the fires have caused, has been the amount of community support. Starting with the thousands of volunteer firefighters “The Firies” around the country, who have donated all their time, in some cases now for months, toward control efforts. Then there are the community groups who have assisted with the operation of evacuation centres; the wildlife carers who are working hard to save as many of the fire affected wildlife as possible; and the businesses that have donated food and other support for those affected and for the many workers.

As I said at the start, we have been fortunate and have been spared direct contact with the fires. The fires left us without power, internet or communications for various periods and we have seen some of the direct fire effects - I have added some relevant images in my ipernity photo stream.