Australian bushfire crises

I thought it appropriate to start this topic for those who would like to keep up to date with the current bushfire crises we are facing in Australia. Also, to thank those who have contributed to the various appeals to help those affected by the fires and to thank those Canadian and American firies and their families who have volunteered to come down under to help our firies.

Please see below some links that provide the current status of these fires from the ABC (Australia),The Age/SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) and other sources:

(Yes I am aware of Twiggy Forrest’s comments vis-a-vis arson - but see link below)

It’s just so awful, there aren’t words.

On another forum I belong to, recommendations for donations have been Red Cross, and WIRES for animals. Also RSPCA.

Just brutal. I have a lot of Aussie relatives but they mainly live in Tasmania where its safer. So sorry you all have to go through this.

Awful and devastating. I’ve always wanted to visit Australia, and this looks like it might leave indelible scars.

On a side note, since we’re talking about fires, maybe someone knows a little about a question I’ve been thinking about. Does anyone know about new theories, technologies, chemicals, strategies… for dealing with fires??

We all know about water, fire retardants, backfires, firewalls… Is there anything new and exciting in the area of fire suppression/containment??

@ohknow35 Part of the 70 million dollars Twiggy Forrest has donated is to be used to for research into how best to deal with bushfires going forward. This research will not only help here in Australia but other places in the world such as California. Hopefully, there will be a combined effort of the best experts in the world to research it.

Whilst the bushfire crises are far from over in Australia, there have been some positive signs of renewal as well:

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/heartening-photos-show-bush-coming-back-to-life-after-fires/news-story/dbf69fa67e7cc311cde736cb8f57846a

It will be a long time for recovery, and in some cases there will be irreversible changes due to extinctions of our flora and fauna, the link shows that there is some renewal already occurring.

I note that the USA has issued a travel advisory with respect to visiting Australia at the moment. Whist that is sound advice for parts of Australia, what will be of tremendous help to those affected by these devastating bushfires is for people to visit at the appropriate time. You will find us Aussies generally very welcoming and friendly and Australia has many great things to see and do.

Thanks for the reply. It will probably be at least a few years before we ever make it over there, but it’ll be worth the wait. I’ve always felt drawn to a trip there for years and years.

My wife’s boss is Australian. He’s a very nice guy. A few years ago I tried a vegemite biscuit at the office Christmas party. My wife was a bit more adventurous and tried some more exotic foods.

Not all Aussies, including me, like vegemite. Subject to finances of course, it would be well worth spending a several weeks here and also New Zealand. Some people do not realise the size of Australia. To put it in perspective a flight from Perth to Sydney is about a 4 hour to 4 and a quarter hour flight. You can add about another 30 minutes the other way because of headwinds.

Of course I definitely recommend a visit to Western Australia and to give you a feel for the size of WA it is about 3 times as big as Texas. The best time to see the north of WA is during our winter Jun - Aug. It is a lot cooler, drier and less humidity up there and no risk of cyclones at that time of year. We have great wine growing areas in the Swan Valley (near Perth) and further south near Margaret River.

A trip to see the masses of fairy penguins march ashore near Melbourne is a must see.

Unfortunately it appears that fires have merged in the Snowy Valley. It is going to be a very rugged night for those in the affected areas.

Okay @westaussie I found the article I have a question on.

Do you guys really have commercial farms raising Kangaroo for their meat? I know here we do elk farms and bison and other lamb, people eat rabbit. My brother once was on an island where they ate flamingo meat.

A popular burger joint here in Utah searches and finds exotic (non endangered species) meat and advertises their latest. December it was Kanagroo burgers. Says they orded clear back in like October was delivered in December and people here are throwing a fit because of the fires there calling it insensative.

So two questions: Do you guys really eat Kangaroo meat and really have commercial farms to raise them???

Yes kangaroo meat is consumed in Australia. I checked the internet and found this article which may be of interest to you:

By the way we have two animals on our coat of arms: the kangaroo and the emu. Both are consumed in restaurants in Australia.

I will also add that indigenous Australians have eaten both for thousands of years. Personally I have not eaten either.

With respect to the specific article no I personally don’t think it is insensitive at all and I doubt that many Aussies would think it is. Notwithstanding that I have no objection from a marketing perspective for the Burger Bar maybe if they announce that they would a make a donation for each roo burger they sell, it might offset any negative publicity associated with the sale of the burgers.

Well you learn something new every day. I didn’t know if it was just a specialty fad or like buffalo burgers here.
Thanks

See below a report on how much of an impact the bushfires have hadon out native animals:

The link below provides some personal stories and impact on the budhfires:

Australia is trying something slightly out of the box by going after some of the filthy little arsonists starting all the wildfires. lol :wink:

As I have mentioned earlier there has been a great deal of misinformation reported on the bushfires and how much of the fires have been started by arson. The appropriate authorities have repudiated those claims. The claim all the bushfires have been started by arsonists is WRONG.

See link below of the fire that started a couple of days ago in Perth.

This was on the Sydney Opera House tonight:

As I mentioned previously there has been a great deal of misinformation about the role rsonists have played in the bushfire crises Australia has faced this summer. Please see link below that shows the truth about that.

Fires started by accident and/or negligence are almost as bad as arson.

Hopefully the rains forecast do come as predicted:

Just an update to my earlier post. Thunderstorms are also forecast. Hopefully, no new bushfires are started by lightning strikes.