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Thanks Russell and all,
As far as I know, so far,
there have been 419 houses lost in Canberra. That was the count this morning. It
appears that 6 of these belong to COG members (but is a preliminary count). At
the moment, the north western suburbs are under alert, although the threat
appears to be not as big now as predicted likely by this time, as at this
morning. The community spirit in Canberra and surrounding rural areas is the
best anywhere, and we all know impacted people.
As for Laurie's question: "I'm not sure whether the
intensity is due to:
1. the pine plantations
2. the drought
3. the
weather conditions at the time of the fire"
The answer is yes to all. The issue is that Duffy, the
suburb worst affected, is immediately adjacent (directly over the road) from a
huge pine forest that extends a long way to the west. There were cyclonic winds
that blew the fires into the suburbs. The wind blew over many trees and blew in
house windows apparently well ahead of the arrival of the fire. By contrast,
Kambah and now the areas of concern in the north west of the city are mostly
adjacent to drought-affected open native woodland and grassland. The problem is
far from over at this stage. The ACT Chief Minister is now on the radio and
talked about the city being under seige - but most are coping OK.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From:
Russell Woodford <>
To:
<>
Date:
Tuesday, 21 January 2003 16:18
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] FW:
Fires
Some people have been asking about Philip Veerman
who lives in Canberra. I received this message from him a few
minutes ago (I haven't been online for a couple of
days).
Cheers
Russell
--- Original Message ---
From:
"Philip A. Veerman" <>
Sent:
Mon, 20 Jan 2003 10:55:14 +1100
To: <>
Subject:
Fires
Saturday afternoon was scarey out this way. There
are many COG (Canberra Ornithologists Group) members and friends in
the worst fire affected areas. Hopefully they escaped the worst.
So
far I am fine. I have a lot of friends in the worst fire affected areas,
suburbs of Duffy, Weston, etc. are about 8 km away. I don't know
specifically of who was and wasn't directly impacted (well we all are, some
just indirectly) but the chance that I don't have friends who have lost
property is pretty remote. We had several hundred houses burned down in
bushfires in Canberra. The nearest about 1 km from my place. From where I
was at home, I wouldn't have know whether fires were 100 m away or 10 km
away but it was hot, dark (almost like night time) at 4.00 pm with a great
noise from the fires. During the day, I couldn't see Mt Taylor and Urambi
Hills, which are the reserve areas on the north east south west boundaries
of Kambah (my suburb). At night, they were clearly burning throughout the
whole length of these reserves. Yesterday I had helicopters constantly
flying over (and I can hear at least one now), presumably taking water from
Tuggeranong Lake. I was raking my law
n for a escape route, clearing the
roof, clearing the roof of the carport, making a start on one neighbour's
property's roof, etc.
Power was off here for 27 hours.
At 1
am Sunday morning there were Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos calling and
flying around my place. They or others of their kind were still here
throughout the morning. It was really noticeable that there were lots of
birds around here today. Nothing I haven't had before but in numbers and
presence quite abnormal for mid summer or that haven't been here for weeks.
Including Gang-gang Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, 1 Satin
Bowerbird, about 6 King-Parrots, 2 Brown Thornbills, White-naped Honeyeater,
1 Golden (& pair of Rufous) Whistlers, 1 Dollarbird, 1 Brown Falcon, far
bigger flocks of Galahs & S-c Cockatoos than usual.
I sure hope
that today & tomorrow is better than
Saturday.
Philip
Birding-Aus is on
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www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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