Bushfires have burned 4m hectares and left nine people dead, and fire authorities say they ‘haven’t seen a season like it’
More than four million hectares of Australia have burned and nine people have died since September in an “unprecedented” start to the summer fire season.
Guardian Australia spoke to fire authorities in every state about what they expect to happen next.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Department’s brief said that ‘coordinated national action’ was needed to ward off increasing disruptions
The government was warned by the Department of Home Affairs after the May election that Australia faced more frequent and severe heatwaves and bushfires, and that livelihoods would be affected without effective action on climate change.
The department’s incoming government brief to the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, warned of “disasters” exacerbated by climate change.
Continue reading...Cudlee Creek fire revealed to have destroyed 86 homes in South Australia while 100 more estimated lost in New South Wales as residents wait to discover extent of devastation from weekend’s fires. Follow the latest news and updates
SA Premier and Governor tour the fireground in Woodside in Adelaide Hills #safires @abcadelaide @CFSAlerts pic.twitter.com/VRfRvWLdny
Many more homes could have been lost in the NSW town of Balmoral on Saturday when the RFS firefighting crew ran out of water.
Guardian Australia’s Helen Davidson reports flames began reaching 200m above the treetops and the town, which is on tank water, simply did not have enough to meet demand.
We were desperately trying to get more water into us, desperately calling for more to come in. A member from another brigade spoke to his boss about getting another truck into us really quick. That company saved a lot of homes.
Continue reading...Using tactics straight out of the Trump playbook, the PM has mocked those who are outspoken
It is painful to watch political denial in action. Believe me, I’ve been down this road before. I lived through Aids denialism in South Africa and I’m witnessing denial again in Australia.
In the last few weeks, as fires have raged across New South Wales, and as the nation has grown increasingly furious about Scott Morrison’s lack of leadership, I have felt like I am in a time warp.
Continue reading...Australian PM Scott Morrison says government won’t change its climate change policy as New South Wales premier says ‘not much left’ of town of Balmoral
The devastation from Australia’s bushfire crisis became clearer on Sunday, as the South Australian premier said 72 homes had been destroyed and his New South Wales counterpart revealed there was “not much left” of the town of Balmoral, south-west of Sydney.
It is feared the figures for homes lost may get much worse as authorities continue to assess the damage from Saturday, and with dozens of fires still active.
Continue reading...The Gospers Mountain fire has consumed hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and is now threatening towns and lives
The fire is two kilometres away, but the heat is already beginning to warm the faces of those who wait.
The air is eerily still. There is no wind. There are no birds. There is no natural noise, just the distant chatter of helicopters in the sky, flying between water source and flames.
Continue reading...Emergency fire warnings have been issued for parts of NSW, including Greater Sydney, Victoria and South Australia. Follow for the latest news and updates
And this frightening footage from Adelaide.
As poster Lucky Tran says: “Thousands of expats are now returning home to Australia for the holidays and seeing sights like this from the plane. Incredibly heartbreaking.”
So.... this is what my hometown of Adelaide, Australia is looking like for the holidays...
( https://t.co/SVtoNiQ2mn)#ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/zR8TY8z92S
The Gospers Mountain fire covers a very large area, and emergency warnings and conditions will vary in different parts of the area.
The most dangerous area now is from Bilpin to Kurrajong Heights.
This is the potential fire spread map for Gospers Mountain and Green Wattle Creek in NSW today.
Right now, there is an emergency warning for Bilpin to Kurrajong Heightshttps://t.co/oYWX28NJmR pic.twitter.com/bBYznfNqwx
The death toll from the unprecedented crisis has reached eight and sparked an apology from the prime minister
Even by the standards of 2019, with an Australian public increasingly conditioned to the threat of unprecedented bushfires and and warnings of record-breaking heat, this has been a week unlike those before it.
On Friday, firefighters were battling more than 200 fires across five states as a heatwave engulfing the country pushed temperatures in the south into the mid-40s, and Sydney and other centres were enveloped in a smoke that health professionals warned had been at hazardous levels for nearly a month. Strong winds pushed the smoke 900km south, where it also blanketing Melbourne.
Continue reading...Catastrophic bushfire conditions expected for several SA regions, Queensland faces severe fire danger and Melbourne weather forecast for hottest ever December day, as Morrison says he ‘deeply regrets any offence caused’ by holiday. Follow the latest news and updates
Leighton Drury, the NSW state secretary of the Fire Brigade Employees’ Union and a serving firefighter, has slammed both the New South Wales and federal governments over what he calls a lack of leadership and resourcing.
Both the premier Gladys Berejiklian and the prime minister Scott Morrison have consistently said crews in the state have the resources they need to battle the more than 100 fires currently burning across the state.
But at a press conference today Drury said the union believed the state’s professional firefighting force was currently 400 staff short, and he’d been told some regional crews were facing further cuts.
Drury told media that senior Fire and Rescue NSW figures had told him on Thursday that two regional communities - Urunga near Coffs Harbour on the state’s mid-coast and Peak Hill, south of Dubbo - would have their minimum staffing reduced from four firefighters to two as a result of budget cuts.
Drury said the cuts were emblematic of a wider lack of resourcing within Fire and Rescue NSW, the state’s professional fire service.
The union estimates that since 2011 firefighter numbers have remained at best stagnant while the state’s population has grown by approximately 800,000. The union believes the state’s force is 400 professional firefighters short.
“I’m calling on the premier, the treasurer and the emergency services minister to get in a room with Fire and Rescue NSW we know we’re 400 firefighters short across the state, 300 in regional NSW,” he said.
“That’s just on current numbers, that’s not to deal with the crisis we’re dealing with right now.”
The state’s professional firefighters have been working alongside the Rural Fire Service volunteers battling the more than 100 fires currently burning across the state.
“The RFS are doing all they can but let’s be honest you can’t ask people to do things for free for months on end they have their own lives. We’re coming into Christmas, they have their own jobs, they’ve got to earn a quid which is why we need professional firefighters to take care of these fires.
“The RFS, they’ve been at this now for three months this is not just the last two weeks. These fires started in August. We’ve been telling the government since March. They’re not listening and they need to fix it.”
And there are still currently 100 fires burning across the state, with half yet to be contained.
There are 100 fires burning across the state, with half to be contained. Dangerous fire conditions forecast for Saturday - now is time to prepare. Schools are finishing up this week so review & check your travel plans along your route, & at your destination. #nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/0UAJR6mrul
Continue reading...We should pause to remember just how extraordinary this year has been, and reflect on what it might mean for our future
2019 may go down in history as Year Zero of the climate apocalypse. The tsunami of extreme events has been so relentless that each is quickly forgotten in favour of its successor.
So before the year ends we should pause, remember just how extraordinary it was, and reflect on what this might mean for our future.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he ‘deeply regrets’ any offence caused by him taking leave during fires, and he will return to Sydney
Scott Morrison has apologised for going on holiday while Australia is in the grip of an extended bushfire crisis and a record-breaking heatwave.
In a statement on Friday morning the prime minister explained he had brought forward his leave with his family due to the need to travel to Japan and India in January.
Continue reading...All of New South Wales, South Australia, large parts of Queensland, and northern Victoria were under a total fire ban on Thursday amid extreme weather
We will leave our live coverage of the bushfire crisis here for tonight.
This is what happened today:
What a difference a day makes. These photos are from Lithgow.
Yesterday:
At my place yesterday or thereabouts. #NSWfires pic.twitter.com/eGmWFHI9k3
At my place right now. #NSWfires pic.twitter.com/OWLqefZ05T
Continue reading...Record temperatures and ‘volatile and erratic’ conditions as more than 100 fires burn across New South Wales
Three firefighters were hospitalised with severe burns and 20 properties estimated lost in a blaze south of Sydney as the bushfire emergency raging across the east coast of Australia reached a new crisis point on Thursday.
Record temperatures and gusty, damaging winds combined with the prolonged drought crippling this part of the world to create what the commissioner of the Rural Fire Service, Shane Fitzsimmons, described as “volatile and erratic” conditions as more than 100 fires continued to burn across New South Wales.
Continue reading...Cheng Jingye also says detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun’s rights are being protected
China’s ambassador to Australia has labelled reports that one million Uighurs are being held in detention “fake news”, seeking to excuse mass incarceration as a deradicalisation measure.
At a rare press conference at the Chinese embassy in Canberra, Cheng Jingye claimed the mass detention in Xinjiang province had “nothing to do with human rights, nothing to do with religion” and was “no different” from other countries’ counter-terrorism measures.
Continue reading...Tuesday’s average maximum 0f 40.9C was Australia’s hottest ever and follows the driest and second warmest spring on record
Australia has just experienced its hottest day on record and its worst spring on record for dangerous bushfire weather, according to data released by the Bureau of Meteorology.
Preliminary analysis suggested that Tuesday was the hottest day on record for Australia, with an average maximum across the country of 40.9C. The temperature beat the previous 40.3C set on 7 January 2013, in a record going back to 1910.
Continue reading...BoM data says Tuesday’s 40.9C was the hottest average maximum across the whole country ever recorded, as extreme heat moves across South Australia to Melbourne, Victoria and Sydney, NSW, and bushfires continued. This blog is now closed
It is still unpleasantly warm here in Melbourne, and across much of southern Australia east of the Nullarbor. Fire activity is predicted to increase tomorrow and on Friday.
Here is a roundup of where things stand:
As of Wednesday afternoon there were about 70 bushfires burning across Queensland.
Continue reading...Oodnadatta and Port Augusta forecast to reach 48C and Sydney’s western suburbs to hit 45C
December heat records are expected to tumble in Australia from Wednesday as a heatwave moves across South Australia to Victoria and New South Wales.
Temperatures are forecast to peak in Victoria and South Australia on Friday, with Oodnadatta and Port Augusta to reach 48C, and peak in NSW on Saturday.
Continue reading...Allegations a security firm at Ecuadorian embassy gave footage to CIA come as 100 doctors urge Australia to protect him
Julian Assange’s fight against extradition to the US could last years, and his argument could hinge on reports he has been illegally spied upon and his sensitive information given to the CIA.
Meanwhile, more than 100 doctors from across the world have written to the Australian government, urging it to act and “protect the life of its citizen”, in a letter to be delivered to the foreign affairs minister on Tuesday, amid warnings Assange’s health continues to deteriorate.
Continue reading...Resettlement in the US has allowed some long-persecuted people to flourish, but that doesn’t let Australia off the hook
“To freedom.”
Imran, a 25-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, raises a glass with a big smile. We are in a bustling restaurant on Chicago’s north side. This midwestern city seems a million miles from Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, or the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru, yet it’s now home to several Rohingya men resettled under an agreement between Australia and the US.
Continue reading...Up to 20 properties lost in Blue Mountains as megafire burns outside Sydney, while fires also threaten communities in Western Australia and Queensland
About 2,000 firefighters are currently fighting more 108 active bushfires in NSW.
The RFS have issued a new emergency warning for areas near Muswellbrook.
EMERGENCY WARNING - Kerry Ridge fire (Muswellbrook, Singleton and Mid-Western LGA)
Fire activity increasing. If you are in the area of Olinda, Nullo Mountain and Bogee, watch out for embers that may start fires ahead of the main fire front. #nswrfs #nswfires #alert pic.twitter.com/6UEV0imNRS