The sea along the Tasmanian east coast is a global heating hotspot -- temperatures there have risen at nearly four times the global average. One man has watched entire sea forests disappear in his lifetime
Continue reading...Category Archives: Tasmania
Australia fires: one firefighter killed as bushfires rip through four states
There are fears that many houses may have been lost on a horrific day in Victoria and Tasmania, with more extreme weather forecast for New Year’s Eve
One firefighter has died and multiple properties are feared lost after terrifying bushfires driven by extreme weather conditions swept across four Australian states on Monday.
The volunteer firefighter from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service died when a truck rolled near Jingellic, about 70km east of Albury, on the border with Victoria. The RFS said two trucks, including the one in which the firefighter died, had been overturned by high winds. Two others suffered burns in the crash.
Continue reading...Yes, Australia has always had bushfires: but 2019 is like nothing we’ve seen before
Record low rainfall has contributed to a continent-scale emergency that has burned through more than 5m hectares and alarmed scientists, doctors and firefighters
As the area burned across Australia this fire season pushes beyond five million hectares, an area larger than many countries, stories of destruction have become depressingly familiar.
At the time of writing, nine people have been killed. Balmoral, in the New South Wales southern highlands, is the latest community affected in a state where up to 1,000 homes have been destroyed. A third of the vineyard area and dozens of homes were razed in the Adelaide Hills. It is too early for a thorough examination of the impact on wildlife, including the many threatened species in the fires’ path.
Continue reading...Australian bushfires: the story so far in each state
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...Australia faces ‘massive’ rethink to prepare for long-term bushfires and air pollution
David Bowman says Australia must retrofit houses to make them heat and smoke-proof
Australia has a “massive adaptive program” ahead to prepare for future protracted bushfires and subsequent air pollution, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science has warned, urging politicians to “tone down the ideology and start solving the problem using the skills Australians have”.
David Bowman, the director of the Fire Centre at the University of Tasmania’s school of natural sciences, said it was too late to call for action to prevent climate change and that people affected by smoke inhalation from fires should demand action to adapt to it, such as retrofitting houses to make them heat and smoke-proof.
Continue reading...CCTV footage key to inquest of Bernard Gore who died trapped in Westfield stairwell
Tasmanian man’s body was found in a fire stairwell at Bondi Junction shopping centre three weeks after he disappeared
As Bernard Gore’s wife of 50 years waited to meet him in a Sydney shopping centre, she had no idea her husband was trapped nearby in a fire stairwell where he would later die.
Angela Gore, surrounded by her children, cried silently as an inquest heard how her husband’s body was found kneeling forward – as if he’d fallen off a nearby chair – in the stairwell at Westfield Bondi Junction in early 2017.
Continue reading...From wrecking ball to kingmaker: why all eyes are on Jacqui Lambie
Lambie’s vote will decide the fate of the medical evacuation laws the previous parliament’s crossbench was instrumental in passing
She came in like a wrecking ball.
But Jacqui Lambie, the senator, has grown up.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison stands by candidate accused of anti-Islamic social media posts
Jessica Whelan, the Liberal candidate for Lyons, says comments posted under her name not made by her and were doctored
The major parties are standing by the two latest candidates in hot water for offensive social media posts attributed to them after a flurry of resignations overshadowed the third week of campaigning.
Speaking in Tasmania on Thursday, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said he would stand by the Liberal candidate for the seat of Lyons, Jessica Whelan, who has denied making derogatory online comments about Muslims.
Continue reading...Federal election 2019: Littleproud distances himself from Liberal candidate’s ‘Islamophobic’ posts – politics live
Minister grilled about Lyons candidate Jessica Whelan, who claims her Facebook page was doctored. Meanwhile, the climate policy debate heats up. Follow all the updates, live
Pre-poll is happening in droves.
About 375,000 people have cast a pre-poll vote after three days of early voting, running at approx 125,000 votes per day so far. This compares to a total of 225,000 votes at the same stage of the 2016 federal election. #ausvotes #auspol
Asked about preference deals, and whether the Coalition, being a coalition, had to accept blowback for their partner’s choices, David Littleproud had this to say:
I hardly see it’s disingenuous where we have a democracy, where the Australian people decide. They walk into the ballot box, not me, and they get to determine where they put each number on that ballot paper. And that’s the way it should be. This is merely a way that parties have come to an agreement around where they believe they should go, the least worst possibility, if you don’t want to vote for us. But the reality is, it is and always will be the gift of the Australian people. And it’s something we should always fiercely protect.”
Related: At the mercy of minors: Labor and LNP wrestle for hyper-marginal Herbert
Continue reading...Melbourne doctor who called for women to be raped stood down during investigation
Health district responsible for hospital that employs Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee says it takes ‘professional misconduct’ seriously
The health district responsible for the hospital which employs an emergency doctor who said “some women deserve to be raped” has ordered the doctor be stood down while they investigate.
Earlier in April Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee was suspended by the Tasmanian health practitioners tribunal for six weeks after he admitted to posting a series of sexist and racist remarks online. While Lee previously worked in Tasmania, in 2018 he began work at Box Hill hospital in Victoria as an emergency doctor, and the suspension bars him from working anywhere in Australia.
Continue reading...‘You will get up with fleas’: Bill Shorten attacks Liberals’ deal with Clive Palmer
Scott Morrison says Labor and the Greens present far bigger threat to the economy and jobs than the United Australia party
Bill Shorten has criticised the Liberal party deal to exchange preferences with Clive Palmer’s United Australia party.
Speaking in Hobart on Saturday where he announced that a future Labor government would invest $120m into Tasmanian tourism projects, the opposition leader did not deny that Labor officials had held discussions with Palmer over the course of the campaign, but said they would not risk preference swaps with the potential kingmaker in Queensland.
Continue reading...Australian bird on track for extinction found outside previously known habitat
King Island brown thornbill was ranked the Australian bird most likely to go extinct within 20 years
Researchers say they have discovered one of Australia’s most endangered birds in forest in Tasmania, outside its previously known habitat.
Scientists from the Australian National University say the find is a rare piece of positive news for the King Island brown thornbill, which was last year ranked as the Australian bird most likely to go extinct within 20 years if nothing was done to secure its survival.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says people smugglers will ‘have a crack’ if Labor is elected
Bill Shorten dismisses PM’s comments, saying it’s possible to have strong borders and treat people humanely
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has sent out a fresh message on border security, saying “people smugglers know they won’t get through me and Peter Dutton” but would “have a crack” if Bill Shorten became prime minister.
Morrison said the government had “increased the strength, resource and capability again of Operation Sovereign Borders” after the asylum seeker medevac legislation passed parliament this week, in spite of the Coalition’s best efforts to block it.
Continue reading...Residents urged to leave as fires near Victorian towns worsened
Emergency alerts issued for several major fires with weather conditions expected to fan flames
Lives and homes remained under threat as fires near Victorian towns worsened, with weather conditions expected to fan the flames.
Emergency alerts were issued for several major fires burning across the state.
Continue reading...Australian heatwave: Adelaide breaks 80-year-old temperature record – live
With high temperatures also forecast for Victoria and NSW, there are warnings about potential power outages and blackouts, as well as total fire bans amid worsening weather. Follow developments live
Yes please.
Elite marketing by Royal Park Foodland #adelaideheatwave pic.twitter.com/IMMLZdywLq
Just on the issue of heatwaves and climate change, the ABC Melbourne presenter Rafael Epstein has pointed to recent statements from Victoria’s Bureau of Meteorology (Bom).
Just in case someone says hot weather has nothing to do with climate change
"Australia's climate is increasingly influenced by global warming... has warmed by just over one degree since 1910, with most of the warming occurring since 1950."
From @BOM_Vic this month
Temperatures to soar as heatwave hits every state and territory
Much of Australia will bake this week with meteorologists forecasting the hot conditions will last for days in some parts
Every state and territory will bake through a heatwave on Monday with meteorologists saying soaring temperatures will last for days in some parts.
The Bureau of Meteorology said hot days were expected in January but multiple days in a row of temperatures above 40C were unusual.
Continue reading...Smoke plume from Tasmania bushfire turns sky red over Hobart
Fire in world heritage area threatens six towns as Victoria experiences dramatic temperature swings
An out of control bushfire burning in the Tasmanian world heritage area has threatened six towns and sent thick smoke across Hobart and Port Arthur, as Victoria experienced a day of wild temperature changes that brought a dangerous bushfire close to east Gippsland towns.
The sky over Hobart turned a dramatic red on Friday morning as the smoke plume stretched for hundreds of kilometres across the state.
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