Category Archives: New South Wales

Australia bushfires: 20 structures destroyed as NSW firefighters hospitalised with severe burns

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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.

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Australia experiences hottest day on record and its worst ever spring bushfire danger

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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.

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Australia fires: weather bureau says Tuesday was nation’s hottest day on record – live

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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.

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WA, NSW and Qld bushfires: properties lost in Gospers Mountain fire – as it happened

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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

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Australia faces ‘massive’ rethink to prepare for long-term bushfires and air pollution

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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.

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In the wake of the bushfires: stricken residents face grim job of rebuilding

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More than 700 houses have been destroyed since the bushfire crisis began. What happens next for those who have lost everything?

One month after a bushfire burned the home they built from scratch in the northern New South Wales town of Nymboida, Stu Mackay is sifting through the rubble to find cast-iron tools. The tools are heirlooms, and the Mackays will need them to rebuild.

Theirs is one of 632 houses lost in NSW since Friday 8 November, when deadly weather conditions sent fast-moving bushfires through communities along the state’s north coast. Guardian Australia spoke to four people who lost their home or business on that first day.

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Water wars: will politics destroy the Murray-Darling Basin plan – and the river system itself?

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Drought is not the only threat to the river system: the plan to save it is in doubt as states spar over the best way forward

The millennium drought led to the realisation Australia’s major river system would die unless there was united action to save it; the latest drought is threatening to undo the Murray-Darling Basin plan.

The basin states – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia – as well as the federal government, are due to meet on Tuesday in Brisbane amid threats from the NSW Nationals that it will walk away from the plan unless major changes are made.

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NSW fires: authorities warn of ‘very dangerous day’ for bushfires as Sydney shrouded in smoke

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Almost 3,000 firefighters across New South Wales will be deployed as more than 80 bushfires continue to burn and temperatures are expected to hit 40C. Follow all the latest updates

• ‘National security issue’: Turnbull tells Q&A Morrison must step up response to bushfires
• Greg Jericho: the Coalition isn’t being honest about the climate crisis. But neither is Labor

Thick “hazardous” smoke back in Sydney this morning pic.twitter.com/HyBxweEFYZ

#Sydney barely visible through the bushfire smoke. Temperatures forecast to reach 36C in the city, 42C in the west. #NSWfires pic.twitter.com/kqAnlDmSLB

I think this is the worst I've seen. #sydneysmoke pic.twitter.com/u3fpI7ZosY

The Bureau of Meteorology says a southerly wind later this afternoon will help ease the smoke choking Sydney this morning, though it may not help firefighters battling blazes across the rest of the state.

A smoky start for #Sydney, with #smoke from nearby fires trapped overnight in a low-layer of the atmosphere, causing it to become concentrated. A southerly buster this afternoon will help reduce the smoke, especially nearer the coast. Health info re smoke: https://t.co/I3gS1GMBVA pic.twitter.com/WJCrmDHsrv

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Australia fires: heatwave forecast amid calls for emergency meeting

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Conditions ease but Labor urges emergency Coag meeting before extreme heat in NSW and Victoria

Firefighters have taken advantage of less extreme conditions to try to contain blazes burning across New South Wales ahead of worsening conditions and soaring temperatures expected on Tuesday.

More than 100 fires were still burning across NSW on Sunday, including the massive Gospers Mountain blaze, which is expected to burn for weeks.

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The volunteers fighting fires: ‘there’s always the fear you’re not going to come home’

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The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is made up of mechanics, bakers, students, retirees and young parents. They face a dangerous Australian summer

Fire warning signs are pinned to thirsty eucalypts every few kilometres on the highway.

The paddocks around central west New South Wales look golden from a distance, but are crispy and brown underfoot. Wind has been howling for days, stirring up red dust on the horizon. Severe fire conditions are looming; it’s only the beginning of summer.

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NSW fires: five bushfires merge north of Sydney – as it happened

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Gospers Mountain, Paddock Run and Little L Complex, Three Mile and Thompson Creek fires overlap, and there are now seven emergency warnings in NSW as fire conditions worsen along Australia’s New South Wales and Queensland coasts. This blog is now closed

We are going to wrap the live blog up here. As of almost 7.30pm AEDT there are still seven fires at emergency warning level across NSW.

They are:

Related: Australia fires: five blazes merge north of Sydney as conditions forecast to worsen

Some more photos from photographer Matthew Abbott out at Kulnura:

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Australia fires: five blazes merge north of Sydney as conditions forecast to worsen

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More than 100 bushfires were burning in New South Wales on Friday, more than half of them out of control

Five fires burning to the north of Sydney joined up into one huge conflagration on Friday, with out-of-control blazes threatening homes and lives.

On a day that brought choking smog to Sydney, the premier of New South Wales said the entire coastline of the state was on fire.

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Frustrating cities: behind Australia’s urban design fails

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Sydney’s pedestrian bottlenecks, Brisbane’s barren streetscapes and Perth’s freeway fiascos: cities across the country are making classic mistakes

In every city there are places where the road should be just a bit wider, where the bus stop would be better a few metres down or, perhaps, a multi-lane highway simply should not exist.

Bad urban design is a barrier to what should be the smooth flow of life in cities. It ruins commutes and can make daily life unnecessarily difficult for the disabled or elderly.

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NSW police officers deny telling 15-year-old boy to ‘show his gooch’ during strip-search

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Two officers named as part of the search have refuted the teenager’s account at an inquiry in Sydney

A police officer involved in searching a boy at an underage music festival in Sydney says he has “no memory” of the teenager being asked to “show me your gooch”, and that it “didn’t happen”.

The 15-year-old claims he “froze” when he was asked to drop his pants during a strip-search at Sydney Olympic Park in February.

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Revealed: ‘monumental’ NSW bushfires have burnt 20% of Blue Mountains world heritage area

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More than 10% of forest in NSW national parks destroyed by fire this season, with the damage to Gondwana rainforest a ‘global tragedy’

More than 10% of the area covered by New South Wales national parks has been burned in this season’s bushfires, including 20% of the Blue Mountains world heritage area, state government data obtained by Guardian Australia has revealed.

The amount of bushland destroyed within NSW national parks dwarfs that of the entire previous fire season, when 80,000 hectares were lost.

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NSW police told 15-year-old to ‘lift your balls up’ in strip-search with no adult present

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Inquiry told of invasive searches on teens at Lost City music festival in Sydney, where only five of 30 cases had support person present

A 15-year-old boy was told to “hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch” and a police officer “ran his hands around” the buttocks of a 17-year-old during two of 25 potentially illegal strip-searches conducted at an underage music festival in Sydney, an inquiry has heard.

On Monday the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) began public hearings into the strip-search of “several young people” at the Lost City Music festival, an under-18s event held in Sydney in February.

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World-first mobile phone detection cameras rolled out in Australia

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New South Wales hopes to cut fatalities on the state’s roads by a third with devices that operate day and night in all weather

New South Wales rolled out mobile phone detection cameras on Sunday, hoping to cut the number of fatalities on its roads by a third over two years, transport authorities said.

The world-first mobile phone detection cameras, according to Transport for NSW, which manages the state’s transport services, operate day and night in all weather conditions to determine if a driver is handling a mobile phone.

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Total fire bans in six NSW regions as 146 blazes burn across the state

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Greater Hunter, greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, central ranges, northern slopes and north-western regions have ‘severe’ or ‘very high’ danger

Total fire bans were in place for the greater Hunter – which is facing severe fire danger – greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, central ranges, northern slopes and north-western regions.

These regions and the far south coast, southern ranges and New England, as well as the ACT, had very high fire danger.

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Hail, dust, storms, fire: Queensland and NSW on wild weather alert

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Bureau of Meteorology says extreme conditions of all kinds can be expected from Sunday, with large hail forecast for south-eastern Queensland

Queensland and New South Wales have been warned to prepare for severe storms bringing dust, 90km/h winds and hail, followed by three days of even worse bushfire conditions.

The Bureau of Meteorology said severe storms would blow across inland southern Queensland on Saturday night, bringing damaging wind, dust storms and the possibility of dry lightning. South-eastern Queensland can expect damaging winds and large hail on Sunday.

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Woman’s death being treated as suspicious after body found in Sydney apartment

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NSW police are investigating the possibility the husband of the woman, who was found in Pymble, has fled to China with two children

The body of a woman has been found in a freezer in a unit on Sydney’s upper north shore.

Police officers discovered the body of the woman, believed to be in her 30s, after forcing their way into a unit in Pymble on Wednesday morning.

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