Thanks for the thread move, Luke, I hope it will dampen the flames too, but hold no real hope of that. We have another 6 weeks to go, of this, before theres any hope of a real reduction.
The winds have whipped up, today, making it absolutely horrendous (I’m sure there must be a more descriptive word for it) for the firefighters, who are exhausted from months of it (its being going on since August/September really)... so the fires are going in all directions at once. Temperatures have been ridiculous. Over 40 everywhere, its just a matter of degree (no pun intended). At my back door it was 48.6 at one point and officially Penrith, an outer suburb of Sydney, it reached 48.9. The “feels like” was over 52ºC and I believe that because I almost fried as I went out to refresh water for the birds.
On the coast of Victoria at Mallacoota, the Navy had to evacuate people who were trapped on a beach, I think the number was around 100 but I could be wrong, its probably more. It was a lot anyway.
Kangaroo Island, off South Australia, is now 1/3 burnt out, including a huge holiday resort.
Here in NSW, the South coast fires have gone completely berserk and are rampaging through town, village, forest and farm, leaving only destruction behind...
More than 12 million acres burnt out, multiple deaths, hundreds of homes and other property lost. Australia isnt going to recover from this very soon. At least the PM had consented to using defence personnel to help with fire fighting, evacuations etc. Only a few weeks back he said they werent needed. Its going to prove to be his downfall. Cant come soon enough for me. /end political comment.