NZ to help Australia with bushfires

[trev]

Your lamb chops should be sold to you cheaply, the drought has meant a massive sell off of sheep due to lack of feed, prices are rockbottom, so low that some farmers if they sent their sheep to market would get a bill as the sale price would be less than the transport price.

[FrostyBoy]

Good old Aussie

I was in the middle of Ash Wednesday, but too young to realise it.

[atomant]

bloody smoke haze covering Albury..... (where I am located). Plays hell with the kids, smoke getting in eyes and all that

[trev]

I was in the middle of Ash Wednesday as well, on a fire truck, taking refuge on a football oval, as fire was too dangerous to fight at that time.
There are currently discussion on between North American firefighters and Victoria, if things worsen today with the fire due to a hotter potentially windy day, then it is likely North American firefighters will be travelling here to help out, currently the largest fire has now burnt 400 000 hectares, with a potential for much larger area to burn.

[trev]

The fire situation worsened yesterday with police searching for 2 arsonists who sarted a new fire in farming country south of the major fires in Victoria. A volunteer firefighter died, some houses were lost and 20 000 hectares of farms were destroyed along with livestock and many farm buildings.
The major fires in the mountain and alpine areas also broke containment lines and spread significantly destroying about a dozen houses in the towns of Gaffney and A1 mine settlement plus other buildings.
The fire in Tasmania also broke through containment lines and burnt houses in St Mary's and another nearby town, around about 10 houses were destroyed.
The weather has now cooled and the firefighters will have about 3 days of reasonable weather to improve containment lines before the weather dteriorates seriously next Monday again.

[LordShiva]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=160565

[TCO]

Aren't they the same country?

[Nugog]

Originally posted by TCO
Aren't they the same country?

Contrary to popular belief - no.

[trev]

Nine firefighters from New Zealand have been injured when their fire truck was caught in flames while trying to protect property yesterday, one seriously with airway and 3rd degree burns. All Australians extend their sympathy to these firefighters and their families at this time as they recover and thank them for risking their lives to protect Australians.

[trev]

The fire activity quietened down a bit at christmas as snow fell in much of the fire area in a very rare Australian white christmas. However not enough fell to extinguish the fire and with the return of hotter drier conditions the fires are spreading again, moving into farming country and near towns. Canadian firefighters have now joined the battle along with more reinforcements from New Zealand, although about 800 km of firefront has now been blacked out, this still leaves up to 200 km of front to be controlled. Significant losses of stock have occurred in the last 2 days as it has moved through farms.
A total of about 1 million hectares of land has now been burnt with a potential for much more to burn. Traditionally in this area of Australia, the next 6 weeks are the most dangerous for fires and so we are entering this period with exhausted firefighters and extremely large ongoing fires, with more fires ignited today by a series of lightning storms.

[FrostyBoy]

hmm, sounds like the worst Aussie has ever had, correct me if i am wrong.

Have they not been able to isolate the fire? Or is it just a case of too many sparks igniting?

[Barnabas]

Re: Horrific weather conditions from tomorrow

Originally posted by trev
The weather forecast for the major fire areas of the Victorian alps is for 3 days of very hot weather culminating in a day of high winds and temperatures exceeding 40C (105F). Fire behaviour has already become extreme with fires merging into larger fires. The number of fires has reduced by about half from 50 to below 30, due to fires merging, not being controlled. A total of 150 000 hectares has now been burnt with the expectation that within 3 days most of the fires will hae merged into one superfire that will have burnt in excess of 600 000 hectares.
In South Australia where I live, all fires have been controlled, but the weather is very hot with a temperatures today being above 40C virtually statewide, and a hotter day likely tomorrow with stronger winds and a very high probability of multiple dry lightning strikes over most of the state. The eastern areas of the state will have temperatures around 43C (110F) with humidities down to 3% and winds gusting in excess of 50 kmh (30mph). A mild change tomorrow evening will cool SA down a little but it will take 1 - 2 more days to reach across Victoria where the worst fires are.

Souds awful

An australian once told me that altough australia is so big, because of its weather they cant have a population over 40 millions

[Tim_Augustus]

Originally posted by nugog


Contrary to popular belief - no.

Although I have heard that the Kiwis are quite keen to join us

There can't be that many New Zealanders left actually, most of them seem to be here in Australia already

[Tim_Augustus]

Re: Re: Horrific weather conditions from tomorrow

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride


Souds awful

An australian once told me that altough australia is so ig, because of its weather they cant have a population over 40 millions

Probably not self-sustaining in terms of food - which would be disastrous as firstly agriculture is one of our major export earners (along with the mining industry) and secondly we provide a lot of food for other countries who can't be self-sufficient...

Also the world is better off for our small population - we are after all as efficient as the Yanks at CO2 and waste production per-capita

[TCO]

Originally posted by nugog


Contrary to popular belief - no.

Don't they both still belong to England?