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Its been 9 months now since my area got hit and totally devastated by the 2019 NYE bushfire and the pyrocumulonimbus fire storm that evolved and wreaked havoc causing 3 deaths and the lost of 130 homes in our very small coastal community village. Its been such a long road back and only a handful of the houses have started to rebuild. The bush has really struggled because of the intensity of the heat of the bushfire and many trees look like they are dying, the eucalyptus trees in virgin forest across from our home are trying to reshoot, the river sheoaks aren't doing to well at all, that's looking to the North from our front door and there's just bush for 30 miles and it all looks like this -
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This video I took on the estuary some years ago shows all the bush pre the fires -
https://youtu.be/LwMKhwVGJ3k
This satellite image shows the bush pre fires -
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This satellite image shows the ferocity of what happened to us under the pyrocumulonimbus fire storm and 130 klm an hour winds -
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A few images of the devastation -
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Its definitely been a lot to deal with this year as we got hit by a flood in February (after years of drought) and then this dreadful pandemic.
Its been somewhat cathartic to make this post and I'd like to take this moment and for a very belated thank you to all those who sent well wishes,
it really meant a lot. When we put some possessions and animals in the boat and said good bye to the house we didn't think we'd ever see our homes again and
the reports of people losing their lives that were filtering through, we didn't even know if we'd make it. We thought our fire plan was rock solid, it went to sh#t in about 10 minutes, even just getting wet towels around our faces so that we could breathe was an effort. Everything was compounded because my sons and daughter in laws and grandchildren all have homes a minute from us, so there was just so much worry with everyone putting out spot fires for hours and if someone moved a few feet away you couldn't see them. It was truly the stuff of nightmares.
Once again....thanks one and all for your support and its nice to be back again functioning a lot better as time passes. -
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You've most certainly been through the grinder this year Jim, but I know that everyone here is delighted to have you back to posting your wonderful stuff as usual ! Truly glad you and yours made it through safe and sound and as relatively unscathed ..... as it is possible to be, when a series of sh*t storms hit right on top of you, one right after another.
Also very sorry for all of those who lost sooooo much, and especially for those who lost it all. I still think of the animals running around in total terror without a clue as to what to do, or where to go, if they could even get there, and so many dying truly miserable deaths without any hope of understanding.
It will take a few years to know what will and won't come back in your forests (bush I mean), but it is certain that it has all burnt before, so given time it will come back, but that time may go a bit beyond what you would have hoped for. This spring for you may be a bit early to expect too many signs of recovery, but maybe by next spring things will be looking up a bit better. I will hold that hope for all of you fine folks! -
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Thanks Daniel and yes mate our bush has evolved over eons to not only survive fire, but it needs it for health and to grow and for renewal.
Problem with that though, it may take a few hundred or more years to come back, not even a blink of an eye in an ecological time frame, but in our human years......
Its been catastrophic for the wildlife, but it must have been catastrophic for them for eons as well. There's small little pockets of bush that somehow was untouched, a few small valleys here and there
that must act as natural nurseries for surviving and untouched animal and bird life to breed up and start to move out to repopulate newly regenerating bush, again this happened for time immoral......but in our human years......
I've been giving a lot of thought to how the Aborigines must have coped, there's literally millions upon millions of acres gone and in their time a fire of this magnitude would have been even worse because there would have been zero farmland buffers, the whole of area would have been dense virgin bush. I can only think that they must have used the sea entirely for their food sources or just walked (however long that took) to unburnt areas for their survival. -
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Nature can “bounce back” with amazing growth and rapid change. Punctuated equilibrium can be traumatically fascinating to survive through. If the eco-system has the nutrients, sunlight, and rainfall, it can rebound so much so that it can almost be startling.
Years ago, after a brief stint teaching as a low-pay adjunct professor, I decided to return to living some of my family’s heritage. Semi-off the grid in a cabin by the riverside swamp. Experimental life, lots of snakes, bugs, and broken generators; but informative. Then historic flooding zapped the whole region and left me soggy and sh*t out of luck depressed.The aftermath open landscape looked as barren as the moon, but muddy with a tremendous amount of stink and biting flies. Within a year that muddy wasteland popped up with so much new growth it was enlightening. As the plant life came so did a massive expansion of wildlife.
I was lucky to make friends with a guy who was an active conservationists and he worked with politicians, schools, and business groups to preserve the best of what had been, while promoting good human planning after nature had so clearly “wiped the slate clean”. We got huge new public parklands and vast amounts of new trails, biking paths, and river recreation & nature areas. Also got a few greedy and get-rich-quick developers trying to take unfair advantages.
In summary, you have been given an unrequested chance to start your world over while watching nature renewing itself. Lots of work ahead, beware the stupid & greedy, seek intelligent hard working allies. What you do to live on your land now can set a good and lasting example for the future generations. Change will come. That is the only “inevitable”.
‘.
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Terrible Jim, i hate fires.
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I cannot imagine losing everything like that... very devastating
I did notice in the second to last picture, there appears to be a brand new, untouched swing set. Was that added after the fire, or did it somehow survive untouched?
Crazy to see all the aluminum melted out of the vehicles -
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Nature can “bounce back” with amazing growth and rapid change. Punctuated equilibrium can be traumatically fascinating to survive through. If the eco-system has the nutrients, sunlight, and rainfall, it can rebound so much so that it can almost be startling.
Years ago, after a brief stint teaching as a low-pay adjunct professor, I decided to return to living some of my family’s heritage. Semi-off the grid in a cabin by the riverside swamp. Experimental life, lots of snakes, bugs, and broken generators; but informative. Then historic flooding zapped the whole region and left me soggy and sh*t out of luck depressed.The aftermath open landscape looked as barren as the moon, but muddy with a tremendous amount of stink and biting flies. Within a year that muddy wasteland popped up with so much new growth it was enlightening. As the plant life came so did a massive expansion of wildlife.
I was lucky to make friends with a guy who was an active conservationists and he worked with politicians, schools, and business groups to preserve the best of what had been, while promoting good human planning after nature had so clearly “wiped the slate clean”. We got huge new public parklands and vast amounts of new trails, biking paths, and river recreation & nature areas. Also got a few greedy and get-rich-quick developers trying to take unfair advantages.
In summary, you have been given an unrequested chance to start your world over while watching nature renewing itself. Lots of work ahead, beware the stupid & greedy, seek intelligent hard working allies. What you do to live on your land now can set a good and lasting example for the future generations. Change will come. That is the only “inevitable”.
‘.
Thanks Jasper. -
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I cannot imagine losing everything like that... very devastating
I did notice in the second to last picture, there appears to be a brand new, untouched swing set. Was that added after the fire, or did it somehow survive untouched?
Crazy to see all the aluminum melted out of the vehicles
Not sure about the story of that swing set Nick, looking at the plastic slide it looks untouched. That's around 3k's to my West and its just a vacant block now, not sure if they are going to rebuild or sell up.
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