Track closures Friday 4th January due to fire danger

[tastrax]

http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/media_roo ... ire_danger

Intending visitors to Mt Field, Freycinet, Douglas Apsley, South Bruny and Maria Island national parks are advised that a number of tracks will be temporarily closed because of very high fire danger.

Parks and Wildlife Service fire operations manager Adrian Pyrke said the closures are in the interest of public safety and will apply from 6pm today (Thursday, 3 January) to 6am Saturday, 5 January 2013.

"With the forecast conditions, including very high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity, any fires are going to be very difficult to control and because of that we will not be able to guarantee public safety on particular tracks," Mr Pyrke said.

He said the Parks and Wildlife Service is also very concerned at the danger posed by abandoned campfires.

"Six abandoned campfires were reported during the Christmas holiday period," Mr Pyrke said. "Hot or even warm coals remaining in an unattended campfire present a significant risk in the current conditions.

"Campfires are not permitted in some national parks and reserves. Campers should heed signage in these areas as well as total fire ban alerts issued by the Tasmania Fire Service."

More detail in the link above

[tastrax]

Mt Field National Park will be totally CLOSED from Thursday night until further notice, due to the Lake Repulse fire which may impact the park on Friday. Fire danger rating is predicted to be catastrophic. Fire updates are available on ABC local radio, 936 AM or 89.7 FM.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tasmania- ... 7512044296

http://www.facebook.com/TasmaniaFireService

[Overlandman]

There are a few fires in parks areas at the moment

Links to TAS Fire Website
http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId=colGMapBushfires

Current Incidents
http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId= ... =last24Hrs

Regards Overlandman

[tastrax]

Also another fire that might impact walkers in the Port Davey area

Bushfires in the Southwest National Park

4 January 2013
A large bushfire at the Giblin River in the Southwest National Park has the potential to impact on the Port Davey walking track. Bushwalkers should ensure that they are adequately informed of the conditions before commencing any walks in the area.

http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId= ... 7155659931

[tas-man]

According to this photo taken today by Par Avion Wilderness Tours and posted on their Facebook Page, the fire front has moved much further south and has crossed the Davey River, now moving towards the Port Davey Track. Source - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

[tas-man]

Plotting where this fire front is on Google Earth, with the Tas Fire Services predicted area shows how quickly this fire has travelled in the severe conditions yesterday. At the rate it is moving, it could go to Mt Rugby and the shores of Port Davey.

[tastrax]

Walkers are today being airlifted from some SW tracks.

Parks and Wildlife Service incident controller for the Giblin River fire, Chris Arthur, said the fire that started from lightning on 3 January is burning through buttongrass moorlands in the southwest and presents no threat to communities.

“This fire, estimated to have burnt about 30,000 hectares, is affecting a large area between Lake Pedder and Port Davey. In the interests of public safety all tracks in the Western and Eastern Arthur Ranges are closed,” Mr Arthur said.
Closed tracks include: the Port Davey Track, Old Port Davey Track, Junction Creek Track, Arthur Plains Track, Cracroft Valley Track, Blakes Opening - Huon Track and the Old River traverse. The Huon and Edgar campgrounds are also closed. The closures may be in place for an extended period of time.

Walkers in the southwest are today being relocated from tracks by helicopter to a nearby safer place at the Scotts Peak airstrip. Access is still available to Melaleuca however visitors are advised not to travel north of Melaleuca.

[frenchy_84]

Well thats a Propsting trip sorted, now it just needs to burn a nice little path from Greystone down to the davey river...

[Binder]

Well thats a Propsting trip sorted, now it just needs to burn a nice little path from Greystone down to the davey river...

Done Frenchy...

[ollster]

Wow... was going to do Bobs and surrounds with Doogs next weekend.

Would it be a really stupid place to head right now?

[frenchy_84]

Do you have any aerial imagery yet binder?

[Binder]

I would probably have a back up plan ollster.
I will be choppering people out of the Eastern Arthurs from dawn tomorrow If the smoke has lifted, and were pulling people off the Arthurs Plain and Western Athurs track today. The fire is nearly at the base of moraine A, is on top of Hesperus (came up from the south) and looks like it will probably start heading east along the arthurs plains. We have the Incident controller and a buttongrass/fire guru attempting to map the entire fire, and figure out what it might do. I just find people and put them in the chopper . I will post an update once we get a better idea of where the fire is, predicted weather etc.

Cheers

[Binder]

Couple of dodgy pics off my phone frenchy, spent 8 hours looking down trying to spot punters. I will try to get pics up tomorrow.

I might also take the opportunity to encourage people to use the log books at the track heads. This is when they come in very handy.

Cheers

[Nuts]

Good on you for giving updates here Binder/Phil, .. lets hope for some further respite and that nobody has lost their life around the state, good luck with it all.

[johnw]

Good on you for giving updates here Binder/Phil, .. lets hope for some further respite and that nobody has lost their life around the state, good luck with it all.

+ 1. Returned on Friday evening from a 10 day stay in Hobart. Visited the SW area a few times among other places.
Having visited Tassie numerous times in the past 8 or 9 years I don't think I've seen conditions so dry everywhere.
The heat on Friday was phenomonal. Waiting for a late running flight at the airport we could see the smoke building intensity from the Dunalley fire.
Sorry to hear of the destruction that it ultimately caused.

[ollster]

I would probably have a back up plan ollster.

Thanks, yeah best play it safe.

[tigercat]

Thanks for all the heads up Binder

[tastrax]

Further closures as of today include: the Mt Anne Circuit, Lake Judd track and the Scotts Peak Road. Parks staff are continuing to relocate walkers from this area today.

http://parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=7785

[ollster]

Further closures as of today include: the Mt Anne Circuit, Lake Judd track and the Scotts Peak Road. Parks staff are continuing to relocate walkers from this area today.

http://parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=7785

Geeze. So the expectation is that it will continue to push East? Or is this precautionary only?

[tastrax]

Already on the Arthur Plains and southerly winds forecast so its precautionary but necessary due to the speed that it may move.

[ollster]

Already on the Arthur Plains and southerly winds forecast so its precautionary but necessary due to the speed that it may move.

Yup, understood. Here's hoping it peters out soon.

[Doonish]

Airlifted off High Moor this morning by PWS - many thanks Binder, we were most grateful for the friendly and professional efforts of you and your crew.

[tas-man]

Latest update from Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service

The Parks and Wildlife Service has advised that smoke from a large bushfire in the Southwest National Park is likely to continue to affect southern Tasmania communities including the Huon Valley and Hobart.

Parks and Wildlife Service incident controller for the Giblin River fire, Chris Arthur, said the fire that started from lightning on 3 January is burning through buttongrass moorlands in the southwest and presents no threat to communities.

“This fire, estimated to have burnt about 30,000 hectares, is affecting a large area between Lake Pedder and Port Davey. In the interests of public safety all tracks in the Western and Eastern Arthur Ranges are closed,” Mr Arthur said.
Closed tracks include: the Port Davey Track, Old Port Davey Track, Junction Creek Track, Arthur Plains Track, Cracroft Valley Track, Blakes Opening - Huon Track and the Old River traverse. The Huon and Edgar campgrounds are also closed. The closures may be in place for an extended period of time.

Walkers in the southwest are today being relocated from tracks by helicopter to a nearby safer place at the Scotts Peak airstrip. Access is still available to Melaleuca however visitors are advised not to travel north of Melaleuca.

Other parks affected by bushfires include:

Douglas Apsley National Park which remains closed until further notice due to the Bicheno bushfire

Freycinet National Park is also closed until further notice due to the Bicheno bushfire. The Freycinet National Park closure includes all walking tracks and access roads within the Freycinet National Park, including the Friendly Beaches. Road access to The Fisheries is available for Fisheries residents only. Access remains available to the Freycinet Lodge for guests.

Mount Field National Park remains closed until further notice due to a large bushfire at Lake Repulse. This closure will remain in effect until there is a safe boundary established in this area.

[doogs]

plus the other track closures mentioned above. The Mount Anne area and Scotts Peak road are both closed.

[Hallu]

How come Tasman NP isn't closed as well ? I thought they caught the worst of it.

[tastrax]

How come Tasman NP isn't closed as well ? I thought they caught the worst of it.

I suspect because no one can get down the highway at the moment so unlikely to be many "new "walkers out and about. There have been folks at Fortescue Bay but I think that was evacuated on Saturday. Conditions at the moment are not causing a high rate of spread towards the major tracks. I suspect most folks on the peninsula are just sitting tight at the moment.

[Binder]

Gday all

Bit of an update from the Southwest.
Last two days we have choppered out 21 folk from the Arthurs and Arthurs Plains starting at 5 am this morning so we could see tents. Much easier than looking for walkers. Smoke in the valleys from the Arthur Plains south was amazing, the only area that cleared was the Arthurs plains, the rest of the valleys stayed in smoke all day. On top of the range at 6 am the fire was activley burning at the top of the southern face of Hesperus, and around to just west of Cygnus, just below the top. It appeared that the fire was well east of this in the valley below, but too much smoke to see properly. By the time we pulled out (we lost all visibility of the Arthurs from Scotts Peak by 1pm), the fire appeared to have gone through Junction creek ( a large plume of smoke that looked suspiciously like a sputnik ) and was merrily heading east along the plain, and north towards Scotts Peak, only about 2 km from the campground. All a bit fuzzy due to the smoke but you get the idea. There was also a massive plume somewhere roughly behind The Lion on the Frankland Range.

No idea what has happenned further down the Port Davey track, but I've heard that some mapping was done today. You could pretty much assume that it is black from Scotts Peak to the Narrows I reckon.

Big hats off to Adrian the pilot, Tony the fuel master, the back up staff in Glenorchy who had to undavel log book entries from multiple points, and all the walkers who listened to instructions !

The Scotts Peak Road will remained closed until further notice.

Will stick a few more pics on in a bit.

Cheers

[whynotwalk]

Thanks Brendan. Great job under very trying conditions! This is such sad news on top of all the other sad Tassie fire news. This fire is a huge blow to our wilderness ... and hardly a mention anywhere in the media!

Walkers for the next season or 3 will need to get used to getting all their gear blackened.

cheers

Peter

[Binder]

Cheers Peter. Bit unnerving in a chopper having a cloud of smoke swing at you to effect a 'grey out'. All you can do is go straight up till you are higher than the highest peak around!

[Binder]

Couple more pics. Apologies for quality, off a dodgy mobile.