Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby monte » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 5:40 pm

At the end of that line across the state is my place so I'm hoping we don't get a hot day with strong winds coming along there. Nothing very close at the moment luckily.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Nuts » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 5:46 pm

The winds are picking up. Hopefully that Lk Fergus fire has burnt enough so any easterly change wouldn't be such a disaster. There's a massive smoke plume stretching right across the central plateau. I'd imagine the Marlborough hwy will close soon if not already.

FullSizeRender 3.jpg


Living on hope may be the new norm :(
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby north-north-west » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 6:03 pm

tastrax wrote:What a day in SW Tassie - that has to be the worst I have ever seen. Lets hope some of them are small and not going anywhere!

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

Fires 2019-01-16-1820hrs.PNG


Solitary and Marsden Range/Huon Inlet are nasty fires. The Anne Gorge stuff is burning both sides of the ridge and heading north - I don't like the look of that one either (flames were visible from Port Davey Track near Junction Ck around 7pm yesterday). Then there's all the stuff on Druids, Celtic and nearby ridges, one section of which was fairly close to the road.
Driving out along Scotts Peak Rd today through all the smoke was hellish. Yet there were still people walking in to Junction Creek this morning. That's a whole new level of stupid.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby bogholesbuckethats » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 6:08 pm

Small fire on the western slope of PB. Saw this on an abalone divers instagram account.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby tastrax » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 6:21 pm

north-north-west wrote:Driving out along Scotts Peak Rd today through all the smoke was hellish. Yet there were still people walking in to Junction Creek this morning. That's a whole new level of stupid.


Blimey, I am surprised Scotts Peak Road is still open!
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby north-north-west » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 6:25 pm

The Solitary fires:
PF003 copy.jpg


Marsden Range/Huon Inlet fires:
d-49 copy.jpg


Part of the Celtic/Druids/Deception fires:
PF004 copy.jpg


Western front of the Ripple Rock Ridge (Anne Gorge) fires (this is the milder line - the eastern side of the ridge was producing a lot more smoke):
PF002 copy.jpg


And there was a lot more going on down there. Not a good place to be, and no way Tassie has the personnel and equipment to knock all of these over quickly. We need rain, and a lot of it.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby north-north-west » Wed 16 Jan, 2019 6:28 pm

tastrax wrote:
north-north-west wrote:Driving out along Scotts Peak Rd today through all the smoke was hellish. Yet there were still people walking in to Junction Creek this morning. That's a whole new level of stupid.


Blimey, I am surprised Scotts Peak Road is still open!

It wasn't. I was heading out from the WArthurs. Pretty sure the people walking in drove down last night - it was around 9am I saw them. Still stupid, because I could see from Junction Ck that it was looking dicey and the best direction to be heading was away.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby monte » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 7:33 am

In case anyone hasn't seen it. The fire in the Walls is still listed on the TFS map but Parks releases yesterday there is no fire there.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby RicktheHuman » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 9:58 am

There is a 95% chance of 2 - 6mm of rain forecasted for Strathgordon on Friday with showers continuing on Saturday and Sunday......fingers crossed it arrives and helps
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby RicktheHuman » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 10:21 am

Some photos of the Denisons from my friend who is a pilot at Par Avion.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby north-north-west » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 11:16 am

OK, I did not need to see that.

Well, I did. We all do. But this is painful beyond my ability to express. The few small, scattered green spots just emphasise the damage.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Thornbill » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 12:05 pm

north-north-west wrote:OK, I did not need to see that.

Well, I did. We all do. But this is painful beyond my ability to express. The few small, scattered green spots just emphasise the damage.


Wow! Amazing images. Like NNW, and many others here no doubt, I am saddened to see ares that we all know and love look like this. I guess the one small bit of hope is that the majority (definitely not all) of vegetation that burned in this fire is buttongrass and other communities with similar fire resilience.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Hermione » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 6:32 pm

north-north-west wrote:OK, I did not need to see that.

Well, I did. We all do. But this is painful beyond my ability to express. The few small, scattered green spots just emphasise the damage.


I don’t want to see it, some one make it go away please. Though of course you’re right we all need to see it, I just have a childish wish that this is all bad dream
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Warin » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 7:21 pm

Think positive?
What will it look like come spring? New growth? You (hopefully) won't get many chances to see this.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby TasTygerGrl » Fri 18 Jan, 2019 5:52 pm

Geez, only last Saturday I was admiring the mountainous gorges and mt solitary, slogging through the overgrowth to lake Judd.

Wouldn’t want to be there during a fire, not a fast escape, then again the sloshy bog might just be a life saver than a hindrance. Anti-fire mud pack :?
Hermione wrote:
north-north-west wrote:OK, I did not need to see that.

Well, I did. We all do. But this is painful beyond my ability to express. The few small, scattered green spots just emphasise the damage.


I don’t want to see it, some one make it go away please. Though of course you’re right we all need to see it, I just have a childish wish that this is all bad dream
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby RicktheHuman » Fri 18 Jan, 2019 8:02 pm

Rain radar from the last hour....hopefully enough to help
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Grindelwalddave » Fri 18 Jan, 2019 8:14 pm

As of 9 pm Strathgordon 4.0 mm, Mt Bobs 4.4 mm, Maatsuyker Island 4.2 mm, Scotts Peak 4.4mm
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby north-north-west » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 8:21 am

The latest maps show the entire eastern two thirds of Solitary burnt, the Anne Gorge fires reaching the Lake Mudd track and also pushing northeast onto Schnells, and the Marsden and Celtic fires almost joined at the road and pushing across the flats near Sandfly Creek.

Then there are multiple fires along the Huon River and McKays, all the way across to Pear Hill, and one on the Frankland Range shoreline immediately west of Crumbledown. Plus one on the low ridge on the western side of Nevada, and another near the Weld River east of Sodom and Gomorrah. Most of these are small, but they're in very difficult to reach terrain.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby tastrax » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 11:25 am

From the latest satellite imagery - Solitary Area - very different fire edges on this image

Solitary.PNG
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby monte » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 4:35 pm

How do you access these? Wouldn't mind taking a look at a few other spots.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby tastrax » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 4:44 pm

monte wrote:How do you access these? Wouldn't mind taking a look at a few other spots.


I access them from this site however you really need a GIS program (like QGIS) to be able to blend them all together

https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

You need to zoom to the area you want (all of Tas is OK as its only about a 10 or so images), then click 'Use Map", then go to datsets and select sentinel 2 and press "Results"

When the listing comes up you can use the 'footprint' to show the bounds of each image, and then click download options to get access to the image, then choose the Full resolution GEOTIFF image.

Have a play and you will find lots of information.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby tastrax » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 4:46 pm

I also keep an eye on this site to see how the cloud cover is going

https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby monte » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 8:56 pm

Great I shall give it a go :-)
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Grindelwalddave » Sun 20 Jan, 2019 9:08 am

Thursday/Friday will be an interesting time. The first decent cold front drags down some hot air to SE Australia. Most models the change will come early morning Friday.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby tastrax » Mon 21 Jan, 2019 4:36 pm

Alas, the weather change and increased temps has hit the Celtic Hill fire pushing it south into the Eliza Plateau area by the looks of it. I suspect a few more will be primed for another run in the next couple of days.

Fires 2019-01-21-1726hrs.PNG
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Hermione » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 10:25 am

smoke.jpg
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I woke early to a moon the colour of blood sinking over the hills and a pall of smoke across this valley I call home. The sun when it comes is apocalyptic through the haze, casting an eerie orange light as I go about mundane chores, dealing with wayward chickens and pondering where to stack the hay. Inwardly I feel an anguish that I lack the words to express and many of my friends have trouble understanding, “oh is your house in danger?” the answer of course is no (at least not yet) it’s just our beloved wilderness burning.
Born and raised in a landscape where fire was common, expected, sometimes welcome, a way to cycle nutrients through the ecosystem, I am familiar with fire, yet this feels different, smells and tastes different, it frightens me. Overhead I hear aircraft heading South, they are invisible through the smoke yet I fear they are too small and too few, puny in the face of this disaster.
Apologies if this is not the right place for my musings but I didn't think they justified a separate thread.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Tortoise » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 2:48 pm

Thanks for putting it in words better than I can, Hermione.
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby tastrax » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 5:27 pm

Great words Hermione,

Unfortunately with all the weather/climate changes going on I suspect we all need to reassess our fire/emergency preparedness, our expectations of the fire/emergency authorities and also our own abilities and willingness to combat fires/emergencies. Its all too easy to think its someone else's responsibility to make all the decisions and provide the solutions in an ever changing environment.

Best to be well prepared

https://www.redcross.org.au/prepare
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby czechingoutofhere » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 1:55 pm

Any more image updates from Par Avion or Rotorlift from the affected areas? Haven't seen any updates from the Gell River or SW areas for a little while. The TFS map had Lake Rhona half burned one day, then overwhelmed the next and then back to half covered another day. The last shot from there was ages ago and the TFS and media images come through in a trickle. Anyone have any good sources who are posting plenty of updates? Those images posted here recently were horrifying and probably only cover a tiny portion of the damage :(
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Re: Gell River Fire - Lake Rhona Region

Postby Overlandman » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 6:12 pm

ABC news tonight reported that fire crews are setting up sprinkler systems in the Mt Anne / Pandani shelf area.
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