Bushwalk Australia

Hi all,

Information for anyone heading into these regions over the next few days. Would pay to rethink if you are heading out that way. Taken from Tas fire service facebook page


Tasmania Fire Service
1 hr ·
A Bushfire Advice Message For Gell River, Southwest

Issued At: 28/12/2018 7:41pm

There is a bushfire about 9 kilometres northwest of Lake Rhona. The fire danger rating in this area is forecast to be high. Fire under these conditions can be difficult to control.
This fire may affect the following areas: Denison Ranges, Lake Rhona, Lake Curly, The Spires and Vale of Rasselas in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park.
This bushfire is currently not controlled
There may be embers, smoke and ash falling on areas to the south and east of the main fire.
Reported Track Closures (the following tracks are closed: Vale of Rasselas Track, walking track to Lake Rhona, Lake Curly, The Spires and Shining Mountain.

What to do:
Do not commence bushwalks planned for these areas.
Stay informed in case conditions change
Monitor PWS website, ABC Local Radio & TFS Website - http://www.fire.tas.gov.au for further information

For information on current road closures, please visit the Tasmania Police website: http://www.police.tas.gov.au/community-alerts/

For advice is available from the Department of Health http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/publichealth ... fire_smoke or the Asthma Foundation of Tasmania http://www.asthmatas.org.au

Pretty bizarre they were choppered out of there. They were a very long way from danger...years ago I was camped at Rhona with a fire in the same place, pws did a fly by and never even landed. I walked out the following day!

I suspect its the high fire danger tomorrow and the forecast of northerly winds on Friday is the biggest thing on their minds at the moment. If they know the area is clear its one less worry if things get out of hand. Its only 6kms from the fire boundary to Rhona.

Zoom in here and you can see (very roughly) were the action is happening

https://sentinel.ga.gov.au/#/

That’s the area Lou-Phi walked through!
Just south of the southern air strip.
Regards OLM

Be a bit easier now!



Base map - LIST Tasmania
Fire Boundary - Tas Fire Service
Hotspots - Sentinel

Fanned by some nice westerlies today

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/w ... 40.51,3000

Unfortunately buggered up my plans today. All tracks on that side of Gordon River Rd seem to be signposted as closed due to the Gell River fire. Including Saw Back Range and Timbs either of which I’d hoped to do today. Looks like the signs were posted at the track heads yesterday. It does seem a long way off from those spots but I could see smoke haze from across the road from the Saw Back gate. Hindsight is wonderful, should have done more research before leaving Hobart. Tassie is so much drier than I’ve seen it on previous visits.

I sure hope that fire doesn't make its way into Lake Curly tomorrow. Would be a real shame to have that spot burnt to a crisp.

Tasmania Fire Service has Coulsons C 130 Hercules Water Bomber dropping water and fire retardant foam on the Gell River Fire, it flew from Avalon to Hobart today according to Vigilante news.

Thanks for the updates Phil.
Regards OLM

Post deleted.

Latest Boundary - looks like they have had some success in keeping the fire from crossing the Gell and Gordon Rivers. Most of the action today looked to be in the SE corner of the fire, probably to prevent a spread down the vale in northerly weather conditions tomorrow.

It''s still awfully close to Curly and Bonds and Innes High Rocky. Taken out some country I was planning on walking this year.

Alas, its probably much worse by now....

You cant always trust the Sentinel hotspots - they get better after each satellite pass

tastrax wrote:You cant always trust the Sentinel hotspots...

That image is frightening if it is accurate. Spotting on Bonds, and Reeds on the way, and the whole Vale of Rasselas in line. And then it hits the forests . . .

Warnings issued for Mt Field And Maydena. Gordon Road closed

stepbystep wrote:Pretty bizarre they were choppered out of there. They were a very long way from danger...years ago I was camped at Rhona with a fire in the same place, pws did a fly by and never even landed. I walked out the following day!

That's why they fly folks out of the area - you wouldn't be walking out today

Tastrax, any chance you can share what the different colours mean with the flames on the map?
I tried looking on thelist myself but had a miserable time negotiating the layers on my phone!

Cheers!

Dee

I’m devastated by the thought of what may be lost from these fires....

No problems at all

Thank you!

To add Sentinel Hotspots to LIST you need to add it as an external service with the following parameters



You can also see the smoke plume if you add similar details a second time but change the WMS Layers to public:himawari8_mosaic

The latest extent of the fire shown on the TFS website indicates that it has burnt through the historical site of Gordonvale (which is still visible on the satellite image).

devoswitch wrote:I’m devastated by the thought of what may be lost from these fires....

Yes this is happening in one of the truly special places in our state and shaping up to be a catastrophic loss.

Latest PWS update via ABC Hobart Facebook page says that Rhona and surrounding alpine veg communities haven't been impacted. Thankfully...

It will be a while before they get a definitive boundary. They may well have had folks on the ground at Gordonvale doing protective work before the fire came through, just depends on what the conditions were like, but it has been blowing out that way!

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDT60801 ... 5958.shtml