In February, the fires that had threatened much of eastern Australia became very real for Canberra. The Orroral Valley fire that began in late January eventually burnt out much of Namadgi national park and had the territory on edge, fearing the worst. The city was still recovering from a devastating hail storm, and David Pope was drawing a special series of cartoons to get tourists back to the coast, now that the danger was over - or so we thought then. Meanwhile, our wineries were dealing with the impact of the fires' smoke, and a deluge of rain.
