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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor and Michael McGowan

Bushfires in Australia: Annastacia Palaszcuk to return from Europe – as it happened

A firefighter battles a bushfire in Peregian Springs on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. There are 80 fires burning across southern Queensland.
A firefighter battles a bushfire in Peregian Springs on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. There are 80 fires burning across southern Queensland. Photograph: Reuters

The latest on the fires in Queensland and NSW

Here’s what we know as we head into the evening on Tuesday:

  • There are 80 fires still burning across Queensland.
  • About 400 residents have been at emergency evacuation centres at Peregian, and only one home was lost at Peregian Beach overnight.
  • Residents in Peregian Beach, Peregian Breeze Estate and south of Lake Weyba have been advised to evacuate as a bushfire heads in a north, north-westerly direction from Peregian Beach.
  • The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, will cut short her overseas trip by a day and return home after a meeting with International Olympic Committee officials in Switzerland. Guardian Australia understands the meeting could not be moved, but Palaszczuk will come right back once it is over.
  • Police located a 12-year-old boy who allegedly lit a fire in bushland at Woodridge, which spread to a nearby storage centre and destroyed a fence, two shipping containers and the contents of those containers.
  • There are still 50 fires burning across New South Wales, with 21 fires uncontained. A total of 630 firefighters have been deployed across the state.
  • A fire in Bees Nest, north-west of Dorrigo in the Armidale area, is currently over 66,500 hectates and out of control. A fire in Drake has burnt more than 40,000 hectares and is out of control. A fire in Legume, in the Tenterfield area, has been contained after burning more than 1,600 hectares, while a Share Creek fire in the Yuraygir national park is not yet under control.

Updated

Meanwhile the federal water minister, David Littleproud, has told my colleague Paul Karp that he “doesn’t know if climate change is manmade” as he clarified earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the government’s response to intensifying bushfires:

I’m about practical outcomes, whether that’s about having a cleaner environment or giving farmers and emergency services the right tools to adapt.

I am responsible for making sure we have the tools we need to adapt to a changing climate.

Updated

Here’s a video of a water bomber working on the Peregian fire in Queensland.

Updated

Not too surprising, given the circumstances.

Back in NSW, the rural fire service advises the threat at Flagstone Rd in Legume has eased, and firefighters have contained the fire.

They’re continuing to monitor the situation and will extinguish hotspots.

Annastacia Palaszczuk to return from Olympic bid trip in Europe to deal with bushfire crisis

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is cutting her trip short given the bushfire crisis currently engulfing her state.

Palaszczuk is currently in Lausanne, Switzerland meeting with International Olympic Committee officials in regard to a potential Queensland bid for the 2032 Olympic Games.

Deputy premier Jackie Trad has been acting premier, after the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission decided last week it would not investigate her over a house purchase.

Updated

Residents in Brookhill and Oak Valley south of Townsville are being advised by Queensland Fire and Emergency to prepare to leave, due to a fast-moving bushfire in Brookhill heading in a westerly direction, with conditions expected to get worse.

They advise that fire crews are working to contain the fire but may not be able to protect every property.

Local resident Rob Campbell on Monday night describing the fire at Peregian Beach. He said the “fireys have no chance”.

NSW Rural Fire Service has also issued a warning for residents on Long Gully Rd, Drake, after the fire breached containment lines in the Sandy Point area.

The fire is burning close to homes in the Sandy Hill area, and homes in Macleods Creek Road are under threat, they said.

People in Sandy Hill are advised to make final preparations now, while residents in Drake, Ewingar, Tilbaroo, and the western side of the Clarence River are advised to put their bush fire survival plan into action.

Fire and Rescue NSW is reporting there are 20 fire crews battling the blaze at the Moorebank factory. They’ve advised residents to stay indoors and keep windows closed due to all the smoke.

A dozen fire trucks are on the scene of a factory fire in Moorebank in Sydney’s south-west, Seven News is reporting.

Emergency services in Queensland are advising residents in Peregian Breeze Estate to evacuate south along Sunshine Motorway towards Nambour Showgrounds, while Peregian Beach and Marcus Beach residents should evacuate northerly towards Noosa.

The “fast-moving” fire is currently moving in a north, north-westerly direction from Peregian Beach towards the southern end of Lake Weyba.

Updated

Queensland Police also has this video of the water bombers working to fight the fire in Peregian filling up.

Meanwhile, this is what it looks like when an air tanker drops fire retardant on the fire in NSW.

Police locate 12-year-old alleged arson in Woodridge

A fire in bushland and part of a Logan City Council storage facility was the fault of a 12-year-old boy who deliberately lit the fire, Queensland police allege.

The police allege in a statement that a group of juveniles were in bushland behind the Woodridge Skate Park when one boy deliberately lit a fire, which spread to a nearby storage centre and destroyed a fence, two shipping containers and the contents of those containers.

The fire was put out by emergency services, and after an investigation a 12-year-old boy from Slacks Creek was located. Police say he will be dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act.

Updated

Queensland police has shared this video taken from a police helicopter over the Peregian and OReillys fires on Monday night.

Updated

I’m going to hand you over to my colleague Josh Taylor now who will take you through the afternoon. Thanks for reading!

Earlier in September Queensland Fire and Emergency Services’ predictive services inspector, Andrew Sturgess, said the state had never before seen such serious bushfire conditions, so early in spring.

It raises the obvious question - why? This datablog from our own Nick Evershed - although a few years old - tries to answer the question of whether our bushfire seasons are getting long.

Firefighters in New South Wales are still battling strong winds at a fire near the town of Yamba. Water-bombing aircraft are dropping fire retardant near homes under threat from the blaze.

Carroll confirmed that there had been charges in relation to some of the fires currently burning.

She said officers were looking into the cause behind eight fires currently burning in the state. Earlier, police said detectives were investigating the cause of the fire at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast and were “speaking with a number of teenagers” in relation to the matter.

Our Queensland correspondent Ben Smee said witnesses had told him they saw “a group of teens set alight a milk crate and throw it into bushland at Peregian, near where the bushfire in the area is understood to have started”.

Latest on Queensland fires - police investigate cause of burns

OK let’s do a quick recap of that press conference

  • The acting Queensland premier, Jackie Trad, says there are 80 fires burning in the state. She confirmed only one home had been lost at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine coast overnight, saying the “herculean efforts” for firefighters “resulted in nothing short of a miracle”.
  • There are 400 people still at emergency evacuation centres near Peregian. Trad said there was no timeline on when they will be able to return to their homes.
  • Queensland’s police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, announced the establishment of a taskforce to investigate the circumstances behind eight fires currently burning. That number, she said, was likely to increase. “Some of the behaviour has been unfortunately reckless and other behaviour has been purposeful,” she said.
  • Craig Crawford, the Queensland minister for social resources, said there were more than 1000 firefighters and 250 trucks working across Queensland. “I think that is actually more than what we ever had during the November fires last year at any one time,” he said.
  • Richard Wardle from the Bureau of Meteorology said that “unfortunately” the long-term outlooks are for above average temperatures in most of Queensland on Friday and Saturday, meaning the fire danger will remain high.

Updated

Carroll says that while some fires have “just clearly gotten away from kids thinking they are having fun” others have been “reckless and purposeful behaviour by others”.

“This task force will stay in place until I am satisfied that we have dealt with all fires across the state and will continue throughout the coming weeks,” she says.

“The consequences of some of these fires are dire. People can die. Buildings and residences are being destroyed and obviously some of them can carry life imprisonment offences if it is found to be purposeful and people do die as a result.”

Updated

Queensland police say some fires involve 'purposeful and malicious' behaviour

Queensland’s police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, announcing she’s established a taskforce to investigate eight fires which have occurred in the last few days.

“That number will increase,” she says. “There are many, many charges that have already been laid in relation to this.”

“Some of the behaviour has been unfortunately reckless and other behaviour has been purposeful. Some of the fires have involved children playing and obviously the consequences are dire as a result of that and, as I said, some of them have been purposeful and malicious. Can I please ask parents to speak to their children.”

Updated

A representative from Queensland fire and emergency services says the work in the fighting the blaze will continue “for days and weeks” because of the remoteness of some of the fires.

Of the fire at Peregian, he says it’s still “an active going fire”.

“But we are confident with the aircraft and the number of resources that we have on that fire as we speak that the asset protection is well protected, but again we cannot afford to have people in that area yet go back to those areas,” the spokesman says.

“We still have a lot of firefighting activity. It simply is not safe.”

Updated

Richard Wardle from the Bureau of Meteorology speaking now. Says that “unfortunately” the long-term outlooks are for above average temperatures on Friday and Saturday with no significant rainfall predicted for the fire-affected areas.

“We do have those very high fire dangers over much of Queensland today with that very dry air mass,” he says.

“We will see those winds pick up during the course of today, but then ease later today and tend more south, south-easterly so at the moment we have quite a bit of smoke on coastal areas in south-east Queensland.

“We will see that smoke move a little bit more inland as those winds swing around more south-easterly. We do expect those fire danger ratings to reduce tomorrow [and] Wednesday, over most of Queensland, as those winds decrease [but] as I said, we do expect those above average temperatures to return on Friday and Saturday, so we expect to see a return to the very high fire danger ratings on those days.”

Updated

She says there are 80 fires burning throughout Queensland.

“As I said before, it was nothing short of a miracle when you consider the ember storm that was engulfing those communities and how unpredictable and quickly that fire emerged late yesterday,” Trad says.

Trad says there are 400 people still at emergency evacuation centres near Peregian. She says there’s no timeline on when they will be able to return to their homes.

“Unfortunately we will not be able to provide advice to them to return back to their homes until proper safety assessments have been done on properties, as well as on transport routes to ensure we have a clear way through for firefighters, for emergency service vehicles, right throughout the day,” she says.

Updated

She’s scolding some of the reporting which suggested as many as a dozen properties had been destroyed in the fire.

“The single source of truth in relation to the unfolding bushfires throughout Queensland is the Queensland fire and emergency service and the Queensland Police. They are the ones on the ground, rolling up their sleeves, leading our state at a time when we are in unprecedented territory,” she says.

“So, I do have to say that [when] we want to curtail panic in the community, it is the police and QFES who should be referred to as the single source of truth in relation to bushfires.”

Updated

Queensland’s acting premier, Jackie Trad, is speaking now. She said last night’s “herculean efforts resulted in nothing short of a miracle”.

“More than 300 firefighters worked from 4.30 yesterday afternoon all throughout the night and many of them are still there working to contain the fire at Peregian,” she says.

Updated

As I mentioned earlier the Binna Burra Lodge, in the world-heritage-listed rainforest of Lamington national park, was destroyed by bushfire on the weekend.

Writer Mary-Rose MacColl has reflected on the lodge’s history:

“This is an obituary for quaint slab-wood cabins, a place that was burned down on the weekend in a fire devastating for the many thousands of people who have visited over the past 85 years.”

A satellite map showing the spread of fires burning in the Lamington national park in Queensland.

Updated

That feared southerly change at Shark Creek near Yamba has arrived.

At least nine homes have been lost in fires burning across NSW. According to the state’s Rural Fire Service there are more than 50 bush and grass fires burning along the coast between Newcastle and Byron Bay and inland as far as Bourke.

There are three major out-of-control fires due to continuing high winds – the fire north of Yamba, another near Armidale in the New England area and another at Drake near Tenterfield.

Almost 400 firefighters are on the ground across the state, which is expected to increase to nearly 800 throughout Tuesday. Some 20 blazes are yet to be contained.

The RFS has confirmed that nine properties have been destroyed by the fire at Drake and Tenterfield. Two car yards and a pistol club have also been destroyed and another six homes and 23 outbuildings have been damaged.

Strong southerly winds with expected gusts of up to 80km/h are expected in the Shark Creek area north of Yamba on Tuesday morning which could threaten homes in that area.

Updated

This map (below) is helpful if you’re struggling to get your head around where the main fires of concern are burning.

You can see the two major fire fronts burning in Queensland, but authorities also have concerns about fires burning in New South Wales – in particular a fire burning near the town of Yamba.

The fire has already burned more than 7750 hectares in the Yuraygir national park and Shark Creek in the Clarence Valley area south of Yamba.

The NSW Rural Fire Service is concerned about strengthening southerly winds that could push the fire towards Yamba and firefighters are working to protect homes that “came under direct threat on Monday”.

“The fire has burnt close to homes overnight, and properties may come under threat again today due to strong and gusty winds,” the RFS said in a statement.

A map of the main fire danger areas in Queensland and New South Wales
A map of the main fire danger areas in Queensland and New South Wales

Updated

Queensland deputy premier Jackie Trad is expected to give a news conference shortly to update us on the fire situation.

Updated

Reports last night that about 10 houses were destroyed in Peregian don’t appear to be correct in the (still hazy) light of day.

At this stage, we know one house was destroyed and a handful of others damaged.

That’s particularly remarkable given some of the footage we’ve seen showing burning embers being blown into suburban areas by gusting winds.

A huge efforts by firefighters – about 115 crews in total – saved dozens of homes and businesses in the Peregian area overnight.

Updated

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has spoken to reporters about the bushfires burning across the two states this morning. Queensland police have reported people trying to access exclusion zones around Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast, and Morrison urged people to pay heed to the warnings from authorities.

“My simple message to Australians is to listen carefully to the warnings that are there, to follow those instructions, to not put yourself, if at all possible, in a position of risk, and to provide support to one another, as Australians always do in these circumstances,” Morrison said.

“Once again, we’ve seen on display the great character and care of Australians when they’re fating these sorts of disasters. And I want to thank everybody, all the volunteers, who have been out there, all of those who have been out there providing assistance to people, working in the evacuation centres, or out there supporting the firefighters, and, indeed, the firefighters themselves.”

Updated

A day after fire ripped through the historic Binna Burra Lodge in Queensland’s Lamington national park, guests and staff have had to make a treacherous evacuation from another nearby eco-resort.

Authorities made the decision mid-afternoon on Monday to advise people to leave O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat.

The evacuation was abandoned late on Monday afternoon, after the fire shifted towards the Lamington National Park Road.

About 100 staff, guests and police officers who had been unable to leave spent about three hours at the resort waiting for news. Authorities coordinated their departure about 8pm.

The main concern had been predictions of erratic winds, which made the movement of the fire front unpredictable, in the early hours of this morning.

The fire in the national park is still burning out of control.

Updated

The fire which destroyed two properties on the Sunshine Coast overnight continues to burn in a northerly direction on Tuesday.

Fire authorities in Queensland have issued an evacuation warning for residents in the areas of Peregian Beach, Peregian Breeze Estate, Marcus Beach and Weyba.

“Leaving immediately is the safest option, as it will soon be too dangerous to drive,” the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said on Tuesday morning.

“The fire is expected to have a significant impact on the community. Conditions are now very dangerous and firefighters may soon be unable to prevent the fire advancing. The fire may pose a threat to all lives directly in its path. Fire crews may not be able to protect your property.”

Good morning,

Firefighters are battling more than 100 bushfires in Queensland and New South Wales.

At least one property has been destroyed at Peregian Beach on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast overnight and hundreds of people have been forced out of their homes and into evacuation centres.

There are about 70 fires still burning across Queensland. A fire in the Lamington national park on the Gold Coast hinterland which razed Binna Burra - an historic eco-tourism lodge built in the 1930s surrounded by subtropical Gondwana rainforest – continues to burn and high winds are concerning fire crews.

In NSW, there are some 58 fires burning, mostly in the state’s north towards the Queensland border.

Fire has already burned more than 7,750 hectares in the Yuraygir national park and Shark Creek in the Clarence Valley south of Yamba on the coast, where fire crews are trying to protect homes amid fears that a southerly change could push one of them towards Yamba.

We’ll keep you updated on conditions on the ground throughout the day.

Updated

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