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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Naaman Zhou and Helen Davidson

Australia's east coast threatened by blazes ahead of catastrophic danger day – as it happened

Summary

This is where we’ll leave our rolling coverage today. Guardian Australia will be covering all the developments tomorrow. Here’s what’s happened so far:

  • More than 60 fires are still threatening NSW and the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast “hot, dry and gusty winds” worsening the situation tomorrow
  • More than 45 fires are burning in Queensland, with three watch and act fires south of Toowoomba and near Yeppoon
  • The NSW government has declared a state of emergency for seven days
  • More than 575 schools and TAFE campuses will be closed, the Department of Education said in its evening update
  • Declarations of catastrophic fire conditions were extended this afternoon, to now cover Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter and Illawarra Shoalhaven
  • The catastrophic rating was introduced in 2009 after the Victorian black Saturday bushfires, and it is the first time Sydney has been given the rating
  • It will be extreme fire danger in the Central Ranges, North Western, North Coast, New England, Southern Ranges and Northern Slopes
  • There is a statewide total fire ban in effect
  • Fire authorities have advised people to avoid bushland areas - which for many means leaving homes for coastal or larger towns and cities
  • All communities in Bellingen and Coffs Harbour west of the Pacific Highway have been advised to leave home early
  • Aged-care homes are on alert
  • An emergency level fire was threatening Port Lincoln in South Australia on Monday evening
  • Victoria is sending another 300 firefighters and New Zealand has pledged further support if needed
  • Defence bases have been ordered to provide whatever assistance is required to local firefighters
  • Bitter political arguments are playing out on the sidelines of the firefighting, with Greens and Nationals MPs blaming each other for the awful fire conditions, and Coalition politicians refusing to discuss the impact of climate change (and their lack of action to address it) on the crisis

ABC Weather has published an explanation of why Tuesday is looking so bad: it’s a cold front.

“Tomorrow with the winds you’ll be seeing a more south-easterly direction,” Grace Legge, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, told the ABC.

“Once that change comes through, it changes the direction that the fire’s going, which means that you normally end up with a large fire front as the wind changes direction and moves the opposite way.

“You’d start to see the fires moving more north-easterly once a change has gone through.”

From AAP: Horse owners are being urged to move their animals to a safe place in the face of the catastrophic bushfire threat.

The Australian Veterinary Association has warned that horses should not be locked in confined stables but rather placed in well-grazed paddocks.

Dr Sam Nugent, president of Equine Veterinarians Australia, said the key was to act early.

“It’s critical not to lock your horses in a stable, holding yard or similar environment, as they may panic and hurt themselves if confined,” he said. “In addition, the EVA asks that you remove all gear from your horse as it could get caught on fences, melt or become very hot and cause serious burns, plus do not leave rugs on your horse.”

The AVA said the ideal environment is a large or series of small well-grazed paddocks with the internal gates left open, and warned horses should not be let onto roads where they could face danger from traffic as well as fire.

Northern Beaches Council mayor Michael Regan said it had opened Frenchs Forest Showground and North Narrabeen reserve for local residents to temporarily relocate large animals including horses.

Updated

Attn: Canberra

Carol Sparks is the mayor of Glen Innes Severn council, where devastating fires on Friday claimed at least two lives. She has written an op-ed which you can find here. Here’s an excerpt:

Already there are armchair experts ready with free advice about meeting with disaster. Let it be made perfectly clear that all the area that burned has already been a fire ground for two months. There were hazard reduction and backburns under state authority last month and last year. The properties were all well-prepared and extensively defended. People who have lived with fire risk for decades knew exactly what to do, and they did it. The full expertise and advice of fire controllers has been heeded at every turn.

I’ll put my 20-year Rural Fire Service medal up against your free advice any day of the week.

The anger is real. The anger is justified. Because this disaster was all foreseen and predicted. For decades the link between a hotter, drier climate, land-clearing, excessive irrigation and increased fire risk have all been attested in scientific papers.

Equally for decades there have been those who insist they know better. Their ignorance and arrogance have delivered us only ashes – let these now be swept away.

Updated

Nick Stanley of the South Australian CFS has told ABC local radio there are more than 100 firefighters from 26 ground crews, eight waterbombing aircraft and three observation aircraft currently working on the fire threatening Port Lincoln.

“We’re still seeing some fairly strong winds around the 50km/h mark, gusting 80-90km/h when this fire started,” he said.

“Trying to control a fire under those conditions is near-on impossible.”

Updated

The NSW RFS has reminded people it is not telling people to evacuate ahead of tomorrow, just to “avoid bushfire prone areas”.

That could mean leaving your home and going to a large town or city, or to a shopping centre or another place far away from a bushland area.

NSW Police have issued warnings and advice for the state’s population ahead of Tuesday’s serious fire conditions and total fire ban.

“If you are threatened by fire, you need to take action to protect yourself. Do not be caught in the open,” it said a short time ago.

There are simply not enough fire trucks for every house. If you call for help, you may not get it. Do not expect a firetruck. Do not expect a knock on the door. Do not expect a phone call.”

“Start taking action now to reduce your risk:

  • Avoid bush fire prone areas. If your home is in a bush fire prone area, the safest option is to not be there.
  • Do not travel through bushland areas.
  • A safer location may be a large town or city, shopping centres or facilities well away from bushland. It may also be a designated ‘Neighbourhood Safer Place’.
  • A Neighbourhood Safer Place is designed as a Place of Last Resort in bush fire emergencies only. Please note that travelling to or sheltering at a Neighbourhood Safer Place does not guarantee your safety.
  • Your safest option will always be to leave early.
  • People with special needs, such as the elderly and people with a disability, should always leave before the threat of bush fire.
  • If it is unsafe to leave the area or stay and defend your property, and the path is clear, you should move to your pre-identified Neighbourhood Safer Place, or other safer location, prior to the impact of a bush fire.
  • Be aware that when you are travelling to your Neighbourhood Safer Place there may be heavy smoke and poor visibility.
  • It is important that you are familiar with the area. Gather at the Neighbourhood Safer Place location and remain there until the bush fire threat has passed.
  • The conditions at the Neighbourhood Safer Place may be uncomfortable and you may be affected by heat, smoke and embers.
  • Water, toilets and food may not be available at the Neighbourhood Safer Place and emergency service personnel may not be present.
  • Neighbourhood Safer Places are not intended for pets and livestock.

Lists of evacuation centres will be posted here by the RFS, and police keep their updates here.

Defence bases have been given orders to provide any an all assistance required to local firefighting forces.

Defence minister Linda Reynolds has asked the chief of the ADF, General Angus Campbell, “to give an order to local base commanders, making clear that they have the authority to use Defence resources to respond to any local contingencies”.

“Senior ADF officers and other commanders are empowered to provide emergency assistance in local emergency situations to save human life, prevent extensive loss of animal life, or widespread damage to property,” she said.

“While our ADF personnel are not trained firefighters, they can provide other support for the nation’s front line first responders.”

Emergency warning for fire threatening Port Lincoln

In South Australia the CFS has issued an emergency warning in the last hour for Duck Ponds, in the Lower Eyre Peninsula, where a fire is burning in an easterly direction towards Port Lincoln.

“The Western Approach Rd, Duck Ponds fire is uncontrolled,” it said.

“You are now in danger. Take shelter in a solid building. Do not leave or enter this area in a vehicle or on foot. It is too late to leave as the roads will not be safe.

Conditions are dangerous and firefighters are now unable to prevent the fire spreading. Shelter before the fire arrives as heat can kill you well before the flames reach you.”

The White Hut fire which was an emergency earlier this afternoon has now been contained, but the CFS warns “a fast moving wind change is still expected this afternoon which may cause the fire to spread rapidly in a north easterly or easterly direction toward the locality of White Hut, Hundred Line Road and the Yorke Highway”.

An update on the Queensland situation:

There are 10 fires at advice level, and four watch and act fires: Cobraball, Townson, Clumber and Thornton.

And in NSW:

There are 48 advice level fires burning across the state and 10 watch and act fires: Carral Creek, Carrai East, Coombes Gap complex, Hillville, Kian Road, Liberation Trail, Bril Bril, Mt Nardi national park, Newton Boyd and Coombadjha.

Updated

Towns and communities west of the highway in the Coffs Harbour and Bellingen region are being advised to get clear of their homes tomorrow.

This is a community newsletter released earlier this afternoon advising resident they will face “extreme fire danger” on Tuesday, with smoke and embers from the significant fires nearby potentially affecting areas kilometres ahead of the fires, predicted to spread to Coffs Harbour and the northern beaches.

It’s advised residents in areas west of the Pacific highway to self-relocate to a major urban area like Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga, Sawtell, Bellingen, Urunga, and Dorrigo, but warned that some places east of the highway are not safe enough to take refuge.

Community information about bushfires in the Coffs Harbour Bellingen region on Monday 11 November
Community information about bushfires in the Coffs Harbour Bellingen region on Monday 11 November Photograph: Supplied

The warnings from authorities that people in areas of concern should leave for somewhere safer is not one to take lightly.

Even the chief of the Blue Mountains Rural Fire Service is getting out.

David Jones has urged residents to consider leaving their homes before late this afternoon, the Blue Mountains Gazette has reported.

“I really think leaving is the best option, we don’t want to lose lives,” he told the paper.

“I encourage people to go, I think it’s the best. My family are going, even though my house at Medlow Bath is well prepared.”

Updated

Earlier, the mayor of the mid-north coast council, David West said the next few days “could be the most hazardous this community has ever had”.

The north coast has been hardest hit so far by the fires that have been burning since Friday.

But West told the ABC earlier his community was “very resilient”.

“They’re country people,” he said. “Not only were they supporting each other, the community is supporting them as well. Huge donations of clothing, huge donations of help, to such a degree they had to turn people away. That’s what makes regional New South Wales and regional Australia a very strong and vibrant community.

“Council is doing all it can, we’re basically ceasing general operations of council and putting resources into supporting the community moving forward. The next three days could be the most hazardous this community has ever had.”

Barnaby Joyce blames the Greens for bushfires

In the latest from the Nationals-Greens sniping over bushfires and climate and blame: Barnaby Joyce has told the Australian it’s “Greens policy” that has made the threat worse, by locking up dams and preventing enough hazard reduction burns, and – I kid you not – making trees fall over on forest roads.

“So many of the practicalities of fighting a fire and managing it have been stymied by the Greens,” Joyce has said.

“A lot of people are talking once more about Indigenous land management because they didn’t have to go through 1,001 reports that they have to go through today.”

He said there was nothing the parliament has done which brought about the devastation.

“The problems we have got have been created by the Greens,” he said.

“We haven’t had the capacity to easily access [hazard] reduction burns because of all of the paperwork that is part of green policy.

“We don’t have access to dams because they have been decommissioned on national parks because of green policy. We have trees that have fallen over vehicles and block roads, so people cannot either get access to fight a fire or to get away from fires. And we can’t knock over the trees because of Greens policy.”

It comes after Greens MP Adam Bandt said “thoughts and prayers aren’t enough” and the government had done “everything in their power” to make fires more likely, which deputy PM Michael McCormack labeled the “ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies”.

Updated

But professor and bushfire researcher Jim McLennan from La Trobe University has said other residents in more metropolitan areas, around the country, were not as ready as they should be.

“In the major capital cities, with population growth on the bushland fringes and more hot days with longer no-rain periods, there are city-dwellers who don’t appreciate they are now on the fringe of fire areas,” he told AAP.

“In areas of greater population density, you are likely to get major problems with traffic, the possibility of accidents and tragedies.

“A lot of people are not bushfire-ready.”

The Blue Mountains mayor, Mark Greenhill, says the region is “well seasoned” and prepared for tomorrow’s catastrophic conditions.

The Blue Mountains experienced devastating blazes in 2013, losing over 200 homes.

“I’ve been speaking to residents today who are quietly preparing,” he told AAP. “Our community quietly gets about doing what it needs to do.”

The bushfire in South Australia on the Yorke Peninsula has been downgraded to watch and act.

At 1.30 AEDT, fire authorities said it posed a threat to lives and property.

But firefighters have now halted the fire’s advance and there have been no lives lost and damage to property.

But, an approaching wind change could push the fire to the east.

More than 350 schools closed

The latest update from the Department of Education has declared even more schools – both public and non-government – are closed tomorrow.

We already reported that hundreds of schools would be closed on Tuesday, after a major announcement around 2.30pm.

But to recap, and consolidate the new schools, the ABC is reporting that 367 schools are now closed across NSW. These are all through the catastrophic fire danger areas of the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Greater Hunter.

There are also numerous schools closed in metropolitan parts of Sydney near areas of bush.

The full list is here.

Updated

Also in Torrington, Richard Cork, another resident, returned home on Monday but said he noticed many of the animals he used to feed did not.

He told AAP only seven of the 21 king parrots that normally visit his yard arrived on Monday. And of the four kangaroos that turned up, only one did, and had clear burns on its feet.

More on the defence force’s help for the fire-fighting effort tomorrow.

The Royal Australian Air Force has flown firefighters in from Canberra, Adelaide and Hobart to Port Macquarie. Singleton barracks in NSW is on stand-by to provide accommodation and catering to firefighters.

Queensland firefighters are using the Kokoda barracks in Canungra to refuel aircraft. And local base commanders across both states have the authority to use defence resources to respond to any local fires.

Updated

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued its latest fire weather update for Tuesday.

“Hot, dry and gusty winds will generate very dangerous fire conditions across large parts of the state,” it says.

Much of this has already been communicated by RFS NSW, but in full:

Catastrophic fire danger is forecast for: Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven.

Extreme fire danger forecast for: North Coast, Southern Ranges, Central Ranges, New England, Northern Slopes and North Western

Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Far North Coast, Far South Coast and Monaro Alpine

Very High Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Upper Central West Plains, Lower Central West Plains and Southern Slope

In Torrington, NSW, near Glen Innes, resident Thomas Eveans has returned home to find “nothing recoverable”

“The shed, the caravan parked beside it, the motorbike is gone,” he told AAP. “There was an aluminium meltdown like you wouldn’t believe.”

Eveans evacuated on Friday in the face of a “five-pronged” fire front.

“The sound – it was like hearing a plane overhead coming into land,” he said.

Updated

“All the pastures are gone, we don’t have any water,” he added. “With the drought, the last thing we bloody needed was a fire.”

Storm Sparks and her young son, Zeke Bacon, told AAP they had heard some of their animals had survived.

Updated

In good news, the Marsden, Mount Tarampa and Park Ridge South fires have been downgraded from stay informed, and Queensland RFS are now not required on scene.

Updated

In Wytaliba, the NSW town where two people died in the fires on Friday, residents are still waiting to return home.

The town remains a crime scene after the fires, and roads have been closed for four days in a row.

Resident John Biles told AAP he had been going down to the roadblock every day.

“I manage a property down there with my brother,” he said. “Each night I find a motel in town, go to Vinnies and get another set of clothes, and then get back out here again in the morning.”

Updated

The Australian Defence Force and Commonwealth agencies will be available to help with this week’s bushfires, Mathias Cormann has announced.

In his role as special minister of state, he told the Senate the “full resources” of the defence force would be “available to assist where they can”.

“All commonwealth agencies have been activated and are prepared to assist the state [governments] and communities,” he said.

Updated

“We’re going to have to start talking about climate change and questioning some of what our leaders have been doing for the last 30 years,” says Brad Edge. “Maybe it’s time for a class action from fire-affected people across the state.”

Every morning since Saturday, Edge, from Congarinni near Macksville on the mid-north coast of NSW, has returned to his property unsure if his house will still be standing.

The 80-hectare bush property came under threat after two fires that had been burning for weeks at Kian Road and Fortescue Creek joined. Edge says the fires are unlike anything he’s seen on the property in his 12 years there.

“Our place was nowhere near the areas of concern but when they joined up they blew across the Taylors Arm river and came into the area behind our place. A number of little spot fires have just increased over the last 48 hours,” Edge told Guardian Australia on Sunday night.

“We evacuated two days ago. We’ve been going back each morning, making sure the fire pump is running, sprinklers are going. In the last night, the water-bombing helicopter spent about four hours at the back of our place.”

The fire flared up again on Sunday and fire crews were at the house trying to save it.

On Monday morning, Edge returned. The house was still standing and crews had installed containment lines across the property.

“Not so much to stop it if the big winds come, but they’re giving themselves points where they can try to fight it and bring the helicopters in,” he says.

He’s not sure what will happen on Tuesday, when conditions are forecast to worsen.

“At the moment it’s safe, but if the wind goes to the west there’s a chance it won’t be,” he says.

Edge, his wife and two young children have had to evacuate to multiple locations, depending on the direction of the fires. They were at his father-in-law’s home first, in a suburban estate, but had to move again on Sunday when it came under threat.

“It’s a place you’d never expect to be evacuated – it’s quite unbelievable,” he says. “I’ve got a wife and two young kids. It’s hard on everybody. My father-in-law, it’s hard on him too.”

On Monday, they moved back to his father-in-law’s place when conditions changed and they were advised to relocate from the home of friends they were staying with.

“We’ve got a number of friends who’ve lost their property. We’re not sure if ours will be there tomorrow,” Edge says. “But at the end of the day, everybody is OK. Everything else is replaceable.”

Updated

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has pledged further bushfire-fighting support if Australia needs it, in a conversation with Scott Morrison, reports AAP.

Ardern said Australia would receive more support from its trans-Tasman neighbours if they needed it.

“Our thoughts are with Australia right now, these are devastating fires,” Ardern said this afternoon. I contacted prime minister Morrison this morning just to touch base and offer New Zealand’s full support.

“He acknowledged that on one of his visits he had actually spoken to one of the New Zealanders already over there.

“I’ve made the offer, to definitely let us know if further support is required. We’re working through an additional request ... for additional firefighters.”

There are currently five New Zealand firefighters in the field, with a sixth on the way.

“These people are specialists helping in air attack and heavy-machinery supervision, safety and managing interstate deployments,” Fire and Emergency NZ manager Paul Turner said.

Updated

What to do tomorrow

Tomorrow’s conditions for NSW and Queensland are dire, especially in the Greater Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Shoalhaven, where it’s forecast to be catastrophic.

The NSW Rural Fire Service sends out bushfire alerts on radio, TV and the internet.

If you’re in an affected zone, you can tun in to your local ABC radio station, which is an official emergency broadcaster. They’ll give necessary updates (and if you have a battery-powered AM radio, you can still get them if the power goes out).

The ABC Emergency Facebook page also has a list of local Facebook pages, for specific information, here.

Below is the RFS fact sheet.

There is more information here.

The NSW Rural Fire Service guide to bushfire alerts
The NSW Rural Fire Service guide to bushfire alerts Photograph: NSW RFS

Updated

The electricity network operator Ausgrid has cancelled most planned maintenance work and put emergency crews on standby ahead of tomorrow.

“Catastrophic fire conditions and temperatures in the high 30s have been predicted across our network,” said Ausgrid’s chief operating officer, Trevor Armstrong.

“The safety of the community and our people is our highest priority and that is why we have cancelled planned maintenance jobs where power would need to be interrupted for extended periods. Limited work will proceed but only in cases where it has been deemed safe to do so.

“With strong winds expected, we’re reminding people to stay well back from any fallen powerlines. If you see fallen wires, always assume they’re live, stay eight metres away – which is about two car lengths – and call us on 131 388.”

Updated

The NSW department of education has updated its list of closures, with a number of additional schools and Tafes now shutting down for tomorrow.

The list includes hundreds of government and non-government primary and high schools, and Tafes, including some in relatively suburban areas.

Check the list here.

Updated

More from Bobin resident Ned Haughton, who has taken to social media after seeing his town devastated by the fires.

Updated

Thomas Eveans holds melted aluminium as he inspects the remains of his house
Thomas Eveans holds melted aluminium as he inspects the remains of his house, which was destroyed by a bushfire in Torrington, near Glen Innes. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
Thomas Eveans inspects the remains of his house
Eveans looks through the wreckage Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Updated

Victoria sends reinforcements to NSW

Victoria’s Country Fire Authority is sending more than 300 members to NSW after the fire-ravaged state requested more help, AAP reports.

The CFA is sending 286 firefighters, 18 supporting resources, six additional taskforce members and one CFA liaison officer to be positioned in the Hunter region and Goulburn ahead of the catastrophic fire weather conditions forecast for tomorrow.

That’s in addition to the 11 strike teams sent yesterday afternoon, which will be in position by 7pm.

The CFA has also dispatched a fleet of 76 vehicles, including 55 tankers and 21 operational support vehicles.

Updated

The South Australia Country Fire Service has issued an emergency warning for a fire in White Hutt on the southern Yorke peninsula:

This fire may pose a threat to lives directly in its path.

Act now. Leave, if the path is clear to a safer place, as it will soon be too dangerous to drive.

If you cannot leave, identify where you will seek shelter from the bushfire. Heat from the fire will kill you. Do not enter this area as conditions are dangerous.

The MARION BAY ROAD, WHITE HUT fire is uncontrolled. This scrub fire is burning in a SOUTH EASTERLY DIRECTION direction towards WARRENBEN CONSERVATION PARK AND EAST OF MARION BAY. Conditions are continually changing.

Updated

An emotional video shot by Ned Haughton, a climate scientist who lost his childhood home in bushfires at Bobin.

A language warning on this one.

Not every year is going to get worse, but on average it’s going to get worse. And every year we’re probably going to see other regions having similar impacts, similar loss of property, sim loss of life. Bobin is a really tight community and we’ve lost so many houses here, it’s going to be hard to recover. Luckily we haven’t lost too many lives, unlike the north coast.

Shit happens sometimes, I wouldn’t be that pissed off except state and liberal governments are just trying their hardest to shut down any decent action on climate.

This is just not the right way to act if you care about the planet, if you care about your kids future, if you care about your community’s future.

Updated

The ABC is reporting there are eight houses confirmed destroyed in the bushfires at Yeppoon.

This footage was taken yesterday evening.

Updated

Catastrophic conditions spread to the Illawarra Shoalhaven

Conditions have now worsened, according to the NSW RFS, which means catastrophic conditions will now affect a third major region: the Illawarra Shoalhaven.

“The fire danger is now expected to be worse than originally forecast,” the RFS said. “The Illawarra Shoalhaven has now been added as an area of catastrophic fire danger.

“Catastrophic is the highest level of bush fire danger. Homes are not designed to withstand a fire under these conditions.”

Catastrophic conditions are equivalent to the conditions of Black Saturday, Australia’s deadliest bushfire, in which 173 people died.

Updated

This is a blistering editorial here from Tasmania’s the Examiner, Launceston’s daily paper.

The regional paper is drawing the links between climate change and bushfires, and singling out Scott Morrison’s “thoughts and prayers” comments directly. A few quotes:

It has an eerily similar ring to it: ‘Thoughts and prayers’.

Australians rightly mock this platitude when it’s rolled out by politicians after a mass shooting in the US, but now our own prime minister saw fit to present this meaningless line for victims of the bushfires on the mainland.

Like how the US does nothing to end their deadly problem, our government also appears determined to cover its ears to the stark reality now facing us: Australia is drier than ever, hotter than ever, and less prepared than ever.

The Tasmanian Fire Service is well aware of the risks. In Launceston this year, their state conference was titled ‘Not the Norm’: because the changing climate is putting humanity in a completely unpredictable position where every year is worse than the last.

Yet while Australia faces unprecedented fires ... politicians continue to mislead on carbon emissions, or use rubbery accounting tricks to meet our emissions targets.

Updated

In Brisbane:

Smith says helicopters had to be grounded earlier today due to thick smoke obscuring visibility. He says he could not confirm how many houses had been destroyed.

Updated

Superintendent Steve Smith from Queensland RFS is now speaking in Yeppoon:

Overnight we have been able to conduct some work that has helped consolidate the fire line. The fire itself is approximately 1,100 hectares. Of that 1,100 hectares, about 35% of that fire edge is uncontained.

So with the winds that we are seeing today and have just picked up in the last hour or so, we have once again seen some fire behaviour that is becoming quite erratic and quite intense.

Updated

The Australian climate scientist Dr Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, has responded to the comments of the deputy PM, Michael McCormack, this morning, who dismissed links between climate change and bushfire as the “ravings” of inner city greenies.

Hare told me: “There’s only one word for that really – bullshit. There’s a strong and very well-established connection between climate change and wildfire risk. It’s a foreseeable risk and one we need to plan for, and reduce our emissions to limit and prevent it. His comments are wilfully ignorant and, in a nutshell, bullshit.”

Updated

NSW updates:

The Toorumbee Complex fires (formerly the Jacobs Spur and Armidale Road fires) has crossed the Macleay River and Armidale Road, and is heading north-east towards Millbank and Sundown Creek.

The Coombes Gap Complex fire, west of Wauchope, is burning on both sides of the Oxley Highway around Long Flat. “The fire is spreading in multiple directions towards Ellenborough and Tilbaroo Crossing,” the RFS says.

The Washpool state forest fire near Coombadjha is still moving north towards Ewingar. “Smoke and ash is likely in the area of Baryulgil. Watch out for embers which may start spot fires ahead of the main fire front.”

The Hillville Road fire, south of Taree, is “spreading quickly”. It is burning in a north and easterly direction. The RFS has told residents they are conducting backburning, so “people in the area may see an increase in fire activity”.

Updated

And earlier, RFS inspector Ben Shepherd reminded us that other parts of NSW will still have “severe and extreme” dangers on Tuesday.

The risk is all across the state, not just in the catastrophic and metro areas.

“We need to ensure that people understand there is a risk in all bushland areas, stretching from Bega all the way to Byron, from the Victorian border to the Queensland border,” he said.

A full map is below.

What does the 'catastrophic' fire rating signify?

What does Tuesday’s “catastrophic” fire rating mean – and where does it apply?

The deadliest bushfires in Australian history, the Black Saturday fires of February 2009, would have had a catastrophic rating. Those fires killed 173 people.

Put simply, the NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said the rating means “it’s where people die”.

The catastrophic rating was introduced in 2009, and this is the first time it has been declared for Sydney. But Fitzsimmons said he could not ever remember worse conditions for Sydney.

Affected areas are:

  • The Hunter: Cessnock, Dungog, Lake Macquarie, Singleton and the Upper Hunter.
  • North and north-west: Camden, central coast, the Hills, Hawkesbury, Hunters Hill, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, northern beaches, Ryde, Willoughby.
  • Sydney west and inner west: Burwood, Canada Bay, Strathfield, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Liverpool, Parramatta Penrith, Sydney (includes some inner west suburbs).
  • Sydney east: Randwick, Waverley, Woollahra.
  • South and south-west: Georges River, Kogarah, Sutherland.

Updated

In Queensland, an update on the Rosevale fire near Ipswich.

The fire is still at watch and act, with residents being told to prepare to leave.

Qld RFS says: “A large fire is burning to the south of Baker Road, Kerwitz Road and Kelly and Dwyer Road, Rosevale. It is travelling in a north, north-easterly direction and is likely to impact Baker Road, Kerwitz Road, Kelly and Dwyer Road, Rosevale later today.”

An evacuation centre is open at Harrisville school of arts, Hall Street, Harrisville.

Updated

As of 12pm AEDT

At 12pm AEDT, 11am AEST.

In NSW:

  • NSW has declared a state of emergency for seven days, as Greater Sydney and the Great Hunter face “catastrophic” conditions on Tuesday.
  • The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said this was necessary to save lives.
  • This is the first time a “catastrophic” warning has been issued for Sydney, and the conditions have been likened to Black Saturday.
  • Up to 60 fires are now burning, with 40 not contained. Ten are at watch and act.
  • 970,000 hectares have been burnt – nearly as much as the last three fire seasons combined
  • Since Friday, three people have died and 100 have been injured, including 20 fire fighters.
  • 150 homes have been destroyed.

In Queensland:

  • 47 fires are burning across the state.
  • Three are of major concern: Cobraball near Yeppoon, Cooroibah on the Sunshine Coast and Thornton in the Lockyer Valley.
  • Seven fires are at watch and act, with residents told to prepare to leave.
  • 11,000 hectares have burnt in central Queensland alone.
  • More than a dozen homes have been destroyed.

Updated

In Queensland, three fires – Duingal near Gin Gin, Kilcoy Beerwah Road near Stanmore and Mount Stuart – are burning but now pose no threat to property.

Updated

NSW Ambulance has issued the following health warning for those affected:

  • People with any respiratory issues or who are particularly vulnerable can be the first to feel the effects of smoke which may aggravate their existing condition. Even healthy adults and children can be impacted by the effects of heavy smoke which can result in lung irritation.
  • These conditions can have a serious impact on your health and it is important to remember that our bodies have to work extra hard to cope or cool down. Ensure you stay hydrated and pay particular attention to any symptoms (dizziness, headaches, racing pulse or nausea) of heat-related illness.
  • Be aware of potential hazards such as embers, falling debris, damage to surroundings and reduced visibility which can cause injury. Paramedics are urging people in fire-affected areas to wear any form of eyewear and loose clothing to cover your skin to assist in reducing any incidental injury.
  • NSW Ambulance recommends if anyone sustains any form of burn they should cool the affected area immediately with water – ideally running water – for a minimum of 20 minutes (for eyes ensure you flush the eye) and seek medical attention.
  • We need people to really take care of themselves. If you have a pre-existing medical condition make sure you have all your medications with you and readily available at all times.

Updated

Dramatic footage from Yeppoon in Queensland. This is part of the Cobraball, Bungundarra, Maryvale and Lake Mary fire, as named by the Queensland RFS.

The fire is currently at watch and act and residents have been told to prepare to leave.

As of 8am AEST, the RFS said the fire was travelling from Cobraball towards Bungundarra, Maryvale and Lake Mary.

“The fire is currently impacting Mount Lizard, east of Evans Road, south of Mapes Road, south of Ingrey Road, east of Serpentine Road and north of Cobraball Road. The fire is expected to have a significant impact on the community.”

Updated

The University of Newcastle has closed all campuses tomorrow, apart from Newcastle city and Sydney.

As of 11.20 AEDT, here’s the latest on the bushfires across NSW and Queensland:

  • 60 fires burning in NSW, and 47 across Queensland.
  • At least 150 homes destroyed in NSW – with that expected to rise.
  • 970,000 hectares burnt in NSW, nearly as much as the last three fire seasons combined.

Updated

Greens MP Adam Bandt has also responded to deputy PM Michael McCormack’s comments that the link between climate change and worsening bushfires was “woke capital-city greenies ravings”.

Bandt said McCormack was “a dangerous fool”.

Thoughts and prayers are not enough, we need science and action too.

They’ve done everything in their power to make these catastrophic fires more likely.

When you cuddle coal in Canberra, the rest of the country burns.

Dael Allison is from the tiny NSW town of Bobin, north-west of Taree.

“Bobin is shocking,” she says. “Bobin is devastated. There would be entire hillsides that wouldn’t have a tree standing.”

Allison drove with her partner, Rick Haughton, and son from Port Stephens to Bobin on Sunday to check on friends and on their property, where they grow eucalypts.

The main house is still standing, but sheds, the original cottage they built and that their children spent the first years of their lives in, and most of the land are burnt out.

“We’ve had fires but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Allison says. “I’ve never seen fires that come right down to the water level of the creek. “I don’t know where fire crews are getting their water from.”

Allison says they made the two-and-a-half hour drive from Port Stephens where they are based because communications in the Bobin area have been down.

“One of the reasons we went up there was so that we could talk to friends and check if they were OK and let their families know. People assume when there’s no communication the worst has happened. But all the phone lines are down.

“The whole area is just on fire. At least a dozen people I know have lost houses. That would be nowhere near the final count.”

Updated

Meanwhile, the Sydney radio host Alan Jones has blamed the Greens for the bushfire conditions, referencing a supposed lack of backburning.

The 2GB host said there was in fact “room for a bit of politics” in looking at the causes of the current crisis:

Let me just say here: I’m not too sure what government can do in the light of this. It is a frightening spectacle.

But I do say it is room for a bit of politics as far as I’m concerned. Natale, the Greens leader, talks about it being a ‘climate emergency’. No, Mr Di Natale, you and your mob won’t allow, and you’re full of these local government areas where there’s fuel on the floor, can’t be cleared, we take too long, and now he’s running for cover and saying it’s a ‘climate emergency’.

Updated

A Western Australian farmer, and 2010 Australian rural woman of the year, Sue Middleton, is the latest regional Australian to take aim at deputy PM Michael McCormack’s comments earlier today.

McCormack had said linking climate change to worsening bushfires was “woke capital-city greenies ravings”.

Here’s Middleton replying to the ABC Canberra radio host Anna Vidot:

Updated

In NSW, an update on the watch and act for the Washpool state forest fire near Coombadjha.

It is now more than 31,800 hectares and is out of control. Water bombing aircraft are working to slow the fire to the north.

According to the RFS: “The fire is burning on both sides of the Carnham Road, and both sides of the Clarence Way in the vicinity Eighteen Mile.

“The fire on the Western side of the Clarence River is still moving north towards Ewingar.”

Updated

On Saturday, the CEO of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, Dr Richard Thornton, had this to say on why conditions are so bad.

This fire season is influenced by the warm and dry conditions we’ve been experiencing all year. In south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, the last three years have been dry and warm – it is these conditions that are driving the severity of the current bushfires.

When preceding conditions have been like this, and the bush and grass is so dry, it doesn’t take much for a fire to get going once the wind is up. Unfortunately that is what we’ve seen, not just in recent days, but over the last few months.

We need to start preparing now for these future risks, and not just the coming months, but the coming years and decades – we cannot keep doing things the same ... The issues are complex, and this is the role of research.

We cannot any longer be sure of what is possible with our seasonal cycles. We need to focus on mitigation from climate change. This is an area in critical need of further research into weather prediction, land planning, infrastructure development, population trends, and community awareness. Yes, climate change is causing more severe weather, but demographic changes are having an equal impact and deserve just as much of our attention.

Updated

In NSW, more than 100 people – including 20 firefighters – have been injured by bushfires, according to NSW Ambulance.

The NSW Ambulance commissioner, Dominic Morgan, said 30 additional ambulance crews would be deployed, and he was considering bringing in more help from interstate.

“Over the last few days our doctors and paramedics have been exceedingly busy; they’ve treated over 100 patients for fire-related activity,” he said. “We had a whole range of things that have been confirmed from very severe burns, sadly resulting in a loss of life in some instances, right down to minor injuries and minor burns.”

Updated

The small NSW town of Torrington lost 12 homes on Friday.

Residents of the village, population of only 81, described it as “apocalyptic” and the worst bushfires in living memory.

AAP has this report from on the ground:

Residents thought they were going to die huddled in their small NSW community’s fire station during an “apocalyptic” bushfire that sounded like a freight train and rained down embers and soot.

While some residents fled early on Friday, Linda Birch was among those to take refuge in the town’s metal fire station.

Smoke soon crept under the doors of the shed as embers bombarded the vents.

“It wasn’t a bushfire, it was a firestorm,” she told AAP.

“The ferocity of this storm was that immense that we needed to put masks on within the shed as well.”

Birch admitted she thought she was going to die, describing the situation as “apocalyptic”. “The sound was like a freight train, we couldn’t hear ourselves, we couldn’t talk, we just reacted,” Birch said.

Torrington RFS captain Greg Kneipp and his deputy, his dad Bob, have been battling the blaze since it began two weeks ago, with a few days rest in between.

They were thankful for the support of out-of-town and interstate crews, aerial water bombing and those carting water to the station to fill the trucks.

“This would be the worst fire and I’m 47 years in the RFS. This would be it by far and only because of the dry conditions is it so bad,” Bob Kneipp told AAP.

He said the camaraderie of the fire crew was one of the reasons he stayed in the RFS but has noticed young people are less likely to sign up. “We’re a big happy family,” he said.

Updated

Watch and acts have been updated for the Toorumbee Complex, the Mt Nardi National Park, Hillville Road and Old Glen Innes Road fires. All are out of control.

The Toorumbee Complex fire is a new fire, formed by the joining of multiple fires in the Willi Willi area, west of Kempsey. It was formerly known as the Jacobs Spur and Armidale Road fires.

“The fire is burning in the area of Bellbrook, Hickeys Creek and Willawarrin on the southern and eastern side of the Armidale Road,” the RFS says.

“The fire has crossed the Macleay River and Armidale Road, and is heading north east towards Millbank and Sundown Creek.”

The Hillville Road fire is near Hillville, south of Taree.

It is burning in a north and easterly direction and is spreading quickly. The fire is now more than 19,000 hectares in size.

The Old Glen Innes Road fire is in the Newtown Boyd area and is 6,600 hectares in size.

The latest RFS update says it has crossed the Boyd River. It is burning in an easterly and north-easterly direction towards Coutts Crossing.

It has now merged with the Liberation Trail fire.

Updated

In Queensland nearly 50 fires are burning with crews focused on three major fires: at Cobraball south-west of Yeppoon, Cooroibah on the Sunshine Coast, and Thornton in the Lockyer Valley.

AAP reports that firefighters from Tasmania have flown in to help relieve exhausted local crews. Easterly winds expected on to pick up from Tuesday afternoon.

Three houses have been lost at the Cobraball fire, which has also burned through 11,000 hectares of land, and has a 30km long front.

Twenty-five people remain in an evacuation centre in Yeppoon with their homes not safe to return to.

The assistant commissioner of Queensland Fire and Emergency Service, Megan Stiffler, said it was extremely lucky more homes had not been lost given the severity of the fires.

Updated

'Catastrophic is off the conventional scale'

Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons also spent some time stressing the full gravity of the catastrophic conditions forecast for Great Sydney and Greater Hunter tomorrow.

The catastrophic rating was introduced in 2009, and this is the first time it has ever been forecast for Greater Sydney. Even before 2009, he says he can’t remember seeing worse conditions in Sydney.

Catastrophic is off the conventional scale. We are talking about indices that go well beyond the old scale of 100.

And whilst it’s unprecedented to have catastrophic here in Sydney, we have had catastrophic across New South Wales over the last decade since the new program came into effect in 2009.

But I am confident in my memory that even when we were looking at rebranding the fire danger rating system to include catastrophic at the top, even when we were looking at the indices that drove that new branding of catastrophic, we could not find a time in history under the old metrics where we saw indices reaching what we now know are catastrophic levels here in the Greater Sydney environment.

We are talking about something we haven’t experienced before in Sydney in the Greater Sydney environment, albeit we have seen it across parts of New South Wales.

Updated

Berejiklian is addressing the media now, in a joint press conference with Fitzsimmons.

“We also need to stress that when something is determined to be catastrophic, there is a high degree of unpredictability,” she says. “We don’t know exactly where the fires are going to flare up ... everybody has to assume the worst.

“That’s why we need to have all hands on deck and that’s why there is a state of emergency across the state.”

Updated

The state of emergency was declared after RFS commissioner Fitzsimmons wrote to Berejiklian last night requesting it be declared.

The declaration grants emergency powers to the RFS commissioner. It’s the first emergency declaration since October 2013.

It gives the RFS commissioner the power to:

  • Direct any government agency to conduct or refrain from conducting its functions;
  • Control and coordinate the allocation of government resources;
  • Evacuate people from property within the declared area;
  • Close roads and thoroughfares to traffic;
  • Pull down or shore up infrastructure at risk of collapse;
  • Order the shutdown of essential utilities in the declared area including electricity, gas, oil and water; and
  • Enter or take possession of property in the course of the emergency response.

Berejiklian also called on the community to please pay attention to all warnings, and to do as fire authorities say.

Tomorrow is about protecting life, protecting property and ensuring everybody is safe as possible. But we also ask the community to do their bit.

Please do not ignore the messages you receive about your community. If you’re told to evacuate, please do so. If you’re told to take certain actions, please do so. And for heaven’s sake, stay away from bushland tomorrow.

The catastrophic weather conditions mean that things can change very quickly. You might think you’re OK and a few minutes later, you won’t be. Please heed all the messages you receive. Please act in a cautionary way and please do not be complacent.

Tomorrow is not the day to be complacent.

Updated

NSW declares a state of emergency

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejilkian, has declared a state of emergency in response to the bushfire crisis.

The state of emergency will last for seven days. She said this was to ensure there was coordination and a whole-of-government response in place for tomorrow and the rest of the week:

This is to make sure that we leave no stone unturned to keep our community safe tomorrow.

I want to thank the heads of all the agencies for their cooperation and support. Everybody is fully supportive of this decision. We want to ensure that the lines of authority are clear tomorrow.

The last time there was a state of emergency declared was in 2013 when we saw extensive bushfires throughout the Blue Mountains and other regions. And again on this occasion, we’re taking every precaution.

Updated

Fitzsimmons says firefighters from Victoria have sent in 50 additional fire trucks to help their NSW colleagues.

“We already had over 1,400 interstate personnel helping out in New South Wales over the recent weeks. We got another 400 flying in and driving in today ahead of the conditions tomorrow.”

More than 65 fires are burning across NSW, of which more than half are uncontained. More than 10 are at watch and act.

The NSW RFS commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, is speaking live now:

We can expect to see the alert levels increase up in northern NSW.

The fire behaviour is still quite volatile and there are still lots of communities in the north-east of the state that remain at risk today.

Watch and act is there for a reason. It is to ensure that people remain vigilant.

Tomorrow we are facing some horrendous conditions.

Updated

Earlier this morning, the deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, said the link between climate change and worsening bushfires was “woke capital-city greenies ravings”.

Follow our politics live blog here for further developments and the growing response to that.

The mayor of Glen Innes, Carol Sparks, who was herself evacuated at the weekend along with 6,000 others, has already hit back. She said:

Well, I probably couldn’t respond how I really feel on television but I think that Michael McCormack needs to read the science, and that is what I am going by, is the science.

It is not a political thing. It is a scientific fact that we are going through climate change.

Fuller comments from both her and McCormack are here.

Updated

Queensland RFS have just issued this update to the Cobraball, Bungundarra, Maryvale and Lake Mary fire.

It is still at prepare to leave.

Currently as at 7.50am AEST Monday, 11 November, a dangerous fire is travelling from Cobraball towards Bungundarra, Maryvale and Lake Mary. The fire is currently impacting Mount Lizard, east of Evans Road, south of Mapes Road, south of Ingrey Road, east of Serpentine Road and north of Cobraball Road. The fire is expected to have a significant impact on the community.

Fire crews continue to conduct backburning operations today in an effort to contain the blaze, but firefighters may not be able to protect every property. You should not expect a firefighter at your door.

An evacuation area is located at the basketball courts at Cordingley Street, Yeppoon.

The next update on this fire will be at 9.50am AEST.

Full text here.

More than 55 schools have been closed today across NSW, and six Tafe campuses.

Only one school has been closed in Queensland – Thornton state school.

A full list of NSW schools is here.

Updated

What we know

Good morning and welcome to our continuing coverage of the bushfire crisis across New South Wales and Queensland.

For those in fire-affected areas, please stay tuned to your local emergency broadcaster, and follow instructions from fire crews and authorities.

Full alerts from the Rural Fire Service can be found here for NSW, and here for Queensland.

As at 8.45am AEDT:

  • There are 64 bush and grassfires across NSW, 40 of which are uncontained.
  • The Queensland RFS have issued seven prepare to leave warnings since 10pm Sunday. They are for: Cobraball/Bungundarra/Maryvale/Lake Mary; Adelaide Park; Thornton and Lefthand Branch; Clumber and Moogerah; Tarome; Rosevale; Mount Alpen and Double Top.
  • Queensland RFS have said today will bring “slightly more favourable conditions” than yesterday, but “please do not be complacent”.
  • Tomorrow catastrophic fire danger is forecast for the Greater Sydney and Greater Hunter.
  • The NSW RFS has told residents “use today to get ready” for tomorrow’s worse conditions.

Updated

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