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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Calla Wahlquist (now), Naaman Zhou, Helen Davidson and Josh Taylor (earlier)

Koalas in Blue Mountains rescued as blazes approach – as it happened

Koalas rescued from the Kanangra-Boyd national park are being cared for at Australia’s Taronga Wildlife hospital.
Koalas rescued from the Kanangra-Boyd national park are being cared for at Australia’s Taronga Wildlife hospital. Photograph: Taronga Conservation Society Australia

Extreme heat across South Australia and Victoria on Wednesday

We will leave our live coverage of the bushfire crisis there.

There is a statewide total fire ban in place for NSW from midnight tonight, as well as total fire bans in the Wimmera district of Victoria and parts of South Australia.

The heatwave, which saw temperatures reach 46.5C in Ceduna and above 40C in Adelaide today, will continue in South Australia and stretch across to Victoria tomorrow.

It’s forecast to reach 39.5C in Melbourne on Wednesday and 44C in Mildura. Sydney won’t get really hot until Thursday, but there will be thick smoke around all morning.

Stay safe, stay hydrated, and don’t go jogging in the smoke. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Updated

This is how the rescue operation for those koalas at Kanangra-Boyd National Park was carried out.

Summary: what the major fires are doing

  • The heatwave that began in Western Australia last week has reached Adelaide, and temperatures have exceeded 40C in much of the state – including Adelaide – with a high of 45.5C in Ceduna.
  • The Gospers Mountain megafire is continuing to burn in Wollemi national park in the Blue Mountains, but is being controlled. It remains active on both sides of Bells Line of Road and fire is increasing in Berambing, but has eased near Wallerawang, Lidsdale and Blackmans Flat.
  • There will be a community meeting about the Gospers Mountain fire at Grose View public school at 7.30 tonight, and a bushfire information point will be open at Cullen Bullen rural fire station between 4pm and 5pm.
  • Watch and act alerts remain in place for the Gregory River fire and Mount Maria fire in Queensland. The communities of Promisedland and Pine Creek near the Cordalba state forest, and Lowmead near Lake Monduran, have been told to evacuate.

Updated

New South Wales is about to go into a four-day statewide total fire ban, which will coincide with the heatwave.

In a stark reminder that the effects of bushfires often extend many years after the fire has been put out, 445 people who were affected by the 2013 Dunalley bushfires in Tasmania have launched a class action against those they allege were responsible for the fire.

The Dunalley fire destroyed 193 homes and 186 other properties, including the Dunalley school and police station. The cost of the fire is estimated to be more than $100m. A terrifying photograph of one family sheltering from the flames under a jetty was the subject of one of Guardian Australia’s first reports.

AAP reports that legal papers for the class action were lodged with the supreme court of Hobart, alleging that a man and a woman were negligent in lighting or failing to properly put out a campfire which later flared and burned through 25,000 hectares.

They claim that a campfire was lit in a tree stump at a property in Forcett, 20km north-east of Dunalley, on 12 December 2013. It is alleged dirt was kicked on to the stump and two half-buckets of water poured on the fire, with the belief it had been extinguished.

The woman on 1 January saw steam coming from stump after rain but did not take any steps to investigate, it is also claimed. Two days later, in hot, dry and windy weather and when the fire danger was very high to severe, the smouldering fire spread to grass and then into bushland.

The class action claims the man and woman ought to have known when they lit the campfire in December there was a risk of fire spreading over a wide area.

Updated

Koalas being saved in Kanangra-Boyd national park

A rescue operation is under way to protect a significant wild koala population in the Kanangra-Boyd national park in the Blue Mountains from the threat of bushfire and extreme heat.

The Kanangra-Boyd koalas are directly in the path of a 140,000-hectare bushfire. They’re also one of the most genetically diverse wild koala populations in the country and, crucially, one of only two chlamydia-free wild koala populations in NSW.

A koala and her joey that were rescued from Kanangra-Boyd national park in the Blue Mountains. They are being cared for at Taronga Wildlife hospital until it’s safe to return.
A koala and her joey that were rescued from Kanangra-Boyd national park in the Blue Mountains. They are being cared for at Taronga Wildlife hospital until it’s safe to return. Photograph: Taronga Conservation Society Australia

The organisation Science for Wildlife and the Taronga Wildlife hospital have rescued a small group – three adult males and five adult females, four of which have joeys – and taken them to the wildlife hospital until it is safe to release them to the wild.

It is one of five areas of significant koala population under threat from the Blue Mountains fires including the Gospers Mountain megafire, Science for Wildlife’s director, Dr Kellie Leigh, said.

We have found at least five areas that support significant numbers of koalas and three of those are currently being hit by bushfires.

I spoke to the NPWS who are dealing with these fires, and they gave us their full support to get some out.

The national park is closed to the public due to fire risk but they gave us a two-day window when it was safe to go in in front of the fire.

These koalas are hard to find and catch. We wish could have saved more but we’re glad we could rescue this group. A lot of good people helped at very short notice.

Koalas are a threatened species and are vulnerable to extinction in many parts of their range due to habitat loss, Leigh says.

Saving each and every koala population is vital to the species’ survival.

Eight adult koalas and four joeys from the genetically significant Kanangra-Boyd national park population are sitting out the bushfires at Taronga Wildlife hospital.
Eight adult koalas and four joeys from the genetically significant Kanangra-Boyd national park population are sitting out the bushfires at Taronga Wildlife hospital. Photograph: Taronga Conservation Society Australia

Updated

It’s just reached 40C in Adelaide.

On that topic, Victoria is set to cop the heat tomorrow. Melbourne is forecast to reach 39C.

A heat health alert has also been issued for the north of the state. Bendigo is set to hit 42C, and Echuca, Swan Hill and Mildura will reach between 43C-45C.

Today it’s already 36.4C in Mildura, 34.4C in Shepparton, 33.5C in Albury, and 30.1C at Melbourne airport.

Updated

For eastern states the heatwave will be worse at the end of the week, posing a concern for athletes at the weekend. There’s an important discussion to be had here, reminiscent of the haze in Sydney that shrouded a Sheffield Shield cricket match last week.

At the time, New South Wales spinner Steve O’Keefe said the air was “not healthy” and “toxic”, and said Cricket Australia needed to look at its air quality policy.

Updated

At Sydney’s Wynyard station, the Red Cross and the City of Sydney have installed a dramatic burnt Christmas tree.

Created from wood from fire-hit areas, it is part of a charity drive to collect Christmas donations for those affected.

It's hot and getting hotter

In NSW, it’s 37.9C in Bourke and 35.8C in Mildura. It’s 30.5C in Canberra.

Updated

The latest Bureau of Meteorology observations: it is 39.5C in Adelaide’s city centre, and the forecast is for 40C.

It’s 42.1C in Port Augusta, and 44.5C in Ceduna.

Updated

Residents along Tableland and Cross roads are being told to prepare to leave with the Mount Maria bushfire at watch and act level.

The fire is burning in the vicinity of Cross, Hills, Wytallabah and Kirkpatrick roads but no properties are under threat. But Queensland fire and emergency warns the situation could change quickly.

Updated

NSW RFS reports an increase in fire activity for the massive Gospers Mountain fire near Bells Line of Road and Mount Wilson Road but no properties are under threat.

Updated

Fire threat stops Santa in his Blue Mountains tracks

There are reports that the heatwave and fires are resulting in a number of Christmas events being cancelled.

The rural fire brigade for my home town of Winmalee in the Blue Mountains, for example, has cancelled taking Santa to some parts of the town because of the predicted high fire situation.

Updated

AAP reports that NSW Health has warned that if you see bats and flying foxes in distress over summer, don’t touch them:

People should avoid rescuing distressed bats and flying foxes during mass die-offs over the summer.

NSW Health’s zoonotic disease manager, Keira Glasgow, says humans could catch a rabies-like infection while trying to rescue dying animals.

“Most people scratched or bitten by a bat have been trying to rescue them – it is essential that people do not touch bats to avoid being infected,” she said on Tuesday.

“While human infection is very rare, if not prevented lyssavirus progresses to a rabies-like illness which is almost always fatal.”

Large numbers of bat deaths are associated with heatwaves or a lack of food. NSW Health says the cause of current deaths isn’t known but they were likely to continue over summer.

Three people have died from Australian bat lyssavirus since 1996.

If people are bitten they should clean the wound with soap and water for at least five minutes before applying antiseptic and seeking medical advice, NSW Health says.

Updated

Don’t use drones near fires. We’ve seen a few of these warnings in the past few weeks but it bears repeating.

Fire and Rescue NSW’s chief remote pilot, Anthony Wallgate, said in a Faebook post that firefighters increasingly rely on drones to collect data and monitor fires when the public uses drones it can make it dangerous for everyone.

“If members of the public fly drones in or near a fire area, then we can’t do our job,” he said. “Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft can’t fly and are unable to fight the fires as we are forced to ground all aircraft for safety reasons.”

Updated

Residents in Promisedland and Pine Creek are being told to prepare to leave. The fire in Elliott River state forest is at watch and act level.

The fronts of the fire are travelling in a north and north-westerly direction.

Updated

Timed without irony, the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, has sent out a press release on the “strong international demand for Australian coal”.

It goes into great detail about the government’s plans to wind down its coal production for the sake of the planet, as recommended by world-leading scientists ... no, it doesn’t.

Canavan is drawing our attention to a report by the International Energy Agency which he says has forecast coal will remain “an important part of the global energy mix” after being the source of 38% of the world’s electricity in 2018.

“The IEA report shows Australia is well placed to take advantage of the shifts in international demand, and to supply markets in south-east Asia and India as new coal-based electricity generation comes on line over the coming years,” he said.

“For the sake of Aussie jobs and our dynamic regional communities we need to grasp the opportunities that coal presents, both here and overseas.”

Updated

Some more information on those Queensland fires from AAP:

Two communities in south-east Queensland have been told to get ready to leave as two dangerous bushfires rage north of Bundaberg.

The residents of Mount Maria, about 75km north of Bundaberg, have been warned to be prepared as the fire burns close to homes on the eastern side of the town.

The fire was at watch and act level this morning.

Another at Promisedland and Pine Creek was also at watch and act and residents have been told to prepare to leave ahead of a fire burning in the Elliott River state forest.

The leave now warning was also issued for Gregory River (north of Childers) yesterday.

Queensland police have increased the size of an exclusion area in the region. The area is now bound by Cedars Road, the Burnett River, Onoprienkos Road and Newlands Road.

Childers Road is closed in both directions.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian says current resourcing meets NSW's needs

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, says bushfires have already taken a “tragic” toll on the state, AAP reports, but she feels current resourcing is meeting the state’s needs.

“When you have extreme fire fronts this large, people have to make decisions about what to protect, where to put priorities, where to put resources and I have every confidence that our teams are doing an exceptional job,” Berejiklian said today.

“If you look at how bad the fires have been and how widespread they’ve been, it’s pretty much a miracle the lives lost haven’t been more, and I’m deeply grateful for that.”

She said NSW was resourced to meet the crisis: “I feel at this stage that our resourcing is meeting needs.”

Six people have died so far this season and more than 720 homes have been lost.

The NSW Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner, Rob Rogers, says firefighters will not be able to contain every blaze before conditions deteriorate.

“While we’re very concerned about the Gospers Mountain fire, there are more than 100 fires burning throughout the state,” he said. “Anyone of them could cause problems over ensuing days.”

Updated

The most recent update from Queensland’s fire service on this Gregory River fire is from about two hours ago, but it is at a watch and act level with residents told to be ready to activate their fire plan.

A local ABC reporter, Johanna Marie, reports the Bruce highway has been closed between Bundaberg and Childers.

Updated

At the moment there are no emergency level fires, despite the continuing seriousness of the crisis.

In NSW there are about 100 fires burning at advice level.

In Queensland there are three fires at watch and act, and five at advice level.

In Western Australia there are 15 at advice level fires.

In Victoria eight fires are at advice level.

In South Australia firefighters have contained a grass fire at Myponga, but warnings are still current.

Updated

A reminder that “heatwaves are Australia’s deadliest severe weather” with this outlook from the Bureau of Meteorology yesterday at the start of what it’s calling a week of “exceptional heat”.

It’s likely to break numerous December and all-time temperature records across the country, and we might even top Australia’s warmest day on record (7 January 2013) which had 40.3 C as a nationwide average.

Here’s a very quick wrap-up of what we’re looking at, and it’s not good news, with maps showing a lot of purple (a new colour they had to add to the temperature guidelines in recent years).

Updated

“Australia is burning while we turn a blind eye to the driving force which is climate change and a warming planet.”

Former fire commissioner Greg Mullins and a number of former emergency service heads held a press conference a short time ago, addressing the nation on the bushfire crisis “and the leadership vacuum in Canberra”.

“Here in NSW the fires are totally unprecedented,” he said. “More country has been burned, three times more homes lost than our worst previous fire season in history, and the fires are still burning. We have a heatwave coming. Who knows what that will do, and the driving force behind this is climate change.”

Mullins said the prime minister had declined their repeated requests to meet.

They have met ministers David Littleproud and Angus Taylor and given them a list of suggestions. They’re confident of a response, Mullins says.

“However, it falls to us because of that leadership vacuum to call an emergency bushfire summit after this summer. When the experts, the firefighters, are available and taking a well-earned rest. We don’t know when that will be. Normally it would be March but it might be April, it might be May.”

Mullins says he wants to see farmers, health professionals, Indigenous people, firefighters, people from the military and politicians from all levels of government at the summit.

“It’s no good saying we’re only a small emitter of carbon dioxide,” he said. “It’s simply not true. Amongst about 200 countries, we’re number 17. When we add in the coal we sell to other countries we come up to about number five.

“We have no moral leadership as we saw in Madrid. The bushfires weren’t even mentioned. Other countries were aghast.”

Former fire commissioner Greg Mullins and a number of former emergency service heads held a press conference a short time ago, addressing the nation on the bushfire crisis ‘and the leadership vacuum in Canberra’.

Updated

The lovely year six kids at Windsor public school have donated their annual fundraising to the RFS.

Updated

We previously reported the RFS is confident it will be able to keep the Mount Piper power station safe but was a little more concerned about the fire’s proximity to the Springvale coalmine.

Jamie Hanson, head of campaigns at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, has raised comparisons with Victoria’s Hazelwood mine fire in 2014 which emitted dangerous toxic fumes after it caught alight from a nearby bushfire.

“These chemicals are extremely toxic and dangerous to communities and families, but especially the Australians most vulnerable to health impacts, such as children and the elderly,” he said.

“New South Wales is already in the grips of an air pollution crisis from these bushfires, and if a coalmine and coal power station are ignited as a result of this bushfire emergency, the health risks to Australians are extremely high.”

Updated

It’s a smoky day for Canberra again. A reminder that NSW Health’s advice is that vulnerable people – the young, elderly and those with respiratory conditions – should stay indoors, avoid exercise and minimise exposure as much as possible.

This was taken today at Sydney’s Central Station and shows masks for sale. But remember, only a few styles work.

A convenience store at Central station Sydney advertisers the sale of P2 masks.
A convenience store at Central Station Sydney advertisers the sale of P2 masks. Photograph: Horst Schwarz

Updated

Sad news from the Mount Tomah botanic gardens in the Blue Mountains, which were affected by the Gospers Mountain fire.

The director of horticulture says “most of the 186-hectare conservation area burned”.

Updated

RFS 'closely monitoring' Springvale coalmine

The RFS says it is “concerned” about the potential for the huge Gospers Mountain fire to reach the Springvale coalmine, and the nearby Mount Piper power station.

It was reported earlier that the fire was 6km from the power station but the RFS is confident the station will be safe.

“That fire is some kilometres away [from the coalmine] but we are concerned about that,” a spokesman said. “Crews on the ground are maintaining obviously close monitoring of that fire because the last thing we need is for that to get into coal areas or worse.

“It is a critical facility and as such fire agencies will do whatever they can to keep fire out of that area.”

The outlook is better for the power station – the RFS says the weather is on its side.

“It’s not directly under threat at the moment. The fire is still a few kilometres away from that area. Luckily it won’t get the worst of the weather because the fire is to the east of that.

“There are a lot of units monitoring that. We are quite confident of protecting that facility.”

Updated

Fire authorities and the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, are giving a press conference.

The RFS says roughly a dozen buildings have been destroyed by the Gospers Mountain fire.

“We think there are a dozen homes destroyed in that area but we do have to get crews in there. There are reports of other buildings but we need to get people in to look. Was it sheds? Was it homes? But certainly we’re talking around a dozen homes.”

Updated

As the bushfire conditions worsen this week, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is on holiday, a move which has angered climate campaigners and opposition MPs.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge tweeted that the prime minister had “an obligation to stick around”.

Morrison’s office confirmed to the New Daily that he was on holiday but said widespread claims on social media that the prime minister was in Hawaii were “wrong”.

One protest, organised by the school strikers for climate, is planned for Thursday, outside Kirribilli House in Sydney.

“Extreme heat is gripping us this week and towns are running out of water, yet our prime minister has fled the country,” organisers said. “Those on the frontlines don’t get this luxury.

“Scott Morrison tells us to be quiet, chill out, enjoy the cricket whilst failing to show the leadership we need when we’re in the midst of a massive climate crisis.”

Morrison is on a family holiday – not in a professional capacity – with his wife and daughters during the school holidays.

Updated

Inland NSW will feel the heat today although the heatwave has not yet made it to the coast (for now).

It is forecast to to reach 40C in Bourke and Brewarrina, 41C in Wilcannia, 39C in Broken Hill, 40C in Menindee, 37C in Tamworth and 36C in Albury.

It will be 33C in Canberra.

Updated

The forecast for SA later this week is frightening.

Oodnadatta will hit 47C on Wednesday and stay like that until Friday.

Port Augusta will reach 47C on Thursday, and Wudinna 48C. On Friday Port Augusta and Whyalla will rise to 48C .

Meanwhile Adelaide will experience highs of 42C, 41C and 44C on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Updated

In NSW, the huge Gospers Mountain megafire which covers more than 400,000 hectares is burning within 6km of the Mount Piper power station, the Western Advocate reports.

Updated

Records fall in WA and Qld

Now that the dust and mercury have settled, we can confirm that various heat records were smashed on Monday across the country.

Yesterday Perth posted a maximum of 40.9C. This made it three days in a row above 40C for the WA capital, the first time in December since records began.

The average maximum temperature for Perth this month is an astonishing 36C, 7C above average.

And it was also the fourth day over 40C day in December, setting another record. The previous record was two, and there are still 14 days in the month to go.

In Queensland the temperature in Brisbane hit 41.2C by midday. That equalled the previous record for the city’s hottest day, set in 1981.

In Gatton in the Lockyer Valley, a record did fall. The top of 43.2C was the hottest December temperature recorded there, beating the previous record which was set on Saturday. Before that the record had stood since 2002.

In Oakey, Beerburrum and Nambour, temperatures also exceeded the previous December record, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Updated

And the big news from this morning: a coalition of 29 former fire and emergency chiefs say they will go ahead and hold a bushfire crisis summit with or without Scott Morrison.

Last week a former NSW fire chief, Greg Mullins, and a former Queensland fire chief, Lee Johnson, called for the national summit on how Australia should prepare for bushfires in a changed climate.

Earlier this year the fire chiefs had asked to meet the prime minister, but said their advice had been ignored. The group is calling for action on the climate crisis which has made bushfire season longer and more intense.

Updated

Here’s the fire map for NSW. A quiet morning, with all fires are at advice. But yesterday the commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, warned that conditions will deteriorate – and fires will flare up – as the heat kicks in.

Updated

Good morning and welcome to our continuing coverage of the bushfire crisis.

The heatwave that settled over Australia yesterday bringing above-40C temperatures to Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland is set to continue and slowly move east.

Today Adelaide is forecast to hit 40C and Port Augusta 45C. In WA, Perth will peak at 33C, and the Kimberley and Pilbara will reach 44C. In Queensland, Birdsville will hit 46C, and in NSW, Wilcannia will reach 41C.

Overnight three fires in NSW that had flared to emergency levels (Gospers Mountain, Palmers Oaky and Kerry Ridge) were downgraded to watch and act, and further downgraded to advice, thanks to the work of the RFS.

In WA, the fire north of Yanchep was also downgraded after it had burned at emergency levels all day across 13,000 hectares.

Updated

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