Not as dry by far as it was to get later. Impending doom is the fashion in New South Wales and has been for a while. (There’s been good rain this winter, in the plague year.)
Green drought, April 2019
Sunbursts
Orange sunset, March 22 2019
Not fires, those came months later. A sunset backlighting rain.
Not shown, “no but seriously, stop asking questions, take the kids outside, and look west!” phone call.
Australia Burns: Bells Line of Road, 28 December 2019
Emergency information
Fires Near Me (NSW), Vic Emergency (Victoria)
Context
These photographs were taken on 28 December on Bells Line of Road, which runs between western Sydney and Lithgow. Bells Line of Road is the northernmost of two road crossings of the Blue Mountains between Sydney and western NSW.
Wildnerness and parts of towns were badly burned for a long stretch between Lithgow and Bilpin on Bells Line of Road in the days leading up to and including December 21 by the Gospers Mountain / Grose Valley fire complex. The road re-opened on December 25.
The December 31 2019 eastern bushfire catastrophes were concentrated far to the south east from where these pictures were taken; they were in the South Coast of NSW and East Gippsland in Victoria. These two areas are also currently considered most at risk in the upcoming January 4 heatwave, with tourists asked to leave the South Coast and the evacuation of Kosciuszko National Park (January 2), following the evacuation of East Gippsland (December 29).
Fires are expected to continue in Australia until there’s substantial rainfall.
Supporting firefighters and affected people
Donations are accepted by, among others:
- People displaced, rebuilding, or cut off from food supplies:
- Australian Red Cross New Years Eve appeal
- Good donations via GIVIT
- Rural and bush fire fighters, staffed mostly with volunteers
- NSW Rural Fire Service, or to the families of the firefighters killed
- Victoria Country Fire Authority
- Country Fire Service Foundation (South Australia)
- Rural Fire Service Queensland
- Bush Fire Volunteers (Western Australia)
- Tasmanian Volunteer Fire Brigades Association Support Fund
- Wildlife:
Most affected areas rely heavily on the tourism industry for income, planning to visit after the fire period is also likely to be helpful, you can check NSW road closures and warnings at Live Traffic. Judging from Bilpin on December 28, take cash, phone lines and cell towers aren’t restored until long after power is.
Photos
Caves Beach, 28 January 2019
Sunset after storm, Culburra, 8 January 2019
Storm over Culburra, 8 January 2019
New Year’s Day 2019, midnight fireworks, Sydney Harbour
New Year’s Eve 2018 Fireworks, Sydney Harbour, 9pm
Storm over Sydney, New Year’s Eve 2018
The dramatic storm that ended 2018 by soaking most of the people who’d been waiting 12 hours for a fireworks show was not forecast, but it also wasn’t entirely unheralded. Here’s the sky 2 hours before it struck:
However, it wasn’t until later that this was heralded on the radar:
I went to the north of the island to see if I could see the storm cell; hearing a security guard’s radio piping up about moving all guests into shelter. Promising! I was not disappointed:
I hurried back; as I did the loudspeakers started to call everyone into the old machinerary sheds due to a “dangerous storm”; we were probably some of the few New Year’s Eve revellers around the harbour who could take shelter that evening.
I made it before the rain did. However, I wasn’t quite the last one in:
We were out in time for the party:
