flash flood

Wow, what next. we have had two storms in two days. the first sent chocolate mud down the creek and the creek ran for half a day.

The second storm, last night dropped a bucket of water on the hills over the creek above the walnut orchards. And all the hills ran...with gullies torrenting down with charcoal, more mud and earth. Both irrigation holes filled with sheep manure, grass and debris from the orchard.

We have a nice layer of mud on the orchards. which in the long run will be very nourishing and has given all the trees a drink. In the short term it has reduced the pasture for the sheep quite a lot and broke down some fences that only this last week, mike had replaced. And silted up the dams.

Mike reckons about 3000 tonnes of soil has been moved on to the orchards.

Its is really unbelievable....what next?

terrace walk above walnuts

the pump and the dam

update

I have been suprised how many people have read the blogsite and how useful they found it. So I have decided to add just a few more pics, now that we have toured over the property. they will fill in the gaps to some of the earlier blogs.

these pics are of the Shed on the top of the hill that had Andrew's car and various stuff of mikes, including bee keeping gear and lots of cupboards. The pipeline is from the little pump that mike saved going up to the chestnuts.

see next blog.

In times of stress I find food to give solace

A word from the man himself: Michael

The fire approached from Spring Creek on Friday night and spread through Buchanan's paddock.

The CFA crews contained it until a gale force north wind dispersed spot fires through the valley.
It was not possible to establish if it was fire storm winds but large trees were uprooted and tossed aside.

The wind then changed to the south and carried the fire rapidly down the valley. I found it difficult to defend our property because of its dispersed nature but the perimeter tracks and irrigation helped substantially to protect the orchards.

We were fortunate to have Andy Ray helping Carol around the house on that Friday night. another outbreak on Sunday burnt the remainder of our hill, except for the chestnut orchard. The pity was the loss of pasture and fences and also some of my special trees which originated from the botanic gardens.

All in all we were thankful that not more of our farmed areas were destroyed. The bushland that was all burnt will recover. We look forward to different flowers coming out in the bush, possibly things that we may have never seen before.

We are already finding interesting agricultural artifacts along the creek where the blackberries have been burnt by the fire.

A big thankyou ...and Working Bees

Thankyou so far
Mike and I want to acknowledge all the friends who have helped us so far, particularly those who braved the dangerous conditions during the fire period this week.

They worked in a very hot conditions where the ground was very hot, trees were still falling down and logs wer still burning and smoke was thick.

• Andy Ray from Boggy ck Vineyards who came over to be with me on the friday night as the fire advanced and put out spot fires in the paddock.
• Rob Harrison and Lou Mc Fadden who came on saturday to rebuild fences for the sheep, keep watch, and allowed us to get a few hours much needed sleep
• Anthony and Roze Griffiths who came on sunday to continue the fencing tasks.
• Trisha and Bill Scott who also came sunday and brought fire fighting pumps and patrolled the property putting out smoking trees. Trisha also was there at the end of the phone each day to allow me to burble on about it all.
  
• Rick Sinclair and Wendy Batey who came over monday and fenced in the morning and unexpectedly kept watch with me when the second fire started.
  

Thanks also to all the locals and CFA crews who were around at various times.

And finally a thanks to you all who are reading this and have sent your wishes and protective energies to us. Its overwhelming to know that so many people care about us.

Working bees
We are starting with the cleanup and fixup as from monday and would welcome any help if you want a day or two out. There are lots of different jobs to do, even to do the normal stuff like cocky patrol so we can get on with the other things. Having people here has proven to be a real boost for our morale too.

but be aware that conditions are still a bit yucky.

Phew its over

What a week...and I thought that an election campaign was full on! 5 days of adrenelin pumping activities. for all those bored people who watch survivor and other reality programs - tell 'em it cant get any more real that a fun week at Myrrhee in summer!

I feel that I can now lift my head up and re-connect with the rest of the world as I drift back to a normal, if not very exhausted level of awareness and actions.

Overall, we were very lucky not to lose the orchards or any stock or our homes. Less fortunate are others in nearby tolmie who have lost their homes.

Things must be returning to normal...as we started cocky watch again this morning!

My shopping list for today is:

• tea bags
• weeties
• chocolate
• fire fighting pump
• fire hoses
• irrigation fittings
• Good escapist DVD

I am hoping to put in an entry into this BLOG from the man himself, now that he might have time to consider a comment. Stay tuned for that.

I rekon the whole Myrrhee valley needs a BBQ or get together to finish things....so I will get on the phone this morning and sus out some funding maybe.

Tues 16th just when we thought it was safe….

Just when we thought it was safe.

Rick and Wendy came out to help with the fencing and as we met for lunch we noticed more smoke, big smoke - near the pines…..in summary this is what happened.

• Smouldering fire from Merkels spots across to pines fanned by north wind, then keeps going along the unburnt areas of our hill.
• Fire tankers patrolling along road check for spotting into other properties.
• R, W and Carol check for live embers that may come down in the wind around the house.
• Mike goes off up the hill to secure the chestnut pump shed.
• We keep in touch with the 2 way.
• Fire climbs up hill
• Call from mike saying he is at thepump shed
• Call saying it is getting hot and he has jumped in the pump dam, along with 2 wallabies to sit it out
• Evidently fire is all around him and radiant heat.
• We can’t see what is going on as all smokey below
• Mike finally comes down, Rick and Carol refuel ute and top up water tank.
• Another fire has spotted in Pauls property just down the road and if continues will go towards the school and easily over into Billies. Mike heads off to help out.
• Fire is controlled with tankers and dozer
• Dozers continue to work all night to knock down potential smokers that could flare up.
• 2 brief but heavy showers in the night help wet things down a bit.

So R and W’s job description changed from fence recovery to house protection and fire spotting. Thanks for being here guys, and Rick - the venison casserole was much enjoyed late last night.

Unfortunately out of renegade band of 4 merinos that were still on that hill two died, and two were seen running off with singed bottoms.

Fortunately, the Chestnuts have been protected.

pics from top (mature) orchard

creek frontage

we found a dead platypus here this morning, the first wone we have ever seen on the property.

the bondwood van from cape shank survived.

Now you see it - Now you don't.

I had a chance yesterday to tour over these areas and strangely enough it all feels very "clean", not in the sense of "not dirty" but like a clean sweep. There is dust and ash and smoke still blowing about but the sights remind me of a japanese type landscape where only the bare elements remain and all the busyness of the shrubs and grass and leaves have gone.




Here are some before and after shots. The area around the dam was most affected, and must have been a very hot fire.



The Gypsy van at the top of the dam before fires.

Only the fridge and the trailer base remains.

Park walnuts were singed only, orchard saved by mike keeping irrigation on all night

CFA apologises

After the water supply incident , the CFA have now offered to reinburse us for repairs needed. So we feel a bit better now. Mike managed to hook up the irrigation main to the house supply so we can use water for washing etc and getting drinking water from the Park tank. Lucky there is no one living in the house at the moment.

cfa stuff up our water supply

So in the light of day today, mon. we find out what happened to our water.

Ane we are livid!

Evidently no one was briefed last night about the tanks and pipes being our domestic water supply. Even though mike had explained it to a CFA guy on friday night.

So, the dozer drivers made good use of the tracks mike had put in including one that gave mike access to pipe line for maintenance. They have smashed the line in about 6 places, including toppling a header water tank. They also ripped through the line feeding our storage tank from the spring. Mike had deliberately planned that system to be resistant to fire, but of course didn't in his wildest dreams think about a rampant dozer coming in!

What makes us really angry is that this should have been avoidable as it was a controlled burn (although why the burnt up from the bottom of the hill we don't understand), we were home and just across the road for God's sake and surely a phone call/visit etc could have clarified what the tanks were for. Even then after they smashed the pipes, we were not notified. At least mike could have turned off the valve to stop all our precious water running into the ground.

We have spent the last hour trying to find who to talk to in the CFA, (probably a futile task), and seeing if they will accept some responsibility.

Mike rekons it will cost at least $3000 to fix with dozing, pipes, tank and labour. As if he needs something esle to do at the moment.

What makes us mad is that they also sucked loads of water out of our dam with their choppers on saturday to put out the fires that had started on the top of the hill. and Now they go and burn more of it, and now those fires will need to be put out and probably want our water to do it. And in Mikes considered opinion, what they did hasn't really worked anyway!


oohh, I feel a bit better now having expressed all that....better go and get the camp shower and water cans out. (we will drag water over from the rainwater tank over the creek) at least the CFA can't get to that!

pics from the start of fire

This pic mike took on thursday night.

monday 15th Jan am

Can't sleep any more because the dozers have been working all night across the road to do a back burn.

after having put out the wildfire that was on the top of the hill above the pines on Sat, they decided last night to then burn the rest of the hill!

I believe they call this containment, but it looks like vandalism to me! I suppose they know what they are doing.

So I sat in the lounge chair in the dark and watched the sound and light show on the hill.

Unfortunately, that means our house water supply has been damaged .
Also the shed on the top has gone, and sorry, andrew so has the Merc.
Don't know about the chestnuts or waratahs, but probably all gone too.

As for all the wildlife…I can’t bear to think about them.

map of fires

for a fire update
copy and paste the address below into your web browser

http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/images/news_image/20070116_0730hrs_Tatong_web_12643.jpg

they are referring to the area as Tatong fires, on fire updates website.

Introduction

Dear Reader

I am using this blog site as an outlet for my feelings and to keep people in touch with what is happening. it is necessarily a bit all over the place, as entries come in every day, and you are urged to check in daily during the course of the fires. I will keep it until end of Jan, after which time it will have served its purpose.

This is a background to the fires from 11th to today (15th Jan). I am learning how to use this blog, so it is a bit confusing with pics and when they went up so look at all entries.

• Fire started Thursday 11 Jan 07 from a lightening strike at watchbox creek/ middle creek area, north west of us.
  
• By thurs night it was starting to move towards us with massive plumes of smoke, but still seemed a long way.
• friday, ash starts to fall down, but still no probs. by 5.30 pm it hit the big hill behind us (west of the creek).
• Friday night was the worst with spotting of fires to upper 15 mile, and down into the creek.
• reveg, acted as a wick to move the fires along, and the large blackberry patches on neighbouring land also went up very quickly.
• it spotted across to the other hill across the road and fri night the peak and above the pines was alight, the middle road stopped it going any further.
  
• about 5ha of pines also went close to Merkels.
  
• everyone was suprised how rapidly it moved, hence only local fire crews available, and very spread out between all properties.
• Mike was on fire crew to start with, so I was on my own until Andy Ray, a neighbour from boggy creek came around to give me a hand.
  
• Our place: mike managed to keep irrigation on to walnuts and part of sheep paddock over night, so no stock loss or walnut loss. thank god he got that new line in!
• Mum coincidentally went to see my sister Helen in Adelaide on friday morning, so has been spared all this shock.
  
• Hardest hit was the Park, with all above dam affected. and around the house and hop sheds.
  
• Creek frontage has had a good cleanout!
• NO pumps, sheds or houses lost.
• however both little sheds - one above dam with my lovely gypsy van and johns canoe and other up near chestnuts with andrews merc and stuff of sentimental value to mike have gone.
• Saturday rob and Lou came over and helped fix fences to keep sheep in and allowed us to get some sleep. We had been up for about 30 hrs.
• Sunday, trisha and bill came over to do patrol and put out burning logs and fence posts etc while Anthony and Roze helped mike with more fence repairs.
• I have been mainly keeping the home area prepared.
• Next threat is possibly on tues and wed, when it is expected to warm up with a northerly.
  
• this could blow the fires back towards us, from the boggy creek side.
  

the park

around the park