Merry Christmas to all

Christmas starts early this year at Moyhu, so I'll take this opportunity to wish readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully bushfire-free. In the spirit of recent examinations of past wildfires (Eli has more), I'll tell the story behind the picture above. The newspaper version is here.

In 2003 and 2006/7, alpine and upland Victoria were swept by long running and very damaging bushfires. The area concerned was rugged terrain and sparsely inhabited. Much was not so far below the snowline, so the trees there were not very tall, and the fuel somewhat less than for our wilder lowland fires. They were in summer, but not exceptionally hot weather, and of course cooler there. Consequently they burnt relatively slowly, with a fair chance of defending critical areas. Some were fought with great energy and danger to crews; this could not be expended everywhere, so they burnt for weeks and did much damage to mountain forests that take a long time to regrow.

In December, 2006, our most popular ski resort, Mt Buller, was surrounded by fires, again burning over long periods. Although as said the conditions did not make for extreme wildfire, any eucalypt fire is dangerous when it runs up a hill slope. The many buildings of Mt Buller sit near the peak at about 1500 m altitude, and there is a single winding road out, which became impassable on 22nd December. So the fire crews who had assembled were on their own. Fortunately, the resort had a large water storage used for snow-making. But there was a long perimeter to defend.

By the 23rd, flames were at that perimeter. I was at Buller the following winter, and saw that it had come right up to a northern edge road, with major buildings just on the other side. And it was pretty close on all sides. Fortunately, some rain came that evening, but still, there were more flareups on Christmas Eve.

At last, later on the Eve, more serious rain came with another change in the weather, and somewhat amazingly for our summer solstice, it turned to snow. That indeed marked the end of the danger to the mountaintop. In the morning, when they awoke to a very welcome white Christmas, this photo was taken.

Again, may your Christmas be as merry. With special hopes for those in the region of the Thomas fire.