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Post by Warwick on Mar 9, 2009 23:53:05 GMT
In the rural parts of Los Angeles, the Fire Department has stated that if you don't clear around your house and there is a fire, they won't protect your house, they will let it burn. David Maxwell Tehachapi, California Sounds very sensible David. A lot of time and resources can be wasted unnecessarily.
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Post by Warwick on Feb 12, 2014 3:52:59 GMT
Hard to believe that this was 5 years ago. As last Friday was the 5th anniversary, I had intended to take the camera for a walk down the road a bit and rephotograph the local areas of bush that were burnt out on Black Saturday. I was intending to record how the bush recovers from fire. I was even contemplating posting the old and current photos from the same location so others could see the changes.
Well, as it turned out, I couldn't. The police road block near my front gate prevented me. That particular area of bush was on fire again, and it was likely to come and visit us - again. So we had another interesting weekend, sitting and waiting. Fortunately for us, this time around it was uneventful. We looked like being caught in a pincer movement between 2 fires, but the wind direction and subsequent wind change, kept us safe and it got no closer than a couple of kilometres before the CFA had that fire contained.
Unfortunately others around Victoria weren't so lucky. No lives lost this time, but 30 or more houses destroyed and an open-cut coalmine on fire to our east, keeping us blanketed in smoke since Sunday.
On re-reading this old thread I noticed that when the Black Saturday fire paid us a visit in 2009, I had just found that the P5B was running as if on 7 cylinders. This was later found to be due to a blown head gasket. It is embarrassing to think that since then I have removed the heads, had them rebuilt, refitted them with new gaskets ... and that's where it stopped! I still haven't refitted the inlet manifold.
As I look out my office window towards the south of Warragul, I notice that the smoke from the bushfires and coalmine fire in the LaTrobe Valley has thickened again and visibility has been reduced to about 300m. Meanwhile, in parts of the UK, some of you are up to your armpits in water.
(Edit: Must have been just a brief change in the breeze. The 30m visibility didn't last long before returning to a hazy 2km.)
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Post by johnwp5bcoupe on Feb 12, 2014 8:30:34 GMT
B**ger is it that long ago time does fly tooooo quickly! I hope things get better bud
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Post by Warwick on Feb 12, 2014 9:28:20 GMT
Thanks John,
Everything is fine again in our particular neck of the woods; apart from the smoke. Others are having a much worse time of it though; but generally it's nowhere near as bad as it was 5 years ago.
Is your area affected by flooding?
PS. Just realized that this thread is still in the 'Car Picture Gallery' section where it began with a photo of Ady's car in the snow. Maybe you should move it somewhere else.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2014 9:49:01 GMT
Glad you're safe Warwick. Can't believe it's happening again.
UK weather seems to be changing with the jet stream dip this year and possibly in the future. Loads of people flooded already and more bad weather to come. At least here you can move everything upstairs and wait for the boat to come.
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Post by johnwp5bcoupe on Feb 13, 2014 6:03:25 GMT
Thanks John, Everything is fine again in our particular neck of the woods; apart from the smoke. Others are having a much worse time of it though; but generally it's nowhere near as bad as it was 5 years ago. Is your area affected by flooding? PS. Just realized that this thread is still in the 'Car Picture Gallery' section where it began with a photo of Ady's car in the snow. Maybe you should move it somewhere else. Hi Warwick I hope it's raining over there? I live on a hill in the fens of East Anglia which was once a small island when all the surrounding land covered in water!! The Fens
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Post by Warwick on Feb 14, 2014 2:17:15 GMT
Thanks Peter.
No rain yet John, but it has been cooler lately. Until about 100 or so years ago, the flatlands between here and the city were probably similar to the Fens. Perhaps not as deep. The Koo-wee-rup swamp. The only way to get to where we are from Melbourne back then was by sea around the coast. After it was drained, it made very good vegetable growing land. Now, as Melbourne expands, they're building houses all over it and pushing out the farmers. But that won't be a problem because we can just buy our vegetables from China.
Still smoke everywhere, but not as thick. I went to transfer some water from the big tank to the header tank, before I went to work this morning. A bloody cockatoo has cut off the end of the pump's electrical lead and made off with the plug!
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Post by johnwp5bcoupe on Feb 14, 2014 6:48:07 GMT
Thanks Peter. No rain yet John, but it has been cooler lately. Until about 100 or so years ago, the flatlands between here and the city were probably similar to the Fens. Perhaps not as deep. The Koo-wee-rup swamp. The only way to get to where we are from Melbourne back then was by sea around the coast. After it was drained, it made very good vegetable growing land. Now, as Melbourne expands, they're building houses all over it and pushing out the farmers. But that won't be a problem because we can just buy our vegetables from China. Still smoke everywhere, but not as thick. I went to transfer some water from the big tank to the header tank, before I went to work this morning. A bloody cockatoo has cut off the end of the pump's electrical lead and made off with the plug! We have the other problem Warwick why grow food when you can cover the farmland with Solar Parks acres of black solar panels will feed us well in the future as well as keeping the far east in work
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Post by GlennR on Feb 15, 2014 20:40:29 GMT
Hi Warwick, I don't drop by on the site as much as I used to but I still have an affiliation to the site and it's members who I have a deep respect for. I count you as definatley one of those. All though we will never ever meet I consider you a friend and I can only wish you and your family all the best. The world's weather has gone a bit dippy but I personally feel that it will settle down.....hopefully.
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Post by Warwick on Feb 17, 2014 2:37:45 GMT
Thanks Glenn. And may I say that the feeling is mutual. A much more pleasant day today. Fresh air at last. The wind is blowing the other way and we've had a little bit of rain.
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Post by GlennR on Feb 17, 2014 17:38:23 GMT
That is good news. We had a beautiful settled day here on Sunday. It felt quite surreal as it has been a "Cow Son" regarding the weather. We have escaped relativley lightly on the east side compared to those down in Dave Dallimore country.
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Post by ozriderp5 on Apr 22, 2017 11:05:20 GMT
Just stumbled across this, brings back a lot of memories.....not many good ones I'm afraid. Lost a mate at St Andrews and a friends parents lost everything at King Lake but were lucky enough to get out.. We had just been at the trout farm at Marysville a couple of weeks earlier and that was wiped out. (The fantastic bakery was one of the only buildings to survive in the whole town) Charities raised millions and filled warehouses with donated clothes and toys and bikes etc for the kids who literally where left with the clothes on their backs. I worked for HP at the time and they where happy for us to take paid time off to help, fortunately the response was so overwhelming they were turning volunteers away. On the positive side, people rebuilt, the Aussie Spirit shines through, not much can stop you when everyone bands together to help.
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Post by Warwick on Apr 23, 2017 11:04:22 GMT
Sorry to hear that Oz. 15 years prior to us 'going bush' and moving here from the suburbs 18 years ago, we'd been looking at land between St. Andrews and King Lake. Closer to the St. Andrews end. Can't remember the name of the road off-hand. We'd intended to build an earth sheltered house. i.e. Semi-underground. Had we done that, and moved there, we would have been fine and survived; but we would have lost our neighbours. Sobering thought. What we experienced here was nothing compared to what those poor people went through between King Lake and Marysville. Neighbours here lost sheds and an old disused house, and a friend lost his Bolwell (see below) in the earlier Calignee fire; but no lives.
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Post by enigmas on Apr 24, 2017 2:52:59 GMT
A friend of mine in Maryborough Queensland did this painting of a bushfire a couple of years back. The person who bought the painting said she could see the fire raging from her house!
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Post by ozriderp5 on Apr 24, 2017 4:10:25 GMT
We'd intended to build an earth sheltered house. i.e. Semi-underground. Had we done that, and moved there, we would have been fine and survived; but we would have lost our neighbours. My mate was like a lot of others that died that day, not a mark on him....basically asphyxiated due to lack of oxygen in the air and smoke.
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Post by guidedog on Apr 24, 2017 14:56:44 GMT
We had a Bush fire here in East Devon yesterday (Sunday). In an area called Woodbury Common, it made the local news on T.V. It was a little smaller than you have down in OZ. The size was 100 acres.
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Post by Warwick on Apr 26, 2017 12:06:23 GMT
My mate was like a lot of others that died that day, not a mark on him....basically asphyxiated due to lack of oxygen in the air and smoke. Good point Oz. That's one consequence you can't guard against. How did the rest of your mate's family fare? Good painting Vince. The Bunyip fire was a grass fire when it arrived at our place. It looked like that when it crested the hill. Hamish and I were standing looking towards it when the flames appeared. I remember he turned to me and said "Do you still think we're going to be OK Dad?"
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Post by enigmas on Apr 26, 2017 12:42:26 GMT
Well, you're more likely to be in danger from bushfires than me Warwick...and it's obviously a natural question from Hamish. I recall the 50 metre flames of Black Saturday (which just happened to be the day my eldest daughter got married). Interesting how many people overseas think that Aussies are in dire danger of being killed, eaten, burnt to death, asphyxiated in bush fires, bitten, maimed, mauled (wild pigs) poisoned by venomous snakes, toxic spiders, eaten by crocodiles, sharks or killed/dismembered by the occasional nutcase in the outback or perhaps shotup by gangsters in pizzerias in the inner cities. No really...it's a very liveable place! (Just don't go out at night! )
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Post by Warwick on Apr 26, 2017 12:50:12 GMT
You forgot the drop-bears Vince.
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Post by nz on Apr 26, 2017 20:39:30 GMT
**people overseas think that Aussies are in dire danger of being killed, eaten, burnt to death, asphyxiated in bush fires, bitten, maimed, mauled (wild pigs) poisoned by venomous snakes, toxic spiders, eaten by crocodiles, sharks**
That reminds me of Billy Connolly's stand-up on when he visited Australia. THAT'S where I got my Aussie info from lol. ("Don't forget the stingers, or box jellyfish").
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Post by Warwick on Apr 27, 2017 3:06:11 GMT
**people overseas think that Aussies are in dire danger of being killed, eaten, burnt to death, asphyxiated in bush fires, bitten, maimed, mauled (wild pigs) poisoned by venomous snakes, toxic spiders, eaten by crocodiles, sharks** That reminds me of Billy Connolly's stand-up on when he visited Australia. THAT'S where I got my Aussie info from lol. ("Don't forget the stingers, or box jellyfish"). You forgot Vegemite.
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Bushfires
Apr 27, 2017 3:28:34 GMT
via mobile
Post by ozriderp5 on Apr 27, 2017 3:28:34 GMT
My mate was like a lot of others that died that day, not a mark on him....basically asphyxiated due to lack of oxygen in the air and smoke. Good point Oz. That's one consequence you can't guard against. How did the rest of your mate's family fare? Good painting Vince. The Bunyip fire was a grass fire when it arrived at our place. It looked like that when it crested the hill. Hamish and I were standing looking towards it when the flames appeared. I remember he turned to me and said "Do you still think we're going to be OK Dad?" They were fine, his wife come home and found him in the garage. Can't believe it was 8 years ago.....
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Post by nz on Apr 27, 2017 3:36:25 GMT
Vegemite drool. Now I have to make some toast. A Yank cobber almost vomited when he tasted it. We had a 'big' fire in my town, Christchurch in February. We evacuated, but it missed us. Earthquakes, fire, and flooding. What next.
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Post by Roy of the Rovers on Apr 28, 2017 12:54:26 GMT
Vegemite drool. Now I have to make some toast. A Yank cobber almost vomited when he tasted it. We had a 'big' fire in my town, Christchurch in February. We evacuated, but it missed us. Earthquakes, fire, and flooding. What next. I guess vegemite is the same as marmite here in the UK?? Love the stuff, twiglets are the food of gods I have to admit, I would love to visit Oz or NZ but having watched one too many nature programs, the deadly wildlife scares the BEJEEZUS out of me!
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Post by nz on Apr 28, 2017 20:51:22 GMT
In NZ's defense, there is no wildlife to harm us. The occasional white-tail spider, but they only hurt a bit. No recorded cases of death. The only person killed in our recent fires was a chopper pilot, and he may've been affected by the smoke, as he'd taken the doors off. So NZ is pretty benign. Vegemite yum. Marmite yuk. That's the way we roll. The photo shows what made me evacuate in Feb for cuppla days. Attachments:
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