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During the worst of the austral summer in Tasmania at the start of 2013, an Austrian friend of mine was travelling through the region, and sent back the following report. “We arrived in Tassie [Tasmania] on the 6th of January 2013. When I looked outside the window of the plane I saw many burning fields and a lot of black smoke was in the air.” |
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“We picked up our luggage and went to the car rental counter. Actually we were lucky to catch the last rental car, as most of the cars were stuck in the Peninsula at Port Arthur and people couldn’t drive them back as all roads were blocked already. There were over 40 bush-fires in the area and most of the people have been evacuated either by sailboats and ships, as the whole island (Peninsula) Dunally was on fire. We drove directly up to the northern part of Tasmania away from the bush-fires. On the radio we heard many additional fire-warnings and had to take another highway in order to reach the Cradle Mountain National Park. The air was filled with smoke and the smell was terrible. As we arrived in the National Park all of a sudden it started to rain and didn’t stop for the rest of the day. The next day also…rain, rain, rain. 250km south of Tassie bush-fires and here we are and felt like we were swept away by the strong winds and rainfalls in the middle of Tassie. 🙂 It has been also really cold. Strange feeling to experience such a different weather-condition within only one day.” Video which describes it best: Arnie speaking German in front of students in Vienna on the 31st of January: “Let’s keep in touch. We have to step out of the comfort zone into the smoking zone in order to reach people for the “truth” about climate change. :)” | |
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One reply on “A Report from Tasmania”
Australia is a country of tough extremes. Summers are always characterised by heat waves, storms, floods and bush fires. Unfortunately, urban greenies have been able to impose their policies on the management of rural Australia. Instead of regularly burning off the accumulated fuel load, it has been allowed to build up. As a result, bush fires are more intense and do more damage than they should.
Australia is a country of tough extremes. If someone arrives from a small, comfortable European Country, and spends a few days experiencing these extremes, they are like to be overwhelmed. They are unlikely to fully understand the context of their experience. In such circumstances it would be easy to confuse a weather event with climate.
Kind regards,
Brian