Freycinet closed to walkers

[Overlandman]

Just heard on ABC that Parks have closed all walking tracks at Freycinet National Park due to the high fire danger.

http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx? ... intID=3540

Regards OLM

[PTC]

Thanks for the update. I am on the boat over tonight and was going to be hiking there in the next few days. But i think i will reverse my trip now.

[RichB]

Here we go again..they always seem to close it at the right time....seems their relentless burn offs are not working..

[north-north-west]

Freycinet gets a lot of people. Unfortunately, all too many of them ignore the FSOA signs. I've told off more than one group for collecting firewood at Cooks, Bryans, Hazards, even Wineglass.
It's a naturally drier area and extremely vulnerable to fire. In this case they're doing the right thing. I still vividly remember the fires back in . . . was it 1980.

[biggbird]

Freycinet gets a lot of people. Unfortunately, all too many of them ignore the FSOA signs. I've told off more than one group for collecting firewood at Cooks, Bryans, Hazards, even Wineglass.
It's a naturally drier area and extremely vulnerable to fire. In this case they're doing the right thing. I still vividly remember the fires back in . . . was it 1980.

Can't be that vivid

[north-north-west]

I remember the events, and the condition of the local rangers once they finally got the second fire under control. Dates are less relevant.

There were actually two sets of fires. The first took out most of the Hazards. The second was arson, starting from Wineglass Bay and damaging a lot of the lower peninsula, including the rainforest gullies on the northern side of Mts Freycinet/Graham. We were on Maria when the second one came over the top of the peaks - we'd been horsing around on the airstrip and nearby in the 4wd, but sobered up rapid when we saw what was going on.

[headwerkn]

Not sure if it was the same fire event, but I remember in 1989 seeing Schouten Island pretty much entirely on fire one evening as we drove towards Swansea. Something crazy enough a 9-year old boy's brain to remember three decades later.

Methinks there will be a lot of track/park closures this summer, especially on the east coast. It's *&%$#! dry out there.

[north-north-west]

Not sure if it was the same fire event, but I remember in 1989 seeing Schouten Island pretty much entirely on fire one evening as we drove towards Swansea. Something crazy enough a 9-year old boy's brain to remember three decades later.

Nah, that one happened after I left Tassie.
The fires I'm thinking of would have been over the 1979/80 or 1980/81 summer.

[Son of a Beach]

I was staying at The Chateau during the fires you remember NNW. It was late 70's I think. I know I was a young kid, and remember being evacuated late at night and taking my teddy bear with me. We ended up not driving far, then turned around and went back because the blaze had gone through so fast that it was been-and-gone. When we got back, all the bush across the road from The Chateau was burnt out - I remember seeing a whole lot of burnt out 'black boy' stumps (as we politically-incorrectly called grass trees then), and not much else.

A day or two later, when it was deemed safe, we were able to walk over to Wineglass bay. I remember watching the remains of the fire working slowly through the trees further along the Hazards. From Wineglass, we could see one tree go up in a ball of fire, then nothing for a while, then another ball of fire for the next tree.

During that evacuation was the first time I'd ever seen a helicopter - I think it must have been beside the road somewhere, can't remember properly.

[north-north-west]

Yeah SoB, that would have been the first one - it was a very hot, fast fire and the lads did a great job keeping it north of the isthmus.

[Overlandman]

Southern Cross news tonight mentioned that tracks around Freycinet will be closed tomorrow
Couldn't find anything on Parks site.
Regards OLM

[RichB]

What more can be expected..We really do have lunatics running this asylum..My advice is ignore them.