Bushwalk Australia

As people who are often "out there", have others here noticed a growing trend for bushwalkers to flout the "Fuel Stove Only " regulations?

Recent evidence seen by myself and others includes:

* fire rings up against pencil pines in the Walls of Jerusalem
* escaped campfire burn at Lake Myrtle
* alpine campfires in the Southern Range
* fire ring and collected firewood at Lake Rhona campsite
* fire ring and collected firewood at Lake Wugata (Denisons)
* evidence of fire use in the Western Arthurs

I've attached a few images. I reckon if this trend continues, it's only a matter of time (particularly in light of climate change) before we have a catastrophic fire out there. Imagine the WoJ with no pencil pines!

Is it ignorance, blatant disregard of the law, or what? Any evidence or opinions?

cheers

Peter

I have personally destroyed evidence of a number of campfires and disposed of woodheaps into thick scoparia.
Talking to rangers, it seems that on the South Coast track campsites are being used more and more often, even though it is illegal in most.
The ranger I spoke to also told me that his belief was that campfires are only allowed in (I think) Surprise and Deadmans bays because of a favour by some politician to a well known Tasmanian photographer who I will not name publicly as I have no evidence to prove the claim.

I see no reason for campfires anywhere in national parks - you cannot rely on them for cooking - no guarantee of wood, no guarantee of "dry", plus the danger aspect and the illegal aspect and the environmental scar aspect.

It is a concerning trend.

This sort of activity is absolutely inexcusable IMHO.
If it ever leads to ravaging fires in any of these areas then the culprits should have the book thrown at them

Perhaps Parks need to further emphasise on their signage / in their pamphlets the point of no fires / fuel stoves only etc. with a big, big, big fine warning;
those who flout this should be made culpable & made to pay the price.

Beachwise, are fires allowed below the high tide line? I was always under this impression...
I love campfires. Have never lit one since the regs came in, never would and can see that it is pretty much impossible to not have blanket bans even though the chance of a campfire being the cause of destruction was alway pretty remote (perhaps just ban park staff from owning matches ) It could just as easily happen from a road, outside the park boundary, lightening, deliberately lit etc. all in perspective..

not that i think lighting fire is a good idea and some of those could (perhaps) have been nasty, especially on the peat like that.

An interesting read...
No need for fires but in the most dire of emergencies, and then it must be done with utmost care.

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Bear Grysley? (maybe he'll list his first aid kit?)

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Wandering to L Bay last Summer we were astonished to get into Buoy Creek camp spot and find a bunch of blokes with a fire. They had lit it for the sole purpose of burning their lunch rbbish as as we could tell. Burnt plastic smell the in camp, yum, yum, yum.

We were speachless.

Otherwise we we had not seen a fire out bush for years.

On a similar note: Just off the South Coast track heading for Melaleuca I found a dead wallaby last year. Maybe 1km after the turn-off to Louisa Bay. That's nothing special, but the unusual thing was that it was stripped of all its meat except the organs. It seemed less than 24 hours old. I'm only aware of one animal that would go for the muscles and leave the organs behind - and thats an omnivorous, hairless biped in the Ape family. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo, which I really regret. I reported it to parks and they seems quite concerned about it as they also had no other explanation than some kind of wannabe-Bear Grylls-bushmaster out for some extra meat. Was quite disturbing... There is definitely some weird folk out there these days!

Very sad to see evidence of a campfire at Lake Rhona again. I remember about 15 years ago that I came across a number of them there behind the beach and spent a good hour or so burying the ashes and destroying any trace of the fireplaces.

They are a terrible visual eyesore. Comparable to spraying graffiti on the Mona Lisa.

In these days of limitless digital film, unless the fire was of immediate danger (in which case I'd try to get them to put it out) I would be inclined to discreetly photograph the offenders in the act , then later on subtly get one of their names and e-mail the photographic evidence to the rangers for prosecution.

Brett wrote:

Nuts wrote:Bear Grysley? (maybe he'll list his first aid kit?)

so when I stumbled across the show thought arh yes, a flint so off shopping I went.
Cheers Brett

Bear Grylls - yes - pure comedy! Funniest show on TV for years!

Dave

I initially thought your Lake Myrtle photo was a fresh burn - but looking back I can see it was there in Jan 2008.
The charred tree limb wasn't there then though.

DaveNoble wrote:

Brett wrote:

Nuts wrote:Bear Grysley? (maybe he'll list his first aid kit?)

so when I stumbled across the show thought arh yes, a flint so off shopping I went.
Cheers Brett

Bear Grylls - yes - pure comedy! Funniest show on TV for years!

Dave

I was most impressed with Bears jumping some 5 metres into a pool of unknown depth and then allowing himself to be carried through an underwater cave to safety

DaveNoble wrote:Bear Grylls - yes - pure comedy! Funniest show on TV for years!

Dave

I loved the recent show where he was dropped into the Kilauea volcano caldera in Hawaii and then spent two or three days making his way south to the coast over lava fields. If he'd gone north instead he would have come to a very nice hotel on the edge of the Caldera in about half an hour. Much easier if you ask me. The hotel is visible from the caldera too, but somehow didn't appear in any of the footage. And the lava tube he "explored" and "escaped" looked awfully like the same lava tube that tourists go through every day...

Still, as you say, it has good comedy value.

Getting away from the Man Vs Wild topic and back to the topic of Fires.... there was one near the tent platform at Lake Oberon too which was quite sad.
Also saw one in the Bivy cave near Proycon Peak, and in a Bivy cave near the Thumbs