Discussion: I was wondering if the Aust...

I was wondering if the Australian wildfires have affected any orienteering areas?

I'm in another state but have a look at this log entry.

http://www.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_1524

No impact on Victorian maps to be used in the East Coast Carnival leading up to WMOC.

Forget the areas..have they affected any Australian orienteers?

Latest update on the OV website

For those who haven't been following the discussion on my log, as far as I know no Victorian orienteers have lost houses (or worse). In particular, the Whitfords and Hania Lada all managed to save their houses - something which will have required a lot of good management or good luck or both as they are in areas where few buildings have survived and there have been numerous deaths (Steels Creek and Kinglake respectively).

As far as maps are concerned (not exactly top of the priority list to be sure, but there are plenty of other places to get information on more important matters - for non-Australian readers I recommend www.theage.com.au), I am assuming that all or almost all of the forest on the east of the Hume Highway between the Yarra Valley and the Goulburn River has been burnt. There are no maps in this area that are in current use for state-level events, but a few (Strath Creek, Mount Robertson, maybe Christmas Hills) that get used for club events occasionally, and/or MTBO. Mount Hickey and Warrigul Rocks, neither of which have been used for years, are in the NW corner of this forest, which might (or might not) have been missed.

The Bendigo fire went through some of the area used for the Easter prologue in 2006. From descriptions I've heard of where the Beechworth fire has gone, it has burnt the Stanley MTBO map but missed all the foot-O maps in the region. I think the Camperdown fire was west of the area we're considering as a possibility for a day of Easter 2013 (Neil?). The Darlimurla MTBO map was burnt out by a fire the previous week.

Remarkably, there appear to have been no significant fires in the forests north-west of Melbourne in the Ballarat-Daylesford-Castlemaine-Bendigo corridor, where most of Victoria's mapped areas are.

I haven't checked the Camperdown GIS data. My understaqnding is it is on the other side of the Lake. Re the maps mentioned north of Melbourne, all will be burnt from my memory of the fire maps I saw at work today. What wasn't burnt at the north will be burning now as the south wind is quite strong and the satellite sensors are showing some hot spots along that front.
I'll try and post some pdfs of fire maps from work tomorrow.
Have been watching the 'Beechworth' fire much more closely. It is burning through my parents farm as I type. They are not there thankfully. It doesn't look good for the stock or for their small residence. The CFA is helping defend a neighbours property. When the north winds reemerge (at the end of the week?) there is a risk that fire will go south up the Ovens and Kiewa and Mitta valleys.

Last time I looked at the ECMWF model it didn't really go into northerlies at all during the forecast period, but that could change on later runs. Hard to see the really big fires being controlled without decent rain and there is none on the horizon for at least the next week. The Baw Baw fire is also a concern as it is a threat to the Thomson catchment (which is now one of the few bits of Victorian forest between the Hume and East Gippsland that hasn't burnt in the last six years) and there won't be the resources to throw at it that there would be under normal circumstances.

Our sympathies to your parents Neil. Can you fill in a few more personal details? How long had your family owned the farm?

Photos and maps of the devastated area are tragic. Apparently many people were caught by the flames in their cars while trying to flee.

THis link shows a satellite picture of the affected areas.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/world...