It's over: Victorian fires contained

news.com.au ^ | 14th March 2009

[naturalman1975]

All of Victoria's bushfires have now been contained. Emergency services said the Wilsons Promontory Cathedral fire was finally contained at 10am (AEDT) today, ending the last major bushfire that had been threatening Victoria since Black Saturday.

Australia's worst natural disaster has claimed the lives of 210 Victorians, more than 2000 homes and burnt 421,670 hectares of public and private land since starting on February 7.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Dennis Ward acknowledged the combined firefighting effort of the DSE and Country Fire Authority (CFA) in containing the Wilsons Promontory bushfire.

A lightning strike sparked the fire on 8 February, and it has burnt over 25,200 hectares of the national park.

"The recent rainfall and milder weather enabled firefighters to strengthen containment lines and bring the fire under control," Mr Ward said.

[naturalman1975]

And we've had steady soaking rain for the last two days.

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

[tanuki]

For all that you managed to save, well done to you and your mates.

[stayathomemom]

From the title, my first thought was these were fires that have been burning for over a century. I realize that for those who are having to deal with them for over a month, it probably seems that long.

[razorback-bert]

Ditto.

Victoria’s fire would have been better.

[naturalman1975]

It’s an Australian newspaper - given that Victoria is Australia’s second most populous state, the term ‘Victorian’ in Australia is most readily understood to refer to the place not the period (although both are used - leading at times to wonderful statements like ‘The Victorian Victorian Parliament House’).