Category: Australia

The fire area across southern NSW, northern and eastern Victoria and the ACT is now approaching a combined 4 million hectares, with widespread damage forming a ring of fire around Mount Kosciuszko and its national parkland.

 

It’s estimated that more than 6 million hectares have burned around Australia since the fire season began.

With no signs of respite in the near future, the size of the fires is likely to increase further. How did so much fire spread so quickly?

In mid-November, the first fire sparked up in the Snowy Valleys, just a few kilometres to the northern side of the Victorian border.

There were several fires dotted around rural Victoria, both in the north-west and near the coast, but most attention was focused on catastrophic fires that were ripping through the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury and parts of northern NSW.

By the end of the month, there were spot fires in the Currowan State Forest, north of Batemans Bay. A combination of weather conditions, heavy bushland and limited accessibility to remote fire fronts cultivated an environment for rapid growth. Within a week, the fire burned through 11,000 hectares – within a month, it was more than 300,000. The worst was to come just before New Year’s.

Smoke from around the state lingered to the point where Sydney’s air quality plummeted to the worst of any major city on Earth, as firefighters from provinces across Canada volunteered to give up Christmas with their families and flew to Australia to help with the bushfire crisis – the first of which arrived on Saturday, December 8. The fires were also about to reach the fringes of Sydney’s metropolitan area, as the Green Wattle Creek fire ravaged towns and bushland south-west of the city – homes, and lives were tragically lost.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Chief Photographer Nick Moir was on the frontline on Thursday, December 5 and said the fire advanced so quickly everyone was forced to “run from its path”.

Fire crews spent the next day trying to backburn around the Warragamba region ahead of forecast worsening conditions the following week.

The Currowan fire reached 50,000 hectares in size on the South Coast, but the worst was still yet to come.

To the south-east of Canberra, the North Black Range fire, which began in the Tallaganda National Park the previous Tuesday, was at an emergency level and eventually reached nearly 40,000 hectares in size.

On Monday, December 10, more than 500 firefighters and emergency workers fought two out-of-control bushfires in East Gippsland, with warnings – which would be proven correct – that they could burn for a long time.

An estimated 20,000 protesters took to the streets of Sydney on Wednesday, December 11, marching from Town Hall to Hyde Park and taking over George Street to demand stronger climate action. This came after ongoing smoky conditions prompting school closures and worksite walk-offs around Sydney.

Erratic weather resulted in 30 new spot fires around the state after lightning strikes and heat records began to tumble. Australia experienced its hottest ever day, with a national average temperature of 40.9 degrees recorded at weather stations around the country on Tuesday, December 17 – but that record only lasted until the following day’s results were recorded. After Thursday’s temperatures were measured, those three consecutive days were officially the three hottest ever experienced in Australia.

The hot air mass that lingered over Australia shifted east with strong winds, making firefighting conditions more difficult. Most of southern NSW became engulfed with flames, and tragically two RFS firefighters – Geoffrey Keaton and Andrew O’Dwyer – lost their lives and a further three were hospitalised when their truck rolled as they battled a bushfire in Buxton, south-west of Sydney.

The fires in East Gippsland began to spread quickly. Just a couple of days before Christmas, residents in several small towns about 350 kilometres east of Melbourne were told to seek shelter as the now almost 37,000-hectare fire began “creating its own weather” on Saturday, December 21.

As a result, Melbourne was blanketed in smoke on Monday, December 23, which would become a recurring theme for the state.

Just after Christmas, fire spread to the Bega Valley area for the first time – where it quickly made its way through thick state forest areas. Eventually, three fires merged with two others threatening to do so as well, and those five blazes combined to become more than 260,000 hectares in size.

Fire conditions rapidly deteriorated near the border as well, as the Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park was engulfed in flames, and many nearby towns threatened.

On December 30, more tragedy striked the RFS when Samuel McPaul’s vehicle rolled over near Jingellic, caused by an “extraordinary weather event” when a “fire tornado” lifted a 10-12 tonne Rural Fire Service truck and flipped it onto its roof, RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

The out-of-control East Gippsland fires reached more than 200,000 hectares in size, and the thousands of people in the holiday town of Mallacoota were trapped in the final morning of 2019, with astonishing images showing people stranded on a beach, simply hoping to survive.

The town was in complete darkness at 9am as the fires edged in, throwing embers close to the 4000 people on the beach, with one person describing it as “hell on earth”.

Lives were lost on the NSW South Coast in what Mr Fitzsimmons described as “absolutely” the worst bushfire season on record. As more than 100 fires burnt across NSW, Patrick Salway, 29, and his 63-year-old father Robert from Cobargo, inland from Bermagui, lost their lives defending their home.

Almost 90 homes were burnt in Conjola Park, just north of Ulladulla, 40 homes were lost in Malua Bay, south of Batemans Bay, and 15 homes were lost in Rosedale on the outskirts of Batemans Bay, as anyone who did not need to be in the region was urged to leave.

Some towns in the Bega Valley and Shoalhaven were left without drinking water when fires destroyed their disinfection facilities and contaminated the water supply with ash.

As people picked up the pieces on New Year’s Day, thousands remained without power, internet or road access, leaving them essentially stranded in towns across the coastline – 15 evacuation centres were opened across the region.

The following day, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a state of emergency, handing additional decision-making power to the Rural Fire Service. An area stretching hundreds of kilometres from Nowra to the Victorian border and west to Kosciuszko were declared “leave zones” ahead of worsening conditions on the weekend.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared a state of disaster and pressured the federal government into using naval ships to rescue stranded people.

The HMAS Choules would arrive at Mallacoota that afternoon, with more than 1000 people taken on board.

On January 4, the Snowy Mountains area, with its many pine forests, was ablaze, with the town of Batlow evacuated and others put on high alert.

The southern NSW town is now charred by flames that destroyed the old hospital, blew up the petrol station and burnt 17 houses and an untold number of outlying properties.

That same day, it was announced that 3000 army reservists would be called up to work with communities in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

As the Snowy Mountains burned, the fire also kept spreading south, and there are now fears it could merge with Victoria’s massive Corryong fire in the state’s north-east. smh

Fisheries experts are monitoring reports thousands of fish may have been killed after rain washed bushfire ash into the Macleay River on the NSW Mid-North coast.

A mass fish kill occurred in a 60-70km stretch of the Macleay River near Bellbrook, north-west of Kempsey, last weekend.

Arthur Bain, who lives near the river, said rainwater from the catchment washed through the river late last week.

He said he initially counted 200 dead fish around the Bellbrook Bridge but believed the figure would be much higher now.

“It’d be in the hundreds of thousands,” he said.

“Talking to other locals further up the river the fish kill stretches possibly 60 kilometres from where the Apsley River feeds into the Macleay system, to well past Bellbrook.

“It’s pretty devastating if you’re looking at a 60-kilometre stretch of river.

“It’s left mud and rotten fish, so we’ve got quite a smell issue at the moment.”

“DPI fisheries staff have been on high alert for these circumstances since the commencement of the bushfire season,” a spokesman said.

“Current rainfall events are adding ash from the extensive bushfires throughout the region into local catchments, as well as other organic material and sediment.

“This can cause rapid drops to oxygen levels in the water.”

When Bellbrook locals first discovered the dead fish they rushed to the river with pumps and hoses to try to re-oxygenate the water.

Mr Bain said it appeared the worst of the fish kill was over but warned it could take years before the river recovered to its original state.

“The immediate crisis is over,” he said.

“But there’s a lot of damage been done.”

Storms have brought heavy rain to fire-hit regions of eastern Australia – but authorities warn the nation’s bushfire crisis is still “far from over”.

More than 80 blazes were still burning across New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria on Monday, despite downpours.

Melbourne and Canberra have been hit by heavy storms, with hail as big as golf balls falling in some areas.

Hundreds of emergency calls were made as hail smashed office windows and car windshields in the nation’s capital.

Further severe storms have also been forecast for bushfire-ravaged states.

Victoria, NSW and Queensland experienced heavy rainfall and floods in recent days, bringing relief to some blaze zones.

But strong winds have also generated dust clouds, temporarily blacking out the sky in NSW towns such as Orange and Dubbo.

Dozens of communities across Australia’s south-east are still reeling from fires which have been described as the most destructive on record.

Since September, blazes have killed at least 30 people, destroyed over 2,000 homes and burnt through 10 million hectares of land – an area almost the size of England.

The crisis has been exacerbated by record temperatures, a severe drought and climate change.

 

On Monday, Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews said recent rain had proved “very helpful” to bushfire-affected communities.

But he added that storms had also hindered some firefighting efforts and caused a landslide on a highway.

Air quality in the state capital, Melbourne, soared beyond hazardous levels last week due to smoke from nearby bushfires.

“Ultimately, we need to remain vigilant. It’s 20 January – the fire season is far from over,” Mr Andrews told reporters.

Victoria’s worst fire conditions traditionally occur in the first weeks of February.

Mr Andrews said there was still a “massive fire edge” of more than 1.5 million hectares from blazes which had flared up in the state’s east on New Year’s Eve.

Fire officials in NSW have also warned of a return to hot and windy conditions later this week.

Experts estimate that over 1 billion animals have perished in the bushfire disaster. bbc

Al-Faisal College has high expectations of its students. Distractions are kept to a minimum – no mobile phones are allowed, nor laptops before year 11 – and every minute of classroom time must be devoted to teaching and learning.

“An hour means an hour, it doesn’t mean 35 or 45 minutes,” said deputy principal Peter Rompies. “We are pedantic about small things like that. [The school executive] will sit in the classroom if we have to, to make sure the students are focused.”

The approach has paid off, particularly in maths. This year, the non-selective Islamic college had a fractionally higher success rate in the three hardest mathematics courses than the state’s top school, James Ruse Agricultural High – although Al-Faisal’s cohort was smaller.

The success rate calculates high scores (band six or E4) as a percentage of entries. Al-Faisal had 52 high scores from 57 entries in three top maths courses, compared with 272 high scores from 300 entries from James Ruse.

With students from across the socio-economic spectrum, Al-Faisal is also a less advantaged school than the others in the top 10.

North Sydney Boys was third, followed by the Conservatorium High and the only girls’ school in the top 10, North Sydney Girls. The other non-selective schools in the top 10 were Knox Grammar (8th) and Parramatta Marist High School (10th).

Meriden, an Anglican school in Strathfield, was the highest-placed non-selective girls’ school at 12th, while St Ives and Killara High were the top non-selective government schools.

Al-Faisal’s overall HSC results have improved significantly in the past three years, with the school climbing from 54th in 2017 to 23rd this year.

All 10 students studying the hardest maths course, extension 2, this year finished in the top result band, including dux Dania Al Rifai, who obtained the highest-possible ATAR of 99.95, and two others who were ranked 99.90.

“We’re putting in a lot of hard work,” said the school’s head of maths, Mohamad Jamal. “We try to make maths very relatable, to the students and their lives. We link real world examples to these mathematical concepts.

“They are starting to get their learners’ licence, they know a bit about how a car moves, so when we teach calculus, we use analogies of driving so students can get an intuitive understanding of the concept.”

The principal of North Sydney Girls, Megan Connors, said the results were due to motivated students and dedicated teachers. “Classroom teachers are working really explicitly and really successfully with individual students,” she said.

At Parramatta Marist High School, a non-selective Catholic school, head of maths Daniel Bateman said teachers ensured classes were relevant to the boys. “We look for real-world links across multiple subjects,” he said.

Students were also encouraged to collaborate throughout secondary school. “That helps them towards the end,” he said. “Once they get to the end game, the HSC, they’ve built really strong connections with each other.

“They all work together to build the whole class’s marks, they don’t just look out for number one.”

Meriden Principal Julie Greenhalgh said the school’s emphasis on maths was written into its 122-year-old constitution. Its approach includes streaming maths classes by ability.

“We do that from year 7 onwards, we know that’s the effective way to teach it,” she said. “We set the bar very high for the teachers who work here, we invest in professional development.”

The schools’ successes come amid concern about the state of maths education in Australia, with a teacher shortage and lack of confidence among students in the subject blamed for the country’s declining results in international tests..smh.com

NSW is again in the grip of a bushfire crisis with homes under threat in several areas including Sydney, where the air quality is at “hazardous” levels.

During the worst of the conditions seven bushfires were burning at emergency level across the state.

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) currently has five fires at emergency warning level: Gospers Mountain, Little L Complex, Currowan, Three Mile and Green Wattle Creek.

Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said it was not yet known how many properties had been lost and whether they were homes or sheds.

He said three firefighters were also injured at a fire burning near Nattai in Sydney’s south-west and were treated for minor injuries.

The NSW Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has also issued a road safety alert for Sydney because of smoke affecting visibility.

The BOM warned of dangerous road conditions into Thursday evening and Friday morning, particularly for southern and south-west suburbs.

The RFS also warned a heavy smoke haze would remain tonight in areas including Sydney and the Central Coast.

Thick smoke will continue tomorrow morning, due to a temperature inversion which will keep smoke trapped in some areas.

As of 9:30pm there were 112 bush and grass fires across the state, with scores yet to be contained.

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The RFS warned anyone in the Colo Heights area that it was too late to leave and that residents should seek shelter as the fire approached.

Fire crews were trying to slow the spread of the Green Wattle Creek blaze, 30 kilometres west of Campbelltown.

Overnight winds fanned embers across Burragorang Lake and created a spot fire that was burning east towards the towns of Nattai and Oakdale where more than 2,000 residents live.

Oakdale resident Glenys Dowling said she would stay and defend her home

“I’m not leaving, this is my family home and I’ve lived here too long to go,” Ms Dowling said.

“I know what to do and how to defend myself and that’s the way it is.

“I’ve cleared the roof, mowed the lawn and I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

A fire burning at Little L Complex in the Yengo National Park near Singleton may impact areas around Wollombi, Congewai with up to 100 properties in the area under threat.

Residents in Laguna or Yengo areas were urged to leave towards Cessnock as 11 tankers attempted to tackle the blaze.

Those in Boree were advised it was too late to leave.

The RFS’ Leanne Bell said triple zero calls for help from people in isolated areas affected by the Little L Complex bushfire would go unanswered.

“If you are in an isolated area we just do not have the resources to get to you, and the safest thing for you to do is leave and leave now,” she said.

Ms Bell said there were not enough RFS crews to go around.

“We estimate there are 100 properties directly under threat from this fire and we have 11 appliances in the area,” she said.

“We are asking Yengo Creek Road and Upper Yengo Creek Road to leave now to head towards Cessnock and do so now while the path is clear.”

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“I kind of wish I had gone a few days ago. I’m scared,” she said.

“My partner wanted to stay and he kept reassuring me — I didn’t think it would come to this.”

Another local said: “I’m a bit shaky at the moment. Being from Norway we pretty much have snow storms but nothing like this.”

A fire at Bangala Creek near Tenterfield was spreading quickly in a north-easterly direction.

The RFS said a bushfire at Three Mile on the Central Coast was impacting Mangrove Mountain and firefighters were working to protect properties in the area.

The heavy smoke was impacting the first day of the Australian Open at the Australian Golf Club, in the southern Sydney suburb of Rosebery, which got underway today.

New Zealand golfer Ryan Chisnall, who suffers from asthma, was spotted wearing a protective face mask during the opening round on Thursday afternoon.

Australia’s domestic spy agency will lead a new taskforce aimed at strengthening Australia’s response to the threat of foreign interference.

The Federal Government plans to spend almost $88 million to establish a new Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce.

The taskforce will expand the resources of the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator — which sits within the Home Affair Department — to help “disrupt and deter anyone attempting to undermine our national interests”.

“This threat has been evolving and we have been staying ahead of it by building that capability now over many years, and most recently this initiative, which improves the collaboration, ensures that the tools they have are world-class and they can work together to identify, disrupt and prosecute,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

The taskforce will be led by a senior Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officer, and include investigators from the Australian Federal Police and staff from a range of security agencies.

The Government intends for it to increase intelligence collection, assessment, law enforcement capabilities and collaboration and decision-making between agencies to result in more disruptions of possible interference.

It comes amid heightened national security concerns raised by allegations of Chinese espionage, influence over political parties and multiple cyber attacks on universities and federal agencies.

Shortly before retiring earlier this year, outgoing ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis said foreign interference presented a greater threat than terrorism.

The taskforce comes a week after it was revealed Chinese man Wang Liqiang was seeking political asylum in Australia after going public with allegations about Chinese spying.

The Government has dismissed suggestions the taskforce was in response to that case, and insisted it had been under development for months.

It also comes amid suggestions China was grooming Bo “Nick” Zhao to be a Chinese spy inside Australia’s Parliament.

He was found dead in a Melbourne motel room in March after reportedly approaching ASIO.

“On the advice that I’ve received, I don’t have any concern in relation to issues domestically… in relation to this particular matter,” Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

“I think the [ASIO] director-general, though, will have something further to say in due course, and I’ll let that investigation run its course.”

The foreign interference taskforce does not require legislation to be established, meaning it won’t have to pass the Parliament.

 

A series of cold fronts moving across the state have put firefighters west of Sydney on high alert today.A very high fire danger warning and total fire bans have been put in place from the south coast in Shoalhaven, up through Illawarra and to the Greater Sydney region.

Last night the blaze at Ruined Castle, south of Katoomba, was downgraded to advice level but this could change due to strong winds forecast for today.

The blaze was visible from the Blue Mountain’s Three Sisters as it was controlled with the help of firefighting aircraft.

The fire burning north of Batesman Bay is threatening homes and is spreading towards the Princes Highway.

The RFS said residents from Durras to Bawley Point were told to evacuate as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.

But Greg Allen from the RFS said windy conditions could complicate their efforts.

“Although temperatures may not be as high as we’ve seen over the last few days, the winds will be quite strong for most parts of the state,” he said.

A workers’ union says job cuts to the NSW power network by the Australian Energy Regulator were partly to blame for the days-long blackout in parts of Sydney’s north.

The United Services Union (USU) said Ausgrid had cut more than 300 jobs in the last two months after the regulator took money out of the business earlier this year.

Troy Dunne from the USU said more job cuts were expected in the next few years.

“There will be a further 400 to 500 roles made redundant in Ausgrid,” he said.

“In a critical network the size of Ausgrid, which takes in the Sydney metropolitan area and the central coast, it just simply isn’t sustainable.”

Ausgrid said last night it had restored power to 95 per cent of homes and business after a freak storm wreaked havoc on the electricity grid last Tuesday.

Almost 2,000 Ausgrid customers have been warned it could be another 48 hours before their power returns.

The NSW Government is under pressure to explain why millions of dollars are being spent on consultants for TAFE while jobs in the sector are being cut.

The Berejiklian government is being accused of spending more than $6 million on consultants for TAFE since 2018, despite hundreds of jobs being cut in recent months.

Labor’s TAFE spokesman, Jihad Dib, said the spending did not make sense.

“We understand that there is a time and place for consultancies, but certainly some of these consultancy projects are just way over the top and amounts to nothing more than a bit of navel gazing,” he said.

A man is facing court today after NSW Police found more than 1,000 pairs of women’s underwear, bras and swimwear while searching his property.

Police said they investigated the 37-year-old man after linking him to the theft of a bag of women’s underwear from a hotel room in Mascot in October.

After searching his Rosebery home in early November, police charged him with breaking and entering and taking property.

He was granted strict conditional bail and will appear at Downing Centre Local Court.abcnews

Police say a 16-year-old boy has been charged with starting a Central Queensland bushfire that has destroyed 14 homes, as firefighters concentrate on strengthening containment lines and extinguishing existing fires before the weather deteriorates over the weekend.

The charge relates to the Cobraball fire, west of Yeppoon, said state disaster coordinator and Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski.

“This investigation’s been ongoing since the start of the fire, so we’ve had an avenue of investigation that we’ve been pursuing,” he said.

They include “leave now” advice for the communities of Thornside, near Gympie, as well as Walkers Point Road and Kinkuna, which are both affected by the same Woodgate fire.

Fire crews have begun their investigation to determine the cause of the Noosa North Shore blaze, as residents this afternoon returned home to the island.

Sunshine Coast rural fire area director Andrew Allan said he could already conclude the fires were man-made and deliberate.

He said they had already pinpointed the point of origin — the side of a road in a fairly secluded area.

“It is absolutely [arson], there is no doubt about that, so now we just have to narrow down the spot and see if there’s some evidence there.”

About 400 people were evacuated from Buxton, south of Bundaberg, yesterday. Thirty people spent the night in an evacuation centre, but a warning for that area was downgraded last night.

David Grant left his camper-trailer in the Woodgate region yesterday and fled with his three dogs.

“I threw everything I could, as quick as I could, into the car and got out of there,” he said.

“The fire was just about 15 minutes behind me.

He spent the night in the evacuation centre and fears he has lost everything.

“I’d say it’d all be a pile of molten metal, from what went through there. There’d be nothing left. I’ve lost the lot,” he said.

“This is my life, it’s all I’ve got left.

“Who knows what tomorrow will bring, I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

A 13-year-old boy was among those who spent the night by the side of Woodgate Road, waiting with a friend of his dad.

He had gone to school yesterday but his parents are on the other side of a roadblock.

“[I’m] a bit sad because all your family’s in a different area,” he said.

“You don’t know if they’re OK or not because my phone’s dead and no-one has communication.”

He said he wished he could say to his family, “I love you all and I hope you are all safe”.

Derek Carty was also separated from his partner and seven-month-old baby.

He said he was desperate for any information about when he could return home.

“We’ve been told so many different things and we want to go home to our families,” he said.

“All our phones are flat, we’ve got no toilets, no water or anything like that … we just want to know when we can go home.”

District disaster coordinator Inspector Pat Swindells said it was still too dangerous to let Woodgate residents return.

“The fire and emergency services have actions in place to try and suppress that fire, so we don’t know exactly when the road’s going to be open or when it will be safe for people to return, ” he said.

He said resources were in place to get any remaining residents out if conditions deteriorated again.

Michael Knepp, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Thursday’s fire danger was much lower due to a cooler mass of air moving in and easing wind speeds.

But he warned the severe fire danger would likely return again on Friday, when temperatures are forecast to be about 8 degrees Celsius above average.

However, conditions are set to return to normal next week.

“We’ll be seeing an influx of moisture from the coast, so with the influx of moisture we’ll see more humid conditions and hopefully … we’ll see those conditions continue for the foreseeable future,” he said.

“Hopefully next week we’re going to see moisture pushing a fair way inland and it looks like the wind regime is fairly good.”

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) South-Eastern Region Assistant Commissioner Kevin Walsh likened the state’s bushfire crisis, which started six days ago, to “a marathon with a number of sprints in between”.

“We’re looking forward to a reprieve [today] and then we’ll have to get ready again for some severe fire danger ratings from Friday through to Monday, with some potential dry lightning strikes coming as well, which will be the next challenge,” he said.

At its peak yesterday there were more than 90 fires burning in Queensland and emergency evacuations for Noosa North Shore, Woodgate, Buxton and Pechey, where a water-bombing helicopter crash-landed.

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This morning 23 former fire and SES chiefs from across the country united to call on the Federal Government to meet with and better resource crews on the ground.

Former QFES commissioner Lee Johnson has more than four decades experience on the frontline and said he has never seen a fire season like it.

“In my 40 years-plus of operational experience, I cannot recall a fire season in Queensland where we have had so much property loss and destruction,” he said.

“The outlook for this week and the rest of summer is not good, unless we get significant rain … conditions are going to be extreme.”

More than 1,100 firefighters have been at the fire fronts which have already destroyed more than 100,000 hectares of land in Queensland.QFES South-Eastern Region Assistant Commissioner Kevin Walsh said while fatigue had been a concern, most of the firefighters on the ground were faring well physically and looking to pace themselves in the coming days.

“In these types of incidents, when you get large, protracted, complex campaign fires, it takes the resources of a nation, and indeed our international friends, to assist us,” he said.

“We’ve had firefighters from the Northern Territory, New Zealand, Victoria … and we are extremely grateful.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was one year since Queensland was last dealing with catastrophic bushfire conditions, which had become the new normal.

“We’re used to dealing with natural disasters, we’re used to dealing with cyclones, we’re used to dealing with floods — bushfires on this scale is unprecedented,” she said.abc news

The Australian Federal Police have raided the home of a government official in Canberra.Today’s operation follows earlier moves on the home of a News Corp Australia journalist and at the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney as the AFP pursues investigations of defence leaks.

The home is owned by Defence Department official Cameron Gill.Mr Gill had been seconded from the department to work in the offices of Turnbull government ministers Dan Tehan and Mal Brough, both of whom occupied defence-related portfolios.

The AFP have declined to confirm whether the raid was targeted at Mr Gill, but the Daily Telegraph this afternoon reported police had been in contact with his lawyer.

“The Australian Federal Police is executing a search warrant in the ACT suburb of Griffith … this activity does not relate to any current or impending threat,” an AFP spokeswoman said.

In a statement, News Corp Australia executive Campbell Reid said the raids were “not intended to intimidate journalists but the people who have the courage to talk to journalists”.

“Today we are seeing that process of intimidation continue.”

Six AFP officers left the house at 2.30pm carrying two large plastic bags of evidence and several hard cases, followed by two more officers 10 minutes later.

Lawyer Kamy Saeedi declined to comment when he left the raided house at 3pm.

The AFP’s raids on News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst, the political editor of the Sunday Telegraphand Sunday Herald Sun, were related to reports in those publications suggesting the Australia Signals Directorate wanted powers to spy on Australian citizens.

Refugee and author Behrouz Boochani has left Papua New Guinea, more than six years after being sent there as part of Australia’s offshore processing scheme, and says he has no plans to return.

Mr Boochani received a visitor’s visa to travel to Christchurch, New Zealand to speak at a literary event about his award-winning book, No Friend but the Mountains, and he is not ruling out claiming asylum in the country.

The former Manus Island detainee received temporary travel documents and permission from the PNG Immigration Department to travel to New Zealand for the event, which is run by Word Christchurch.

At Port Moresby’s international airport before boarding his plane, Mr Boochani said he was “happy he survived”. He told the ABC he was not planning to head back to PNG.

Mr Boochani was recently been accepted for resettlement in the United States and said he was investigating whether he could fly from New Zealand to the US, once the process was completed.

Many refugees have waited several months to travel to the US after being accepted.”This process is very slow and it’s not clear, we don’t know how long it will take,” Mr Boochani said.

“Right now in Port Moresby, there are many people who have been waiting to depart to the US.

“I really don’t trust in this process. I don’t trust in this system.”

He said he may apply for asylum in New Zealand.

“First, I would like to just spend some time as a free man, but after that I will look at that — is it possible that I go to the US from New Zealand? Or I should stay there?

“I don’t think about this a lot. What is important is that I leave, and it is the end of this chapter for me.

“The important thing for me is to start a new life, somewhere I feel safe.”

Another refugee from Manus Island, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, travelled to Switzerland to receive a human rights award. Mr Muhamat later applied for and was granted asylum in the country.

New Zealand has a long-standing offer to accept 150 refugees from Manus and Nauru, but it has not been accepted by the Australian Government, which has raised concerns it could create a “back door” to access Australia.

Mr Boochani said he was not concerned about the reaction from Australia if he claimed asylum in New Zealand.

“It’s better for them to [not get involved], to let me go. I think it’s better for them.”

He also said he felt he had a lot of support in New Zealand, especially from its universities. abcnews