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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