There’s never been a worse time for bush fires in Australia. Looking at a map of the country, it’s hard to distinguish what areas aren’t on fire. Living and working Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales I’ve been in the middle of a long battle between bush fires, which is worsening everyday.
For over a month there’s been smoke on and off in the area from surrounding bush fires—depending on wind conditions. At first, the biggest was the Green Wattle Creek fire, which is in the Blue Mountains National Park. The smoke was passive and mild, but still visible.
Before going more into the current conditions I want to explain why the bush fires are so aggressive right now.
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Bush fires in Australia
Most of Australia has been in a drought for years. Kangaroo Valley’s drought is going on its fourth year. A drought doesn’t mean it hasn’t rained at all. It means there hasn’t been a significant rainfall.
What I’ve noticed is when it does rain, either it doesn’t last long or hardly penetrates the soil. This is why the trees are so dry. The drought also means most regions haven’t been able to restore their water reservoirs to properly fight fires.
Normally the winter would be a time for rain. Instead the winters have been mild—even warm—with little to no rain.
This is how some bush fires have continued throughout the winter and have worsened in the summer.
Normally back burning, or controlled burns help prevent fires become the size they are now. Some say mismanaging these back burns has contributed to the current state of Australia’s bush fires.
In addition to dry conditions, Australia’s native eucalyptus trees are highly flammable—think eucalyptus and tea tree oils. These are all general statements though. Some areas in the country have been receiving rain after years of drought.
Conditions in Kangaroo Valley
When my partner and I arrived in Kangaroo Valley at the end of September, we drove through bright green rainforests. The valley’s fields were lush—it was a picturesque spot for animals to graze, where we would work.
The smoke started rolling in a few months after arriving. In the past few weeks it’s become more frequent, but it’s always on the move.
Some days begin with a smoky sky, but by the late afternoon it’s blue.
And since arriving those months ago, it seems it was the only time we saw the valley that lush and green.
It started to be a running joke that every time the weather predicted rain it was wrong. Or, if it did rain it was just a mist for a few minutes. Never enough to make a difference to flora and fields.
With little to no rain, a warm winter and dry conditions, a fire could spread quickly if it was here. The mountains surrounding the valley would be most at risk, as it’s where the bush is most dense.
What’s changed for frequency and intensity of smoke is the Currowan fire. It started south of Bateman’s Bay, NSW from lightening and has caused highways and National Parks to shutdown.
More recently, local emergency operations in the South Coast asked tourists to leave due to the nature of this and other bush fires.
This has further economical effects to businesses in the areas, including Kangaroo Valley, which count on the holidays as a time of customer proliferation. As the fire has been coming closer to the valley though, most people aren’t worried about missing out on business. They’re worried about safety.
Thoughts on the fire coming closer seem mixed. Some people felt very threatened and left, whereas others were hardly phased by it.
New Year’s Eve is when officials from the Rural Fire Services began warning the Currowan fire could escalade. This was from hot temperatures and winds heading in the direction of the valley. They warned the fire could jump the Shoalhaven river and come closer.
Although they didn’t predict it would come into the valley, they are urged people to leave, if they could.
I was a bit confused by it all. There wasn’t an evacuation notice, and most people I spoke with weren’t concerned. Either way, I wasn’t worried because I was going to Sydney for a few days to see the legendary New Year’s Eve fireworks show.
This doubled to avoid the valley during a chaotic time. We enjoyed the fireworks, came back and found everything to be the same as before—aside from photos of brutally dense smoke while we were away.
Post-New Year’s Eve Conditions
After New Year’s Eve, the RFS in the Kangaroo Valley hadn’t confirmed the fire had crossed the river. It had it one spot, but that under control. But during the week, the Currowan fire threatening the valley had continued to grow.
The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a state of emergency and issued another tourist leave zone. This time it was as north as Nowra, and as a consequence the roads were plugged.
Leave Zone – Shoalhaven
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 2, 2020
Widespread extreme Fire Danger forecast for Shoalhaven Sat 4 Jan 2020. If you’re holidaying in areas identified on the map, you need to leave before Saturday. Residents should be aware & prepare. For road closure info @LiveTrafficNSW #nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/rmDW7tZlnp
I felt as though I had dodged a bullet. The fire hadn’t escalated to how it was predicted so I went back to work and focused on other things.
Then fire fighters predicted another bad day was coming, this time on Saturday, January 4, 2020. It could get as hot as 50 degrees and the winds would blow north west—towards the valley. They believe the fire could spread to North Nowra.
Again the fire fighting services asked residents in Nowra and Kangaroo Valley to consider leaving. I did as before and asked those around me what they were doing. Also as before, residents had mixed reactions.
Both my boss and my partner’s boss said they would stay on the Saturday and added they weren’t worried but were only taking precautions. However, their entire families left without them, as in their children, wives and some parents. In the town of Kangaroo Valley it was similar, some people stayed while others drove away as fast as they could.
But because there was no formal evacuation notice and the fire was still on the other side of the Shoalhaven river, my partner and I decided to stay. We planned and decided to have most things in our van ready to go and if either one of us felt nervous, we would leave right away.
Saturday, January 4 2020: the day of disaster
Saturday was as eerie as expected. Dark, dense and dirty clouds hovered over the mountains to the south, but drifted east instead of north.
Living on the east side of the valley close to hills, I walked up to watch the show of clouds. It was relieving to see these clouds stay on the other end of the valley. I thought if the clouds stayed there, maybe so would the fires. Nearly the entire day there was some blue sky to the north.
I wasn’t working on Saturday, but I couldn’t sit still with the wind and smoke conditions. Temperatures reached over 45 degrees and I was sweating in places I didn’t know I could sweat.
All day I felt anxious. I kept looking at the smoke’s movement and conditions. Sometimes I thought I could see lower clouds or smoke coming closer, possibly meaning a fire was close. But, it was always moving.
I continued to check the RFS Fires Near Me page to see how it was spreading. Either the page wasn’t being updated or the fire still hadn’t crossed the river, which seemed odd considering the amount of smoke.
Then at 16:02 I received an emergency text message from NSW RFS Bushfire to seek shelter as the fire approaches.
My partner was still at work and from what I could see the conditions hadn’t changed. I tried not to panic.
Then at 16:35, my boss called me and said tomorrow morning instead of coming into work I would work with my partner at his job. This was we would be together in case the fire worsened. Up until this point my boss hadn’t admitted to feeling nervous about the fire. This made me feel more concerned.
My boss also said the RFS in town was beginning to force people from their homes on the west side of the valley, closest to the fire.
With my partner still at work, his boss came to catch up with me and ask about our fire plan. I reiterated it, worst case scenario: we would drive to his dairy, which is made of cement. It has water, a generator and many pumps and sprinklers for safety.
If we have more time we would head right out of the valley towards Berry—the next town over. The showgrounds in Berry were allowing people to stay during the fires.
By 17:30 my partner came back from work. We talked about the panic versus the reality of the fires and compared it with what real information we had. There was no evacuation notice, but some people were being evacuated.
Then, there was the emergency text message, but looking at the mountains we couldn’t visibility see any fires. But, the RFS said at the community meeting that fires could move within hours with the right conditions.
Ultimately we kept our decision the same, leave if we have to, but without any visible danger, we would stay. After all, the fire brigades hadn’t come to our end of the valley, so maybe it wasn’t that serious?
I went back up to the hill to take some photos of the smoke. It looked a bit different than before. Now, it was similar to the smoke of the twin towers falling during 9/11, but still at a good distance.
At around 18:00 I started to walk back down to our van, I could hear thunder. After sitting on my phone for a bit and checking up on the RFS Facebook page (still with no updates) I went to take a shower. Getting out of the shower I could tell it was a lot darker outside—earlier than it should with the sun setting. The wind sounded different too.
I walked out to the fence and watched as smoke was coming closer. Within seconds the trees were disappearing in the smoke. It felt like I was in a scene from The Day After Tomorrow with catastrophic weather conditions blowing right towards me. It was a mix of smoke and clouds, but also burnt leaves and sticks. I wasn’t sure if this was the fire or just smoke, or what it was, but it felt wrong and bad.
I started to panic and yelled for my partner. Still in my towel from the shower I ran to the caravan and banged on the window. I showed him the clouds and I started to shake.
Above there was a flock of ibises flying, nearly into each other. The cows in the paddock in front of us began to run in circles.
“This isn’t good, I don’t like this!” I said.
“Then we’ll go. Let’s go, now.” My partner said back, also panicked.
I threw clothes on and we ran back and forth from our van to the caravan, grabbing what was remaining. Going back to the bathroom, I looked at the tree above horrified remembering my partner’s boss saying the tree was highly flammable.
Everything happened within seconds, but it still felt too long.
As I was running around grabbing our things, I knew it could be the last time I saw everything in the same state.
There we were, my partner, myself, all of our belongings and a sewing machine in our van, leaving. (I’m borrowing a sewing machine from someone and didn’t want to be responsible for it burning.)
As we drove past one of my partners boss’s house he came out and we explained we would go to the dairy for safety. He calmly walked out of the house with reading glasses on and his phone in hand, he seemed surprised at our panic.
“There’s burning sticks blowing at us!” I said.
“Really? Burning sticks?” He asked, looking down at his phone.
“Okay, well not burning, but burnt, you know… black.”
“Well, if you two are leaving, do you mind taking the quad, so there aren’t too many vehicles here?”
So, my partner drove in the van towards the dairy, I followed in a summer dress on a quad.
I had to stop every few seconds rubbing my eyes from the ash. I could no longer see any sky. The grey smoke blanketed the entire property.
When I arrived at the dairy, my partner said he didn’t want to stay there with the shaky power lines in the wind. A fleet of three emergency vehicles passed by heading out of the valley.
“Get in, let’s follow them!” My partner said.
As we drove away I felt torn. I wanted to leave, I knew it wasn’t safe anymore. I couldn’t see what was coming towards us and I had no idea where the fire actually was. But, we knew people in Kangaroo Valley and the emergency text message I received also said Berry, so was it even safe there?
There were trees and branches of every size that had fallen on the road.
We eventually passed my partner’s other boss who was heading back towards the valley. After recounting to him what happened he still didn’t seem worried and said the fire would likely stay on the west side of the valley.
Instead of driving all the way to Berry, we stopped on the side of the road and decided to sleep there.
This was in my top 5 worst sleeps of all time. First, I was dripping in sweat—it was still over 30 degrees—then, we opened the back door for air, but I woke up every time a vehicle passed, wondering if it was safe to be there.
My partner and I woke up at 04:30 and headed back to the dairy for work.
Australian Bush Fires: current conditions
The Currowan fire increased to over 300,000 hectares in size, gaining 100,000 hectares from Sunday December 29, 2019 until Sunday January 5, 2020.
I went back to my work place on the afternoon of Sunday, January 5. Residents came back to the valley the same day as the weather cooled, there was even a little rain.
Although the community felt some relief, the fire brought its losses. Some people living on the west side of Kangaroo Valley lost homes and other property. Images surfaced of a previously flourishing rainforest, now a dusty area with burnt, naked trees.
Kangaroo Valley RFS crews fighting the fires dealt with their own panic. On Saturday, one crew was stuck for 12 hours from fallen power lines. Another crew hit a tree and had to seek shelter in a dam while their vehicle burnt.
Just a few days later though, the Currowan fire is reported to be under control.
Similar to the wrongly predicted rain on the weather forecast, no prediction can be certain of the fires. Kangaroo Valley never had a proper evacuation notice because officials weren’t certain it would spread as it did.
This is how the community will move on until there’s more concrete certainties about the bush fires close by. With high temperatures and fast winds, the fires could still spread further. Until then, the valley waits.
Update: State of bush fires in Kangaroo Valley
After a times of turmoil and high stress during the bush fires, times are back to usual in Kangaroo Valley.
Are you travelling Australia now? Check out my tips on safely travelling with bush fires to be prepared.
