Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] canberra fires

Erin Oneill Erin.Oneill@newcastle.edu.au
Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:06:24 +1100


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Hi all,

just an update on the fires.

Four dead, four critical,  200 injured, 400 house burnt down (whole streets gone).  It looks like the little house I lived in as a child on 43 Burrendong St Duffy is also gone - we used to play in the pine forests that surrounded the suburb.  The Mount Stromlo observatory (the oldest building in canberra and heritage listed, with the 1863 'Melbourne' telescope) is  gone, and 1/3 of australia's astronomy with it.  the ANU says it will rebuild it, but they won't have the budget and the govt. won't give them the money.  All the workshops which were being used to build the $5 million camera for the 8.1 m telescopes in Chile are also gone, as is the equipment made for the 8.1 m telescope in Hawaii.
The city went to black-out and the winds were so bad the firey's had to position their trucks into the wind to stop them blowing over.  One described it as a hurricane of fire - no spot fires, just this oncoming roar and wall of fire at 100km an hour.  Even the newcastle/maitland firey's said they had never seen anything like it.  Birds fell out of the sky as they could not fly fast enough to escape the leading edge.  The sewerage plant is out (and raw sewerage is overflowing into the Murrumbidgi), and the water catchment areas are very badly affected - water will be bad for some time, and water-borne disease is expected.

And this is what our government wants to visit upon ordinary Iraqui's.

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<DIV><FONT size=3>Hi all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>just an update on the fires.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Four dead, four critical,&nbsp; 200 injured, 400 house burnt 
down (whole streets gone).&nbsp; It looks like the little house I lived in as a 
child on 43 Burrendong St Duffy is also gone - we used to play in the pine 
forests that surrounded the suburb.&nbsp; The Mount Stromlo observatory (the 
oldest building in canberra and heritage listed, with the 1863 'Melbourne' 
telescope) is&nbsp; gone, and 1/3 of australia's astronomy with it.&nbsp; the 
ANU says it will rebuild it, but they won't have the budget and the govt. won't 
give them the money.&nbsp; All the workshops which were being used to build the 
$5 million camera for the 8.1 m telescopes in Chile are also gone, as is the 
equipment made for the 8.1 m telescope in Hawaii.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>The city went to black-out and the winds were so bad the 
firey's had to position their trucks into the wind to stop them blowing 
over.&nbsp; One described it as a hurricane of fire - no spot fires, just this 
oncoming roar and wall of fire&nbsp;at 100km an hour.&nbsp; Even the 
newcastle/maitland firey's said they had never seen anything like it.&nbsp; 
Birds fell out of the sky as they could not fly fast enough to escape the 
leading edge.&nbsp; The sewerage plant is out (and raw sewerage is overflowing 
into the Murrumbidgi), and the water catchment areas are very badly affected - 
water will be bad for some time, and water-borne disease is 
expected.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>And this is what our government wants to visit upon ordinary 
Iraqui's.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

--Boundary_(ID_3S2sfyjI27oDvuLlRo6nDg)--