Hi Margaret,
Thank you for your photos and description. Paul’s cousin lives at South Nowra
and his description of the fire and the efforts to stop it is eye opening. Glad
you are safe.
Bye for now,
Lilian
On 14 Jan 2020, at 6:24 pm, janette hannan <jhbendigo@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks Lilian, Roslyn, Margaret and others for your news and stories. No
doubt it was a Christmas and New Year that Australians will not forget. Good
to see the photo of family and Canadian firey, Ailsa. We have so much to
thank the RFS, CFS and emergency workers for: saving lives, property,
wildlife and habitat .
This was our Christmas experience with a few photos:
Pre-Christmas was spent extending the firebreaks around our Gundaroo house in
39 deg heat and thick smoke from the Braidwood and Tallaganda forest fires
about 40 kms to our east.
Gary was to train it down from Sydney but trains & buses were cancelled due
to fires in the Southern Highlands. We had rented a house with our daughter’s
family at Long Beach Bay, Batemans Bay. By the time Gary got to Gundaroo -
both the Kings Highway and the Princess Highway between Nowra and Batemans
Bay were closed. Our son-in-law with his mum and our 2 grand daughters drove
to Batemans Bay from Sydney on the Sunday before Christmas.
I was worried about whether we should go down, but was thinking about the
effect on local communities if tourists stayed away. Once our family was
there, I wanted to be there in case something happened. So we drove down on
the Monday via Mossvale. South of Nowra flames blazed above the forest as a
chopper dumped water into the area. Kangaroos were waiting to cross at Forest
Road and there were were many kangaroos that had already escaped fire. We got
through and our daughter Lee flew to Moruya from Sydney on Christmas Eve! We
were happy and relieved be together and safe.
We had a lovely Christmas visiting Mogo to buy presents, Tomakin for kayaking
and lunch and Batemans Bay for dinner and the movies. It was very smoky – but
no worse than Sydney or Gundaroo in the last 2 months.
We checked out on the Saturday after Christmas – travelling back to Gundaroo
via Cobargo and Cooma. Traffic was light our way but a surprising number of
holiday makers were making their way into the area. Just like us 5 days
earlier Checking the ‘fires near me’ app for road closures, the fire at
Cobargo had just appeared.
Three 3 days later of course, the catastrophic fire conditions of New Year’s
Eve burned so many of these townships. While we felt lucky to have escaped we
felt bad and so sorry for the losses suffered by these communities and also
for the tourists stranded there – most with power, water, food and fuel
shortages.
I hope New Years Day 2020 is the worst we have to experience in S/E
Australia. Unprecedented, a word overused, is an apt description for both the
severe drought and disastrous fire season.
I hope you are all safe and look forward to our writing discussions in 2020!
Janette
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Family photo - Boxing day
Long Beach Bay - Christmas to New Year
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From: Ailsa Dee
Sent: Monday, 13 January 2020 5:38 PM
To: sagwdg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [sagwdg] SAGWDG, Morning
Hi Everyone,
Thank you, Lilian, I am pleased to say our Canadian firey got a four day pass
and was with us for Christmas. See photo attached of my ‘lot’ (seated L and
R, and standing in the middle) and our friends’ ‘lot’, with Fraser sitting in
the middle on Christmas Day. He fitted right in, working on an appropriately
serious demeanour for the occasion 😊. He was a great hit. But now he is in
the thick of the fires around Tumbarumba.
<7D815A93EA5849FCBA5D6E77CCA15FD3.png>
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.
Thank you for your mates rates offer Margaret. I am working on Peter!
Best wishes,
Ailsa
Sent from my iPad
