World heritage Queensland rainforest burned for 10 days – and almost no one noticed

A year ago, a black scar appeared on the far north Queensland landscape. Satellite images and photographs show the aftermath of a bushfire that burned in world heritage tropical rainforest for 10 days.

‘When the rainforest was burning, the first thing
 we learned was that it can burn,’ says Leslie Shirreffs,
chair of the Wet Tropics Management Authority,
of the 10-day fire in far north Queensland.

Almost no one noticed when the Japoon national park caught fire – mature rainforest trees destroyed across about 250 hectares. A single story in a local newspaper, focusing on how the fire started, appears to be the only time it has been reported.

Experts and rainforest authorities say the remarkable extent of the damage, across an environment supposed to naturally suppress fires, is among the clearest evidence that climate change has shifted the paradigm in the tropics.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Smee - “World heritage Queensland rainforest burned for 10 days – and almost no one noticed.”