Welcome aboard, denialists: now let's stop fiddling and start fixing

The first day of the year – a time when many look to the year ahead and resolve to make a change. This New Year’s Day, change was palpable. It filled the air.

The scene as David Watson and his son were evacuated from Mount
Kosciuszko, with smoke billowing east over the main range. 

I woke at first light, camped out with my son beside Lake Jindabyne, our sleeping bags dusted with ash. We’d made camp hurriedly the night before, after being evacuated from Kosciuszko National Park. Even before the helicopter landed, I knew we had to leave. We’d driven up to the high country for a few days fishing. Wading into the river, it was clear that things were different. The knee-high snow-melt we were expecting was ankle-deep and tepid. We’d seen smoke on the horizon as we drove through Tallangatta. An uncontained blaze near Walwa, the woman at the petrol station told us. “Should be fine as long as the wind doesn’t change”.

But, overnight, the wind did change, and now ash, leaves, detritus from a once majestic forest was raining down. I picked up an entire leaf, puckered as the moisture inside blistered the surface as it boiled off. It was from a manna gum, a stately tree that grows in deep gulleys with tree ferns and lyrebirds. That’s why these fires, still burning, are different.

Read the story from The Age by David Watson - “Welcome aboard, denialists: now let's stop fiddling and start fixing.”