Bushfires
continue in NSWNEWSBITS: Pre-wet season storms across the Top End
More than 1,300 firefighters are working on 52 fires that that are affecting more than 57,857 hectares across NSW, though milder conditions along the coast today assisted operations. The fires of greatest concern were the Elliott Road fire in the Tuncurry area and the Touga fire in the Shoalhaven area.
In the
Great Lakes area of the mid north coast, the Elliott Road fire near
Cooloongalook has burnt 159ha since it started 3 days ago, and has threatened
property. A fire 4km north of Karuah has burnt through 2,300ha in the
past 4 days but is contained. In the Shoalhaven on the South Coast,
the Touga fire west of Nowra has burnt through 50,000ha of the Morton
National Park since it began on 8 November, and the Braidwood and Tolwong
roads remain closed as firefighters continue to put in backburns and control
lines in rugged country. Near Lake Macquarie, the Killingworth
fire has burned one house and three factories at Blackall Park, and a
shed at Fennel Bay. The fire has burned 4,000 hectares since it started
25 November and is now contained. Other fires (and areas burnt) continue
southwest of Laguna near Cessnock (265ha), in the Yengo National Park
in the upper Hawkesbury (84,850), Wellums Creek west of Gosford (3,000),
Mt Airly 40km north of Capertee (100), Budderoo National Park near Gerringong
(2,500) and three fires in the Eurobodalla Shire on the South Coast totalling
3,430ha.
NEWSBITS: There were some heavy
pre-wet season storms in the Darwin area yesterday and this morning, and
scattered storms produced heavy falls elsewhere in the NT and the Kimberley
area of WA. There were falls of 90 to 110mm around Darwin, coming
from storms yesterday afternoon and around dawn this morning. Wollogorang,
on the Gulf of Carpentaria in eastern NT, recorded a November record
57.4mm for the 24 hours to 9am. Warmun, 150km SSW of Kununurra,
recorded 61mm in a storm between 7.15 and 8.15 last night which the observer
described as "magnificent", while there was considerable thunderstorm
activity in the southern NT, where Owen Springs, 50km west of Alice Springs,
recorded 53.4.