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Fire in the Grampians National Park (GNP) 29-Jan-2006 At 1:38:31 PM armstp

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Ridiculously big. In 30+ years climbing in the Gramps I have never seen a fire vaguely this size. This time last year Jerry Maddox and I were climbing on Mt William watching the helicopters drop water on the fire below Redmans with little thought that we could be at any risk. Fires in the Grampians just don’t move that fast or that far. Last Sunday my wife and I were working on our house at Lake Lonsdale listening to the ABC emergency broadcast. Given the conditions we were worried about another fire from the North like the January fire. It would never have occurred to me that a fire way off around Dreamtime Wall area could in any way be a threat to us. After all it had been going for 3 days and had only just reached Teddy Bear Gap. Fires burn in that valley every 5 years or so, it was no big deal and I told Kathy as much when she ventured to express concern about it.

By 7.00pm we had got the hell out of there as the fire approached our very unprepared house and a great cloud of smoke and ash descended on us. Past experience is not always a reliable indicator of future events!