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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Barrenjoey crag burns !! 1-Oct-2013 At 9:58:04 AM pedro.c

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We were camped at the Basin, on the weekend, looking over to Barrenjoey. The flames started on the western side of the lighthouse and spread pretty quickly in an eastern direction and down the hill. Wind was howling from the west.

The helicopters concentrated their water bombs on the lighthouse during the day. Later in the afternoon they started to try and put out the flames on the western perimeter of the the fires which spread down, in a line, to the water on the northern and southern side of the headland. The whole eastern side was cremated leaving the western side untouched. It looked like they had put it out at the end of the day.

That night, with no helicopters to control it, the fire kicked up again. You could see the lighthouse beam through the smoke. Without the helicopters water bombing the old timber cottages up the hill the firies must have run water up there in their four wheel drives to protect the place. By Sunday morning the flames had moved west of the lighthouse and adjacent buildings so the threat to them had passed. The wind swung around to the Nor east and pushed the flames over to the southwest crag.

We went over to have a look in the tinnie. This is our mode of transport to get to the crag. Normally I would tie up to a rock below the crag, the water is always deep here and the rock has a chicken neck to tie to. We then clamber over waist deep asparagas fern to get up to the track. I had the satisfaction of watching the weed burn in this location when we took a closer look.

Those little cottages down by the water survived along with all the plants around them. The RFS were there in numbers to protect them.

Apart from the building, their immediate surroundings and a few patches at the bottom fringe of the headland everything else was blackened.

We struck camp and are moving to the Bluies. Hopefully we'll find the crags there more approachable.