Four people have been charged by police with illegally lighting the campfire that started the bushfires which burnt out about 87,000 hectares of the World Heritage-listed Fraser Island (K’Gari).
The charges followed a joint investigation involving Queensland police and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS). The ABC reports that park rangers were alerted to an illegal campfire on October 14 within the Duling camp zone of Eastern Beach, north of Orange Creek. They found a campfire that was covered in sand but still hot.
Native vegetation nearby had caught alight and that started a wildfire to the north-west of the campsite. Over the following weeks, extensive firefighting efforts were required to help bring the bushfires under control and the community of Happy Valley only narrowly escaped destruction. The fires were finally brought under control when heavy rain fell on the island.
Detective Senior Sergeant David Harbison told the ABC that the men involved were very remorseful.
“They’re shocked and devastated themselves … these are young persons that were there enjoying themselves,” he said. “They were careless, but they never intended this to happen.”
Senior Sergeant Harbison said witnesses on the island helped police identify the men.
“The act was one of stupidity, lighting unauthorised fires on Fraser Island … and what would flow from there was catastrophic,” he said. “This fire had a devastating impact on Fraser Island and was quite simply avoidable.”
A 24-year-old Warwick man has been charged with the unlawful lighting of a fire and leaving a fire unattended. A 21-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, both from Rosenthal Heights, near Warwick, and a 23-year-old man from Massie, north of Warwick, have all been charged with one count each of unlawfully lighting a fire.
They will appear in Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on January 21.
Police said a 17-year-old boy was also allegedly involved and would be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.
These idiots knew that the moment they lit the fire they were breaking the law. They were aware that they were responsible and did not even have the common decency to come forward. There is no excuse and no amount of remorse can compensate for their stupidity and the damage and devastation they caused. They should be severely punished, substantial fines and jail time and not released until their fines are paid.
20,000 hrs community service re-planting then 5 years jail time.
But why did they let it burn for weeks, up until the township was threatened?
Also needs to be an investigation into actions of government officials who let this fire burn for weeks and took no action. This is just as serious as people lighting illegal fires.
It was covered in sand so there was no smoke till to late, rangers can’t be monitoring everywhere all day everyday did the fire start at night or during the day.
All that native scrub/bush and not a decent fire break in site. Regardless
off how the fire started there has been no effort made to control a wild
fire .Probably not allowed to bulldoze any breaks for fear of damaging the native vegetation.Hows that idea work.?Now there is no vegetation.
Not even a decent break around the town site. Crazy!
Do these people think they are the exception to the rule?
Govt’s focus was only on one thing The Election and playing the covid game,… certainly not the welfare of our nature’s wellbeing. A gov’t in touch would have been all over this inside a few hours knowing full well the whole island being in a tinderbox state ….AS they allowed it to become ..simply because was in the Too Hard basket. Butts on the line start right at the top as the poor buggers at the bottom always have their hands tied. Those on the ground did a tremendous job with what they have… Thank You one and all.
Band aids along the way will never stem the gush when it happens or in this case no band aids.
Frankly I’m surprised that we don’t have more bush fires ignited by campfires, There seems to be a culture here in Oz where every campsite MUST have a fire, irrespective of whether you need to cook or not.
These fires are often left burning whilst there may be a 20 ~ 30 knot wind blowing with sparks flying, and more often than not left unattended. I also find them a nuisance as the smoke inevitably ends up blowing onto my site and on hot nights you just can’t close the windows in the van to avoid it.
Fifty years ago whilst bushwalking as a youngster I didn’t have access to light weight gas cooking equipment so a campfire was essential then. These days it’s just not necessary.
It’s called freedom of choose.
1 totally agree with ZOL.