Smoke from bushfires still burning in Central Australia are continuing to cause a hazard for grey nomads and others travelling the Stuart Highway.
Despite weekend storms in the region the fires that have been raging for the past couple of months remain an issue … and a concern.
Bushfires NT says there was not much rainfall north of Alice Springs and so fires on Neutral Junction, Anningie and Ammaroo stations are still burning. The organisation will now be sending up a surveillance plane to report on the fires.
“We’re aware that any satellite passes that give us information … sometimes have problems when there’s clouds around, and there’s certainly a few clouds around,” Bushfire NT’s Ian Fox told the ABC. “So we’ll need to get our own first hand intelligence and see what’s going on.”
Not surprisingly, the fires in the region are taking their toll on resources and the Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, is promising support.
“It has been a huge effort,” he said. “I take my hat off to those volunteers. To the Bush Fire Council people. To the South Australians who came up and helped, as well as many of the pastoralists, and to Parks and Wildlife and emergency service people.”
However, with the bushfire season still in its early days and experts warning of a long, and difficult few months ahead, action is called for.
The NT Goverment has just allocated an extra grass fire unit to the Alice Springs Volunteer Bushfire Brigade and it is to undertake a review into the arrangements for resourcing volunteer brigades. It’s all part of a wider look at the bushfire management program in the Territory.
“Bushfires NT and bushfire volunteers do a great job and we are keen to improve outcomes if possible,” Mr Hampton said. “This review will focus on the best way to deliver operational and equipment support to volunteer brigades, and will have input from our volunteer brigades and Bushfires Council.”
