A blaze burning in the Nightcap National Park in New South Wales is a stark reminder that, as temperatures continue to rise, grey nomads and other travellers need to be vigilant to the  bushfire risk.
According to National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the fire at the national park near Byron Bay may have been deliberately lit on Sunday.
The Minyon Falls area of the national park has been closed as firefighters tackle the blaze, which has been contained to a 150-hectare area.
In New South Wales, the bushfire season traditionally starts on October 1, but many councils brought that date forward to September 1 and even August 1 amid predictions of a ‘challenging’ year ahead.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has warned of above-average fire risks in the coming months.
“All the outlooks ahead for the next three months are for a continuance of above average temperatures and below average rainfall,” he told the ABC.
The warmer months ahead come with the strong possibility of El Nino being the featured weather pattern for the bushfire season.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, there is a possibility of a ‘green drought’ which means a limited amount of rainfall causes grass to grow, but there is no follow-up rain to cultivate it.
* Are you bushfire aware as you travel? Do you have a bushfire plan in place? Does the countryside look particularly dry this year?
Surprise, suprise !
With no, or insufficient, controlled burns in Nat Parks to reduce the fuel burden then what do we expect. Just the time for little and not so little fire bug idiots to get their jollies.
Please fellow nomads please be fire aware, don’t camp where you can get trapped, if you see smoke anywhere near, get out., and please look out for fellow nomads,I have seen some stupid places people ” must have a fire” so many city travellers have no idea what fire can do,
Travellers should always be alert for fires. The facts are in Australia where we have eucalypts &acacias the country should be burnt every few yrs.in the cooler months to reduce the fuel burden for summer,if we don’t there will always be dangerous fires.