‘Not a pretty picture’: 40+ bushfires torch the Territory as interstate help heads home

Bushfires NT have warned of ‘pretty significant’ risk to lives and property from bushfires raging near Tennant Creek and Ti Tree.

A Watch and Act warning was issued for Tennant Creek and part of the Stuart Hwy as a bushfire burns through the area. Picture: Bushfires NT

Bushfires NT has warned of “pretty significant” risk to lives and property as bushfires threaten Tennant Creek and Ti Tree.

A Watch and Act notice was issued for Tennant and nearby areas of the Stuart Highway on Friday morning, with sections of the road south of the township closed to all traffic.

Parts of the Stuart Hwy have been shut to all traffic. Picture: Bushfires NT

NT Fire and Rescue said the biggest area of concern was south of Tennant Creek, a “finger of fire” spreading from a blaze that started at Kuraya Outstation.

“Lots of fire behaviour, quite significant fire spread,” acting Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fisher said.

“We’ve got wind gusts up to 55km/h now expected for Tennant Creek (Friday), which is really going to drive those fires and they’ll be very, very fast moving, very dangerous conditions for firefighters to be working in.

Mr Fisher said “a large fire front” was impacting Phillip Creek Station as it continued to move northwest.

In Ti Tree, 200km north of Alice Springs, the local school was shut on Friday due to a fire moving “rapidly” towards the community from the southeast.

Additional firefighters were being deployed to Ti Tree from Alice Springs to help protect the town from the fire which began at Alcoota.

A large fire that began at Alcoota is threatening Ti Tree, with the local school shut on Friday as a precaution. Picture: Bushfires NT

Catastrophic fire conditions are forecast for the Barkly North, and extreme fire danger forecast for the Gregory South-East and Barkly South.

Bushfires NT chief fire control officer Tony Fuller said the widespread fires across the Territory were “not a very pretty picture”.

“We’ve got fires in every region of the Northern Territory … basically everything south of Katherine at the moment there is significant fires that we’re dealing with, so we’re monitoring in excess of 40 fires every day,” he said.

Asked about the fires’ risk to lives and homes, Mr Fuller said it was “pretty significant”.

“We wouldn’t be committing the assets we are if we didn’t think it was a threat.”

Bushfires NT have warned of a ‘pretty significant’ risk from the bushfires burning near Tennant Creek and Ti Tree. Picture: Bushfires NT

He said resources were being moved from the Top End to help with fires down south, but there would not be more help on the way from interstate.

“We’ve had the last of the (interstate) crews leave this week. The issue we’ve got is they’re all moving into their seasons … and they’ve been asked to go home to fight their own fires,” Mr Fuller.

“We really need people to be resilient and start looking after their own properties.”

Residents were urged to stay up to date with alerts at securent.nt.gov.au.