Tennant Creek graziers film ‘heartbreaking’ fire tornado as catastrophic fire season hits the Territory

‘What a f—king c—t’: Bush firefighters react as a fire tornado rips through outback property amid a catastrophic season for the Northern Territory.

A fire tornado has ripped through an outback property amid a catastrophic fire season for Central Australia.

Over the past two months more than 13 million hectares of the Northern Territory has gone up in smoke as fireys battle a ‘once in a decade’ fire season.

Fireys and landowners continue to battle up to 40 blazes across the Territory, with an ongoing campaign against a Barkly region fire reaching the two-month mark.

Silver Bridle Contracting shared a video of the cruel fire conditions facing Barkly region properties with a tornado picking up the flames of a grassfire creating a whirling spiral of hell on a Tennant Creek property.

Silver Bridle Contracting captured video of a fire tornado in Tennant Creek amid a catastrophic fire season in the NT.

Within seconds, the tornado allowed the fire to jump a dry cleared area into a thick patch of grass and bushland.

“In this situation there was absolutely nothing we could do but sit back and watch,” the contract mustering company wrote on Facebook.

“Absolutely heartbreaking to see our past three days of hard work go down the drain so quickly.”

One of the graziers could be heard over the radio exclaiming: “Holy sh-t” and “What a f—king c—t”.

Silver Bridle Contracting captured video of a fire tornado in Tennant Creek amid a catastrophic fire season in the NT.

Temperatures in Tennant Creek are expected to hit above 40C on Friday, with thunderstorms and wind speeds of 25km/h expected.

Bushfires NT confirmed on Thursday evening at least 40 wildfires were burning across the Territory as the Alice Springs Regional Bushfires Committee met to discuss the ‘once in a decade’ fire event predicted for the NT.

At the meeting, Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Brad Jackson shared the grim long-range forecast, with above average temperatures, lower rainfall and below average topsoil moisture levels likely to contribute to a higher bushfire risk this summer.

Mr Jackson said high fuel loads had increased the risk of wildfires travelling across vast distances, and could result in large landscape fires burning pastoral properties, conservation land, national parks and Aboriginal Land Trusts.

It came 24 hours after Bushfires NT confirmed millions of hectares had already burnt in the current fire season, in which a 80 per cent of the Territory is expected to burn.

“Much of that land has been valuable grazing land, as well as livestock, infrastructure such as fencing, sheds and houses — the livelihood of our pastoral neighbours, and countless native animals and birds,” a spokeswoman said.