Behind the lens: SMH photographers capture raging NSW bushfires

More than 1.6 million hectares have already been razed as fires continue to burn around the state. Three Herald photographers offer their insights into the worst fires of living memory after being on the front line earlier this month.

Nick Moir

The difference between this event and all the other fire seasons I’ve covered since 2000 is the sheer scale of the fronts. Over 6000 kilometres of active fire fronts at the time of this writing. Trying to work out which fire will take advantage of the fuel and wind and which way it will move and how fast and then aligning it with regions that will then be threatened was a constant struggle and source of anxiety for this entire episode.

The Hillville fire that destroyed homes on November 12.Credit: Nick Moir

On November 12 and 13 the Hillville fire was peculiar for the rapid and erratic fire movement around the mountains south of Taree. Spotfires swept across my escape routes several times and had to be negotiated with careful speed. RFS scrambled to keep up.

In front of a farm in Hillville the crew from Kundle Moto barely had time to get their hoses off the truck before a blaze swept over the tanker, flames and choking smoke sending us all to the dirt road and giving those in the fire truck some very nervous moments and myself a singed beard despite face protection.

Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighters battle spot fires at Hillville on November 13.Credit: Nick Moir

They saved the farm but before the owner could really show his pleasure at the “stand and deliver” bravery of the crew they raced to Burrell Creek as the entire region went into emergency warning.

Dean Sewell

By the time I weighed into the current bushfire crisis, nearly half of the eastern seaboard of Australia was already ablaze. From as early on as September, large and deadly fires were already punishing Queensland's Granite belt, Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast hinterland and the Northern Rivers, Clarence Valley, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour regions of NSW.

I stepped into the Hillville fire that started southwest of Taree, on Friday, November 8. It had already been burning for a week, but it took a run that day as most fires up the coast did. In hindsight, the day probably would have been classified "catastrophic" as at the height, 17 fires in NSW burning under the emergency classification.

Burning properties at Rainbow Flat after the Hillville fire broke containment lines and crossed the Pacific Highway on November 8.Credit: Dean Sewell

Darawank and Rainbow Flat at the eastern flank of that fire wore the brunt that day as it breached the Pacific Highway - shifting winds and the topography conspired for some erratic fire behaviour and several houses and numerous other structures were subsequently lost.

The following Tuesday, November 12, a statewide catastrophic rating was declared. Some media were billing it as "catastrophic Tuesday". In Katoomba from where I hail, people were packing cars.

From Coffs Harbour down to Newcastle, we had nearly a dozen photographers that day representing various media outlets all talking together - some working behind the glass, others feeding in comms as they came to hand in real time.

There is no place for trivial rivalries when covering bushfires. The stakes are too high. Several photographers working the fire zone that day were rookies. We want to see photographers get into good positions to create powerful photography and most importantly, we want to see them come out alive.

A burnt-out car at a property at Colo Heights.Credit: Dean Sewell

Centre to this new development of communication and exemplar of its selflessness was Nick Moir, a highly experienced fire chaser and resident weather expert on the thread who was constantly posting wind charts, predictive fire maps and weather updates. Moir posted reminders not to park under burning trees. An ABC television crew working in Nana Glen, near Coffs narrowly avoided disaster when a tree fell on their car. Luckily, they were not in it at the time.

Scenes from the Gospers Mountain fire when it overran Colo Heights and was classified as an emergency.Credit: Dean Sewell

On Thursday, November 19, I attended the Gospers Mountain fire in Colo Heights. Hilly terrain and shifting winds created erratic and fast-running outbreaks along Wheelbarrow Road where multiple properties were being impacted.

Late in the afternoon, the fire would have its classification lifted to emergency level when it jumped Putty Road. Wolter Peeters, another experienced fire chaser for the Herald who was on a rostered day off, contacted me several times in the day with advice and updates. Later he would call asking me of the whereabouts of News Limited photographer Rohan Kelly after a hurried evacuation with an attending fire unit when fire overran the property.

This selfless act, putting partisan politics aside for safety and concern, was a further indicator of the ever-growing maturity and sophistication of Australia's bushfire photographic culture.

Wolter Peeters

Choosing which existing fires to cover was one of the difficulties we faced. The fluidity of the weather conditions meant that we needed to be committed from the word go, with the closure of the Pacific Highway near Rainbow Flat on November 10, Herald reporter Lucy Cormack and I were left with little choice but to navigate our way inland via Gloucester, Taree then on to our target area north of Coffs Harbour.

Destruction along Ellems Quarry Road in the Liberation Trail fire ground outside Nana Glen.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Keeping a close eye on the Liberation Trail fire, the situation soon escalated to emergency warning level and began to move rapidly under northwesterly winds which threatened the township of Nana Glen.

Several startled and singed kangaroos were flushed out of the bush as the fire quickly spotted ahead and snaked its way skywards up the trunks of the eucalypts. Winds began to swirl around us and with safety being our main priority, we pulled out quickly, which allowed us to file words and photographs.

We revisited the unrecognisable Ellems Quarry Road the following day, and learnt that although one home and several sheds were lost, many more were fearlessly defended by local RFS crews.

A thank you sign at Yarravel, west of Kempsey.Credit: Wolter Peeters