By Lachlan Abbott and Ashleigh McMillan
Smoke haze cleared over Melbourne after blanketing the city on Friday as bushfires continue to burn out of control in regional Victoria, triggering three emergency alerts that warned homes and lives were under threat.
The biggest fire remains in the Grampians, where more than 350 firefighters and 20 water-bombers are battling a 28,000-hectare blaze – which first threatened the hamlet of Mirranatwa on Wednesday.
It flared up again on Friday as temperatures reached the low 30s and a strong south-westerly wind change pushed it east toward Watgania and Mafeking, triggering an emergency warning to leave immediately.
By 11pm Friday, residents of Halls Gap, Bellfield, Lake Fyans and Pomonal were also being urged to leave immediately, with the fire moving in a northerly direction towards Lake Bellfield. Those warnings remained in place at 7.30am Saturday.
The popular Grampians tourist region has already been beset by bushfire this year. In February, fire consumed 44 homes in Pomonal, equating to about one-third of buildings in the tiny town being destroyed.
Jallukur, Moyston, Willaura North, Londonderry, Bornes Hill, Grampians, Jimmy Creek, Mirranatwa and Victoria Valley are also under a watch-and-act alert. The fire could burn for weeks in rough terrain.
The fire danger rating on Friday in the Wimmera and Mallee districts was extreme, triggering a total fire ban. A relief centre has been set up at the Alexandra Oval community centre in Ararat.
State Control Centre spokesman Luke Hegarty said winds shifted as a cool change moved across Victoria, causing the Grampians smoke to spread to central parts of the state.
“Right now, if you can see or smell smoke but can’t see fire, do not call triple zero,” he said on Friday afternoon. “Only call triple zero in a situation where you can see flames or believe that there is a fire nearby.”
Smoke had cleared across Melbourne by Saturday morning and the air quality was rated “good” by the Environmental Protection Authority.
A community information message was also issued in western Victoria for the air quality as smoke drifted east.
Smoke from a bushfire passes over the Junction Oval in Melbourne on Friday.Credit: AAPIMAGE
Just before 6pm on Friday, an emergency warning was issued for a blaze that took off at Coffeys Road near Bullengarook in the Macedon Ranges, north-west of Melbourne.
Parts of Gisborne, Lerderderg and Macedon were initially within the “leave immediately” alert zone, but were downgraded to a “stay informed” message before 7pm.
Bullengarook’s emergency alert was downgraded to a watch-and-act alert around 9pm after wind speeds dropped, slowing the fire’s spread. More than 100 firefighters were fighting the blaze on Friday night.
On the Bass Coast, another existing bushfire flared up on Friday afternoon near the town of Grantville on the road to Phillip Island.
The Gurdies, a hamlet with a population of 243, was under a “take shelter now” emergency warning on Friday afternoon as the fire near Woodland Close burned uncontrolled. That alert said the fire was “threatening homes and lives”.
Just before 9pm, the warning was downgraded to a watch-and-act alert.
“Firefighters have been able to slow the spread of fire for now, but the situation can change at any time,” the VicEmergency message said.
A relief centre was initially set up at the Grantville Transaction Centre, but was moved to Wonthaggi YMCA on Friday night.
On Thursday night, Emergency Management Victoria incident controller Mark Gunning told a community meeting in Dunkeld that 24 months of rainfall deficiency had made the Grampians particularly susceptible to bushfires this summer.
“Some of you live on the land; I don’t have to tell you how dry it is,” Gunning said.
With little rain on the horizon, Gunning said the Grampians bushfire could burn for weeks in dense, inaccessible bushland. It would occasionally jump out onto grass plains and threaten nearby farms and townships, he said.
“This fire has a real hold in the landscape … and it’s going to bulge out in a number of different places,” he said.
“If we get a northern [wind] influence, Dunkeld is obviously in the line of this fire.”
The incident controller warned the fire could “take off in a couple of directions at once” like the region’s devastating 2006 bushfires. Those fires burnt hundreds of thousands of acres, destroyed dozens of homes and killed Malcolm Wilson, 36, and his 12-year-old son Zeke when their car was engulfed by flames at Moyston.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has increased its temperature prediction for Christmas Day, saying a high-pressure system will move out into the Tasman Sea a little faster than first predicted.
The temperature in Melbourne is now forecast to reach 31 degrees on December 25. On Boxing Day, the predicted maximum is 39 degrees in the city. There will be a 40 per cent chance of rain.
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