Uncontrolled Gell River bushfire burns 20,000ha of Wilderness World Heritage Area
The charred landscape by the shore of Lake Rhona paints a grim picture of the fire blazing in the Tasmanian wilderness.
Tasmania
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THE charred landscape by the shore of Lake Rhona paints a grim picture of the fire blazing in the Tasmanian wilderness – however special firefighting measures appear to have saved the iconic lake’s most sensitive surroundings.
“Specialist remote area firefighters are working considerably hard in difficult terrain to extinguish the fire,” said Tasmania Fire Service incident controller Rod Sherrin.
“The sprinkler line at Lake Rhona, has so far been successful in protecting the fire-sensitive vegetation in that area and on-ground firefighters have worked to also protect other areas of significant environmental value.”
The TFS says a “good rain event” is needed to extinguish the Gell River fire, which has so far burned through 20,000ha of steep and rugged terrain in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. The fire was ignited by a lightning storm on December 27.
While no communities are currently under threat from the fire, there are serious concerns about environmental impacts and damage to the Tasmanian Wilderness tourism brand.
Conservationist Geoff Law told the Mercury more than 100,000ha of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area could be destroyed before the blaze is brought under control.
More than 60 TFS, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service and Sustainable Timber Tasmania fire crews and incident management personnel are battling the fire.
A temporary bridge across the Florentine River is being used to enable heavy machinery to access the eastern side of the bushfire, which is threatening a Sustainable Timber Tasmania coupe worth about $600 million.
Mr Sherrin said the fire had already burned the edge of some permanent timber production zone land, with the damage to be assessed in the coming days.
Gell River fire operations officer Mark Klop said the bushfire would continue to burn “for some time” as crews were finding it extremely difficult to gain access.
“We don’t have the luxury of being able to drive to the fire so we’re heavily reliant on aircraft and inserting crews,” he said.
“We can try and contain the fire but it will take a good rain event to extinguish the fire.”
While the blaze has predominantly wiped out buttongrass and scrub, there are many fire-sensitive World Heritage values in the area, including the alpine plateau above Lake Rhona and areas of mixed forest and temperate rainforest. Flora at risk include pencil pines, King Billy pines, peat soils and cushion plants.
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Mr Law said bushfires in extreme weather conditions could cause “irreversible damage and complete devastation” to Tasmania’s unique wilderness.
“This ancient alpine vegetation, which goes back millions of years, occurs in an enchanted setting of glacial lakes and spectacular rocky skylines,” he said.
“This sort of terrain is unique to the Tasmanian wilderness and the high-altitude country will not grow back. Once it’s killed, that’s it.
“The burnt area alone is already bigger than several entire national parks in Tasmania, including Ben Lomond and Douglas-Apsley. By the time the fire is extinguished, it could grow to be well over 100,000ha. Unfortunately, this could just be the beginning.”
Mr Law said the fire was burning the state’s brand as a wilderness paradise.
“If that is left blackened, as well as being a horrible loss in its own right, it also trashes Tasmania’s international image,” he said.
The southernmost extent of the fire reaches the south of Gell’s lookout, in the Tiger Range. The eastern boundary has reached the top of the Gordon Range in places, where it has burnt up the drier ridge lines. There are also some hot spots over the Gordon Range, in the Florentine Valley.
The western boundary had burnt up the buttongrass slopes into the Denison Range around Lake Rhona and other alpine lakes before self-extinguishing on the ridge tops.
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