By Lachlan Abbott and Ashleigh McMillan
Halls Gap residents were urged to evacuate on Saturday as southerly winds pushed an out-of-control bushfire towards the popular Grampians tourist town.
An emergency alert, updated around 6pm, advised residents in Bellfield, Bellfield Settlement, Flat Rock Crossing, Fyans Creek, Grampians Junction and Halls Gap to leave immediately.
By mid-morning Sunday, warnings across the Grampians were downgraded to “watch and act”, but Halls Gap residents were told it was unsafe to return to the town.
In three town hall meetings across the region on Saturday, locals were warned that the 30,000-hectare fire – which almost tripled in size after an “extremely bad” Friday – will burn for weeks in rugged terrain and could threaten towns like Dunkeld and Pomonal.
Firefighting efforts would now focus on consolidating containment lines ahead of skyrocketing temperatures expected next week. The nearby regional city of Hamilton is bracing for a forecast high of 35 degrees on Christmas before the mercury soars to 40 degrees on Boxing Day.
In the Macedon Ranges, a separate emergency warning to evacuate immediately was issued for Bullengarook early on Saturday afternoon as an uncontrolled bushfire moved north from Coffeys Road.
The alert was downgraded to a “watch and act” warning shortly before 6pm but firefighters remain worried about spot fires taking hold deeper into the Wombat State Forest and nearby plantations, which could cause a prolonged blaze.
In Melbourne, a fire broke out at a factory in Coburg North about 5.30pm, sending a plume of black smoke across the city’s northern suburbs and causing dozens of firefighters to scramble to the scene.
Fire Rescue Victoria said “recycled cars” nearby were under threat and several aerial firefighting appliances were called in to tackle the blaze.
An advice message was issued for Coburg North, Fawkner and Hadfield.
The fire in Coburg North on Saturday afternoon.Credit: Alex Crowe
Back in Victoria’s west, residents of Pomonal and Lake Fyans were told to prepare to leave their homes on Saturday due to the bushfire, which has closed the Grampians National Park during the busy summer period.
SMS alerts were sent to residents in Halls Gap advising them to leave on Saturday morning, and police were doorknocking in the town to spread the message.
Emergency Management Victoria incident controller Mark Gunning led three community meetings in Ararat, Stawell and Pomonal on Saturday.
Speaking in Ararat, Gunning said Friday was “an extremely bad day” as warm weather and strong southern winds turned the Grampians blaze into a high-energy inferno.
“And high-energy fires, as firefighters, we can’t do anything about that; nature is so powerful, we really tinker at the edges,” he said.
Gunning said Friday’s huge smoke plume – which eventually drifted over Melbourne – meant it was sometimes too dangerous for firefighting aircraft to douse the fire from above. “And we rely on that so much,” he said.
In Pomonal on Saturday afternoon, Gunning described the smoke plume as acting “like a big vacuum cleaner”. “It gets driven by the upper winds, and it drags the fire along,” he said.
Glenn Rudolph from Forest Fire Management Victoria told the Ararat meeting that two tongues of the fire had started to wrap around Lake Bellfield, just south of Halls Gap.
“The dryness in the landscape is causing it to run faster than what we’d expect and the models suggest,” he said.
Rudolph said the northernmost spot fire was water-bombed “basically off the face of the earth” on Saturday morning.
The nearby localities of Jimmy Creek, Mirranatwa, Bornes Hill, Grampians, Victoria Valley, Barton, Jallukar and Londonderry remained under a “watch and act” warning on Saturday. An emergency alert for Mafeking and Watgania was downgraded, but still warned it was not safe to return.
While the fire danger rating in western Victoria was reduced to “high” on Sunday, temperatures are forecast to hit the mid-30s on Christmas Day. Halls Gap is expected to reach 36 degrees on Boxing Day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
State Response Controller Garry Cook said this forecast worried emergency services and meant preparing defences now was a priority.
“We are concerned about the weather over the Christmas period, which will likely see further spread of the Grampians fire,” he said in a statement.
“The fire is expected to burn for several weeks due to the dry and rugged bushland it’s in. The terrain is also inaccessible to many of our crews on the ground, so we’re doing our best to attack the fire from the air where safe to do so.”
A relief centre has been set up at the Alexandra Oval community centre in Ararat. Another opened on Saturday at Grampians Community Health in Stawell.
Gunning said the lack of rainfall across the Grampians over the past 24 months meant this fire – sparked by a lightning strike in inaccessible bushland near Yarram Gap Road on Tuesday – would have plenty of fuel.
“And when you’ve got a really big fire in the landscape, it likes to do its own thing, and bulge in places,” he said.
Gunning warned locals “spike weather days” could cause the fire to escape dense bushland and directly threaten towns surrounding the Grampians via fast-moving grass fires. Planned burns to create fire breaks had helped on Friday, but if a catastrophic fire danger rating day arose in the next month, Gunning said those defences could be overwhelmed.
He reminded locals of the Mount Lubra bushfire in 2006, which burnt through about 184,000 hectares, killing Malcolm Wilson, 36, and his 12-year-old son Zeke when their car was engulfed by flames at Moyston.
Fire Rescue Victoria incident controller Mark Gunning (left) and Lowan MP Emma Kealy discuss the Pomonal fire in February.
“I’m not comparing the two, but we did see a fire on a really bad day run about 22 kilometres in 16 minutes,” Gunning said. “So that gives you an idea, on those bad days, of what you’ve got to be prepared for.”
Planned burns were conducted on the fire’s southern flank on Saturday to help protect the township of Dunkeld, which Gunning previously said could be in the firing line if hot northerly winds return.
In February, fire raced down from the Grampians and consumed 44 homes in Pomonal, destroying one-third of buildings in the tiny town.
On Saturday, Rudolph said the remaining “fire scar” was now helping protect the town from another blaze. However, the forest fire manager, whose family hails from Pomonal, cautioned the town could still be threatened in the coming days and weeks.
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