Watching the news tonight. A large fire in the Wurrunbungles/Coonabarabran area. 40,000 hectares burnt, 30 - 40 houses destroyed aready and the Newell is closed.
For any travellers in the area who are not watching the news but are on their laptops, please be careful. It is still out of control. I'm supposed to be heading up there in a few days. Might sit it out a bit longer at Greens before I start out.
Come via here (Gulgong) then up through Warialda, Marj. Bypasses the Pilliga area entirely plus minimises chances on the Newell highway lottery. If we're still here when you come through we can provide a comfy camp on the back lawn plus hot showers, etc. Unsure how long we'll be here (depends on when latest grandchild decides to make an appearance).
Darrell & Sandra
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my family is in coonabarabran /baradine area .... The fire are still out of control ..hope it carm soon very distressing to all who live there and a lot have lost every thing ..... baradine at present has no water ..no power no sewage ...
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Hope they'll all be under control by the time you leave Marj. Sounds like it'll be a pretty stark drive when you're on the way home, for a lot of the time.
Easy as, Marj. Leave the Newell at Parkes, head to Wellington, Gulgong, Coolah, Mullalley, Gunnedah, Manilla (via Keepit), Warialda, Yetman, Texas, Inglewood, Milmerrin, etc. All good road & not a great deal of traffic. Good camps at Forbes, here if desired, Texas, Milmerrin showground (low cost).
Darrell & Sandra
Or come to coonabarabran and go to gunnedah not narrabri then to manilla via keepit ..But check roads in that area too a lot of bush if any fire in that area could close the roads as well
-- Edited by lilly31 on Tuesday 15th of January 2013 11:56:27 AM
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The clearest path in life is always the one behind you....
Easy as, Marj. Leave the Newell at Parkes, head to Wellington, Gulgong, Coolah, Mullalley, Gunnedah, Manilla (via Keepit), Warialda, Yetman, Texas, Inglewood, Milmerrin, etc. All good road & not a great deal of traffic. Good camps at Forbes, here if desired, Texas, Milmerrin showground (low cost).
Darrell & Sandra
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Love the bush & our native environment. Conservationist, not a bloody Greenie.
ValnRob live in the area too. I have sent her a message but so far no reply. They were due home today from housesitting somewhere on the coast.
Oldboar, will check out the maps for that one tomorrow, have packed them back in the van.
The road is closed to baradine they have two fire on on newell highway one on baradine road ..Not sure when they will open it as both fire were still out of control this morning .. But we are haveing cooler weather today so hope it hepl the firefighter get them undercontrol
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The clearest path in life is always the one behind you....
Hi all, Today Is a much better day than yesterday in Baradine. Fires were about 15km from us. Thanks to the hard work of the firees, and the helicopters water bombing so crews could get some containment lines in. Also we got a wind change late in the afternoon. The fire at Redbank in the Pilliga scrub was on the Newell side of us about 30km away, that one also was contained.We were without electricity, but water and sewage were still working. Very large generators kept control of essentials. Electricity came back on about 9pm, thanks to the hard work from Essential Energy. We were on standby to evacuate which was a very scary experience. Thank God for the Rural fireys. Today there is not much smoke here but the fires near Coona are still going though I don't think they are threatning homes. I could be wrong, I haven't looked at the updates for a while. Thanks everyone for your concern, Marj, I sent you ap.m.
Valnrob hope you are safe and well prepared in case of fire change in direction there is nothing more frighting than being stuck in the path of a raging fire storm, if it is not absolutely essential to travel through the areas where fires are burning dont take the risk as they can change direction very quickly and smoke can cover a large area increasing the risk considerably I think Greens would be a very nice place to stay for another week or two
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Totally agree David I would not be on the road till the all clear is given .I was in the firefighting game for 40 years till I retired and would not think about hitting the road in these sort of conditions ,Smoke can be a major problem not only breathing but vision
I've checked out the map Oldboar. Will depend on how much longer I have to wait down here for the heat to subside. I see Forbes is going to be 40 everyday for a week.
our van has been hooked onto the land cruIser in case need to make a get away. We were told to take the Coonamble road If evacuated.At the moment Baradine Is safe.
