For those intending to stay in any of WA's National Parks (including those up north), it is recommended you phone or email them to see if they are open.
With the two large, and currently uncontrolled, fires in the lower WA area, many Park staff have been moved to these areas to help fight fires and also recover flora and fauna. As a result some (but not all) other Parks have been closed.
if your are planning to camp or have booked a site in or near the fire effected areas, it is suggested that you phone/email as well to make sure the camping area is still open or you can gain access by your planned route
At this stage, the fire service anticipate the fires will continue to burn for about another 4 weeks
Sadly, some of the pristine camping areas (including CP's) will be burnt out and it will be 3-4 years before they some decent green background to them
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
If we get a reasonable winter the wild flowers in the spring will be magnificent. I expect we will see a lot not seen since last fire, over 50 years ago.
The issue will be if there is infrastructure left, although a lot of the camp grounds are just out side the burnt area, but too close for comfort. I expect many camp grounds may be closed just because of the increased fire risk in the next couple of months. There is 280 klm of fire line (just with the Northcliffe fire) to make sure every thing is out for a couple of hundred yards in.
With all the fires in SW WA I reckon it is getting up to around 200,000 ha of national park and reserve been burnt, meaning will be great place to be this September / October. You will be amazed how quick the under growth comes back.
I have changed my plans and will be staying in WA instead of the East coast. This will be once in a life time opportunity that I am not going to miss.
Neil
-- Edited by woolman on Saturday 7th of February 2015 04:38:49 PM
apparently you can get as far south as around Pemberton - a major town in the area - so there are still a lot of great bush and scenic areas unaffected and smoke clouds are clearing quite quickly, Inland from Pemberton is apparently all good as well.
As a tourist, some areas wont be accessable, but it will be some of the major roads for those wanting to travel through that will be an issue for a little while until the fires are mopped up and the roads cleared and checked to make sure they can be driven on. Probably the best people to phone for road conditions and access is "Mainroads". They will show what roads are closed and hopefully for roughly how long. They have a very efficient netwoek for this and you can also phone them
Us WA folks want to sincerely thank the firies who came from VIC and NSW to help us out - thanks guys and girls !!!!
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
