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Little Duna is Burning!!

Posted by on May 17, 2014

The day started as any other up here.

Woke to the tranquil sounds of Little Duna. It is so peaceful up here and it is finally starting to feel like home. We arrived about 9:30pm Friday night, early really given how un -prepared we were, but having done it a few time recently it really didn’t take that long to pack after work before we were on our way.

The car felt a little heavier than usual, but this round I filled the bladder on the roof to almost bursting. Thank god I did, as I knew we would need the water!

When we left after the last trip on Anzac weekend, we said it would probably be months until we are back up here again, but given the weather was so good, and we had a pile of rubbish to burn, we decided to head back up.

Nothing much to say about Friday night, except that we arrived around 9:30pm, and with the full moon giving us almost a daylight like experience, it was a very easy setup. Wasn’t long before we were settled in with a nice fire going (getting good at this now) and was probably 1am by the time Fi and I realised and headed off to bed.

So, as I said, I woke to the tranquil sounds of Little Duna. Was about 8:30am by the time I dragged myself out of bed, and my first job for the morning was to fix the quad bike. Took me a while to get it going with a new shocker, but I must say riding it has never felt better. Makes such a difference having the right shock absorber. Loved heading off for my morning spin around the block, which I must say is amazingly green with very very full dams!

But anyway, as I said we were here to get rid of a pile of rubbish left by the previous owner. I had already given notice to the CFA, contacted the council and confirmed we didn’t need a permit as we are farming zoned, and sent the neighbour Jan an SMS to let her know we were planning on burning off.

So, 10am as I had told the CFA, I lit the bonfire…

I spent about 30 mins before hand clearing the leaves around the pile and removing excess fuel from the tree to the side of the fire before a little kerosene on one side and a match and we were under way.

Things started slow. There was no wind as I started, but as Murphy would have predicted, the wind started almost as soon as I lit it!

Here is a picture of the pile we had to burn once a match had been set…

 

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Wasn’t long before we could see flames, and Zac and I set our selves down to watch it burn…20140517-212734.jpg

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…and the wind started to pick up…20140517-212858.jpg

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…and before long, things started to really take off…20140517-212939.jpg

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…and about now I thought “oh crap, what have I done!”20140517-213013.jpg

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The wind came through and pushed the flames straight into the tree off to the side. I could feel my heart really starting to beat, and the fire slowly started creeping along the ground towards the tree. Being so hot, there was nothing I could do but watch.

Was when a gust sent the flames into the leaves of the tree about 3m high that I yelled “Fi… get out of bed!!!”

I turned to see Fi already outside the van watching me, as the tree burst into flames….

The next 10-15 mins were absolutely frantic as I yelled orders to Fi and Zac. To their credit, there was no push back, no answering back, they lept into action…

“Zac” jump on the quad bike and refill my water container form the dam”

“Fi, back my car over here…. I need that water” Thank God I had over filled the bladder!!

The flames fuelled by the wind continued to creep along the ground towards the tree and suddenly we had not only a fire 3m up the tree, but the base was on fire as well!!!

As I used the shovel and rake to try to extinguish the flames, Zac returned from the dam with  the water container barely full. I dumped the water on the fire and sent Fi off to fill it again as Zac grabbed the hoses from the van and we got the water on the car into action.

I managed to quickly get control of the situation again, but I must admit I was about two seconds away from calling the CFA for help!!!

The entire time the girls were crying wanting to be anywhere but there!! Fi has some more footage, so I’ll upload her pics and video at the end.

 

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Anyway, about 10 mins later, I had everything under control again, the tree was out and the worst of the burn over. From here on in it was just a watching and waiting game.20140517-213119.jpg

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Was only 1 hour later that the pile of rubbish looked like this…20140517-213210.jpg… but it wasn’t over yet. We spent a beautiful day sitting in the sun and watching the pile burn. I kept pushing it back onto itself to ensure it burned and reduced the footprint of the fire.

By about lunchtime I was comfortable that everything was under control, so Fi went off for a ride on the quad bike with jess following on hers…

 

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Wasn’t too long before they returned and said that Jess’s bike had stopped and couldn’t start, so I had to drive over and get t going agin for them. Seems I am the only one who can start it, so that is going to get tiresome real soon!

All the excitement for the day was just too much for Kushi, and he collapsed to sun bake in the sun.20140517-215706.jpg

So the day was spent watching the fire as it slowly diminished, and taking it in turns riding the quaddie.20140517-215718.jpg

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By late afternoon, the pile had reduced to a manageable size and I was comfortable to leave it to smoulder for the night. As I write this (about 10pm) I can see the glow of the remnants in the distance, but it should be fine until tomorrow.

Late in the arvo, I managed to get some footage of Fi on the Quaddie. Bet you never expected your daughter to be doing this Mike and Vicki!!!

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So anyway, was an exciting and scary day, but our rubbish pile is gone. Can’t say I will be in any rush to have another bonfire again up here! Think I will stick to our old fashioned and small camp fires!!!

As promised, here is the footage Fi managed to capture from the day. Listen to that crackling fire!!

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So that was our exciting day. Think the kids all learnt a valuable lesson of the dangers of a fire and how quickly things can get out of control. We were lucky as it could have been much worse. Anyway, all good and I’ll update you again tomorrow once we are home.

 

🙂

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