Australia livestock, crops escape worst of fires
Date: 28-Dec-01
Country: AUSTRALIA
The worst-hit rural area has been in the Dubbo region, around 300 kilometres (185 miles) northwest of Sydney, where three bushfires were being brought under control yesterday.
Fires killed about 5,000 sheep and about 100 cattle in the past two days, but crops, mainly wheat, had been mostly harvested before the fires hit, the New South Wales (NSW) Farmers Association told Reuters yesterday.
About 25,000 hectares of national park and farming and grazing property had been burnt in the biggest of the three fires in the area. Two smaller fires burnt a further 3,500 hectares.
"Most of the fires are contained now," Grahame Blatch, area manager for NSW Farmers Association told Reuters by telephone from the Dubbo region on Thursday.
"There's still fire burning. There's stumps smouldering and trees burning. (But) it's contained," he said.
Backburning this week night had helped, he said.
Farmers and graziers were now trying to get stock off affected areas or to bring feed in to stock, he said.
The focus would then swing to re-fencing to enable management of properties and to get more feed to stock in affected areas.
Only about 100 hectares of winter cereal crops - wheat, barley, triticale and oats - was lost to the fires, he said.
"That was quite a blessing."
Bases were on alert for new outbreaks but most fire fighters had left to battle blazes elsewhere.
Most of the more than 100 fires ringing Sydney are in national parks and in areas on the coastal side of the Great Dividing Range, which separates the bulk of urban areas from farming and grazing lands to the west.
A spokeswoman for the NSW Agriculture Department told Reuters that some sheep and cattle had been destroyed by fire but that major stock and crop losses had not been sustained.
The department yesterday was focusing on ensuring the safety of Sydney pets in boarding kennels.
