Departures halted on popular walking trail and warnings issued for west coast towns as fires ignited by dry lightning remain out of control
Fire crews are responding on the ground and in the air to 17 incidents on Tasmania’s west coast, with the Overland Track still closed after a dry lightning strike ignited a fire on Monday.
Approximately 100 walkers scheduled to depart on Wednesday were stopped from embarking on the multi-day track in Tasmania’s world heritage wilderness area, authorities said, with the trail closed for three days.
The fire, which began 5km south-west of Pelion West, Canning Peak, had not been contained by Thursday afternoon.
It grew significantly overnight on Tuesday, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service’s north-west regional manager, Nic Deka, had said on Wednesday.
“Conditions are challenging and there is potential for the fire to impact the Overland Track within the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Weather conditions meant the fire had not progressed significantly overnight on Wednesday, Tasmania fire service deputy chief officer Matt Lowe said on Thursday.
Backburning was being carried out on the state’s west coast, with 15 aircraft for spotter flights, mapping and water bombing supporting containment efforts. Three additional aircraft were en route from interstate.
Residents should expect to see more smoke in the air as a result, Lowe said, with a smoke alert in place for the broader west coast affected areas.
A watch and act warning was in place for the Overland Track on Thursday afternoon, as well as six advice warnings to monitor conditions for Zeehan, Corrina, Savage River, Pieman Head and Rosebery. A prepare to leave alert had been issued for Sandy Cape. The fire on the outskirts of Zeehan was expected to be contained on Thursday.
The fires had so far burned through about 10,800 hectares.
“While there is no threat to communities at the moment, containing them is our priority,” Lowe said.
Anyone who had booked to walk the Overland Track during closure would be provided a full refund, Deka said.
A “very dry January” of only 20% to 40% of average rainfall created drier conditions for parts of Tasmania’s west, senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology, Matthew Thomas, said.
“We are not really going to see terribly much rainfall over the next week,” he said.
A cold front crossing Tasmania on Friday was only expected to bring 1mm to 5mm of rainfall to the area.
“That’s not terribly much rainfall,” Thomas said. “Once that moves largely through Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, we’re looking at fairly dry conditions across much of the areas of where the fires are.”
Temperatures were forecast to slowly increase at the beginning of next week, and reach 6-8C above average by next Wednesday.
