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THE 2003 BUSHFIRES ON MT BUFFALO - JANUARY 17th
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The Mount Buffalo Fires with
Porepunkah in the foreground. The School is about 400 metres to the left of the visible house, towards the low hill. January 17th 2003 - Photo by Gary Kruger. Photographic prints of these images are available from Alpine Fast Photos - Bright - 57551953. |
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The Mt Buffalo Skyline with
the foothills blazing and the remainder of the plateau obscured by smoke
and flames. The fires were caused by lightning strikes a week previously and fanned by high winds and low humidity on Friday the 17th. |
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The view from the homes on the
Great Alpine road, Porepunkah as the fire swept into the Buckland Valley
along the Flanks of Mt Buffalo. Billowing cloud columns reached skyward as the fire intensified and thankfully raced away from the township in a south easterly direction. |
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Another view of the plateau on
fire with the Porepunkah Township obscured in the foreground. This photo shows the extent of the fires and the degree to which the whole plateau was engulfed. Compare this with the similar, but more normal view of the mountain on our home page. The orange balls are huge fire storms on the side of Buffalo. |
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The Kruger home on the Back
Porepunkah Road looking south towards Mt Buffalo and the Buckland Valley. From the first lightning strikes till the time the crisis passed was a period of almost four weeks. During this time the people of Porepunkah were on 'High Alert' for almost a fortnight. |
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