The Official report on the Wingecarribee Swamp Peat Fire

This is an update to yesterday's post about the fire in the Peat Bed of the Wingecarribee Swamp. My thanks to Tony Williams for forwarding this emailed letter from the Robertson Rural Fire Brigade.

Click on the copy of the letter, and an image box will open.
Then you can use the magnifying symbol (with your curser) to enlarge the image to full size, so you can read it easily.

I note that the original statement says: "Over the proceeding 12 hours a number of Rural Fire Service (RFS) resources were deployed, including helicopters and other RFS Brigades to deal with this fire."
I think "Over the subsequent 12 hours ...." might be more appropriate.

The RFS statement does not name the "other land management agencies", but when I was there, yesterday, the fire was being managed/supervised by the Sydney Catchment Authority (solely). But it was my impression that the fire is located on private land within the Wingecarribee Swamp, outside SCA land of the Wingecarribee Reservoir. So a cooperative arrangement between various Agencies is very important.

Time will tell how this fire is controlled, or whether or not it spreads. Lets hope not.

As several people commented yesterday, the Wingecarribee Swamp is home to several Endangered Species of plants, and certainly is host to migratory wading birds which are also protected under the EPBC Act. It is also listed specifically under the category of Peat Swamps on Sandstone (or "Upland Swamps"). And let us not forget the endangered Giant Dragonfly.