ABC says Arson = 1%. NSW police say 42% of fires are man-made. 9% are “natural”. Rest unknown. (So far)

It’s an arson epidemic

Holy Smoke Batman! An astonishing 12,000 fires have started in New South Wales since August. The police have investigated 1700 so far. Of those, fully 42% are described as “deliberately lit” which includes both intentional and accidental and at the moment police refuse to put a number on how many are truly arson, as opposed to people deliberately lighting a campfire which ran amok. Only 156 fires of the total investigated, or 9%,  were caused naturally (presumably that means by lightning).

Another 745 fires of the 1700 are not yet determined. There seems plenty of scope to increase the number of man-made fires but I would assume the extent of lightning strikes are already known.

‘Like nothing we’ve ever seen before’: police step up bushfire investigations

Forty specialist police officers will investigate to zero in on and profile would-be arsonists. “Strike Force Tronto is about profiling. It’s about zeroing in on serial arsonist behaviours that occurs during the bushfire period,” he said.

“That sets the framework for the next fire season so that we do zero in on and target those individuals who we believe may be involved in arsonist behaviour. “This summer we have interacted with 15 individuals that will face court or legal action relative to behaviour around the bushfire period,” he said.

New figures provided by police on Friday showed that legal action has been taken against 55 people for fires that were allegedly deliberately lit since August 1.

Arson and man-made fires threaten the ABC’s reputation and agenda

Long before the police investigated, the ABC announced the “truth” already, using their taxpayer funded crystal balls. Arson obviously doesn’t fit the agenda of the climate change religion. Not only does it show how pointless solar panels and windmills are, but it also shows how the ABC have been misleading the nation to fill their own wallets, or spread their personal religion. The fire issue means millions of Australians may wake up to find out just how politicized their ABC “news” is.

Helpfully, the ABC gives us clues that it is outrageously fibbing. If they say something is “true”, we know it isn’t.

The truth about Australia’s fires — arsonists aren’t responsible for many this season

By Kevin Nguyen, Tim Brunero, Sarah Thomas, Daniel Keane and Nicole Mills, ABC FakeNews Division, January 11th

Only about 1 per cent of the land burnt in NSW this bushfire season can be officially attributed to arson, and it is even less in Victoria, the ABC can reveal.

Given that most fires couldn’t be attributed to anything at that stage, the ABC forgot to mention the “unknown” category, and sliced the data so they could list the smallest possible percentage. In this case, “1%” of the area burnt.

The disaster has sparked significant media speculation that many of the blazes were deliberately lit.

While it is true firebugs remain a legitimate and serious threat, we crunched the numbers provided by police and fire authorities around the country.

The results might surprise you.

Surprised? No. But the self-serving gall of ABC “public servants” never fails to amaze.

Apparently arsonists only light grass fires.

NSW has been the epicentre of Australia’s bushfire crisis, but the facts show arson has little to do with it.

This week, a NSW Police media release revealed 24 people had been charged over deliberately-lit bushfires this season.

However, the majority of suspected arson relates to small grass fires and rubbish bins set alight, which have inflicted negligible damage and burnt a tiny area compared with fires sparked by lightning.

As usual, the ABC finds people with some official title who agree with their message and interviews them. They either don’t ask all the other experts, or if they do, they “forget” to mention it.

If the ABC and other Reality TV Shows have increased the rate of arson with their breathless 24/7 apocalyptic coverage, they don’t mention that either.

Save the Koala’s. Sell the ABC.

h/t Dave B

9.7 out of 10 based on 94 ratings

180 comments to ABC says Arson = 1%. NSW police say 42% of fires are man-made. 9% are “natural”. Rest unknown. (So far)

  • #

    I understand that our area (not sure how large an area that encompasses) has a police register with approx 200 arsonists listed.

    But regardless of how the fires start, it’s not due to climate change but poor forest management.

    But who would expect anything less from Their ABC.

    411

    • #
      hatband

      So Arsonists are just a part of the Natural Landscape, like Koalas, and

      we’d have fires anyway because of poor forest management?

      220

      • #
        Environment Skeptic

        For goodness sake, at this point, we can surmise the more people there are on the planet, the more likely it will be that fires start somehow, either accidentally or intentionally.

        Nothing to do with temperature projections.

        81

        • #
          Environment Skeptic

          Including electrical fires and out of control household domestic fires…angle grinder fires and so on….hardly Koala’s

          32

        • #
          John F. Hultquist

          I’ve posted this before (it is a USA study) but this time I’ve bolded a part:
          In the USA, 84% of wildfires in the United States that required help by firefighters between 1992 and 2012 were a result of something humans have done. See this well documented report with maps, graphs, and tables:
          https://www.pnas.org/content/114/11/2946

          Title of the Research Article
          Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States, by Jennifer K. Balch and others

          One subheading:
          “Human-Related Ignitions More Than Tripled the Length of the Wildfire Season”

          PNAS = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

          150

      • #
        Environment Skeptic

        Better screening for children with a tendency to be fascinated with matches and fire, starting at preschool?

        Better fire education/awareness at schools?

        31

      • #
        Duster

        Fire is nearly always an important feature of a natural ecological system in temperate and savanna environments. They may also be important in tropical forests. It is worth researching fire ecology before drawing conclusions about the effects of climate on fire frequency scope. Scope is especially critical because scope is seriously affected by fuel availability. There many well researched works available on the use of fire in land management by indigenous peoples in various parts of the world. Australia happens to be one area that has been studied. Of course, since the advent of climate activism a good many fire ecologists seem to be scrambling to explain changes in the scale of fires in ecological domains where the sole functional difference is the extent of fire prevention and management activity. For instance large fires occur at a comparatively stable rate.

        North of the US border in the chaparral regions of southern California large scale fires are increasing in frequency. Even farther north in the state, a series of major fires triggered by failures in electrical transmission lines have been attributed to “climate change.” However, a study of land ownership and management shows that these large fires are confined primarily to privately owned, and county lands that are not managed to reduce the scale of fires. These area have also undergone major changes in land use as farming and in particular, grazing has been drastically scaled back as agricultural operations became too costly to maintain. This has resulted in the emergence of large, fenced, fallow land areas that are ungrazed and are not subject to any form of controlled burning or other fuel reduction strategies. This leads to accumulating dense understory and ground cover growth that are ideal “fire ladders” that permit low, relatively cool, surface fires to climb into the over-story canopy, developing into catastrophically large fires.

        More to the point though, regardless of the drivel coming out of state government sources, there is no discernible, statistically significant trend in California rain fall over the last century. The sign of any trend in the data can change from year to year. This indicates and reinforces that reality. There is no discernible change in California’s rainfall, so the big fires simply cannot be attributed to “climate change.”

        Looking quickly at historic Australian rainfall data (Lavery, Joung and Nicholls 1997, Aust. Met. Mag, 46(1997):27-38) indicates that at least through 1996, there was no significant trend in Australian rain fall totals. An additional twenty years of data are unlikely to see a significant trend appear. I suspect there plenty of pros like Joanne down there that can come up with a conclusive data set. The ready conclusion is that Australian regions undergoing similar land use changes need to monitored closely and ideally, large scale, fuel reduction programs put into practice. Climate change is irrelevant as yet.

        11

  • #
    Destroyer D69

    “The ABC can reveal”has become the lead teaser statement in a majority of ABC news stories.

    170

    • #
      Dennis

      “The ABC can reveal” ……..

      what the BoM has released for media purposes not based on real historic record data or reliable weather station reporting.

      Despite being appraised of the situation including evidence presented the Commonwealth of Australia Government accepts the science.

      90

  • #
    el gordo

    The RC should have a three pronged attack to discover the truth.

    Is this climate change unprecedented?

    Is green tape preventing cool burns?

    And of course arson. Needless to say, arsonist need to be hunted down when a serious bushfire season begins. Lots of advertising as a preventive measure, such as a young RFS recruit who wants to impress his girlfriend by putting out a fire, which he started.

    Greater drone surveillance, non invasive heat seekers, before the north westerlies are due, that is when they’ll be salivating.

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    • #
      hatband

      Salivating?

      Are you an Arson expert now?

      If you know who the Arsonists are, and why they lit the fires, why not share that knowledge

      with the readers here?

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      • #
        el gordo

        The authorities have an arson watch list, so they’ll keep in touch with them, but its the invisible future firebugs who need to be deterred with good advertising. Prevention is better than a cure.

        Shouldn’t be too hard to dissuade them, they are young males.

        60

        • #
          hatband

          Shouldn’t be too hard to dissuade them, they are young males.

          That’s the ABC Company Line, but if you’ve got any proof that that is the case in these

          Bushfires, now is the time to produce it.

          07

          • #
            el gordo

            On further reading it would be best to drop the advertising campaign and instead conduct a low key surveillance operation, focussing on the mentally ill males.

            01

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Why are you here Hatband ?
        Every time I read your remarks
        You are wasting our time & energy

        192

        • #
          sophocles

          Bill in Oz said @ 3.1.2:

          You are wasting our time & energy

          That’s exactly why he’s here.
          Have you only just recognised him, Bill?

          He’s another Space Cadet. His `humans are carnivores’ diet approach labelled him as an evolutionary ignoramus and therefore a prime Space Cadet.
          This time Troll Central have sent a qualified `GCI’ who is a bit brighter, but in the end just as stupid as the others, because Fitz was doing such an abominable job.

          `Humans are carnivores.’
          `Gorillas are insectivores.’

          Yeah.
          Right.

          (A GCI = Grand Certified/Certifiable Ignoramus, and GSC or Grandiose Space Cadet.)

          82

      • #
        Dennis

        Why does the truth worry you so much?

        12

        • #
          hatband

          Your Truth appears to be that Fuel Loads cause Bushfires and

          Arsonists aren’t a cause for concern.

          Judging by their complete silence, the Insurance Giants share your opinion on Arsonists

          in the forests, though not on the Fuel Loads issue, so you do have limited support

          09

    • #

      El Gordo, think hard before you wish for drone surveillance.

      Far better to do fuel reduction, reduce the opportunity for destruction, reduce the temptation by not getting wildfires on TV on a daily basis to “inspire” mischief or malice.

      We don’t leave TNT lying around the streets and “hope” people don’t set it off.

      260

      • #
        el gordo

        Yeah, drones may not be the answer, I’ll leave that to the RC.

        A 10,000 strong green army is probably the best prevention and I recommend Tony Abbot as the man in charge.

        31

        • #
          hatband

          It was under Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership that the decision to sign Australia up

          for U.N. Agenda 2030 was made and acted upon.

          Now, I know that the U.N. Conference was held on 27 September 2015, 12 days after his

          colleagues gave him the flick, but it’s a bit hard to give Malcolm Turnbull any

          credit for organising Australia’s participation in 12 days, particularly since he

          didn’t show any ability to organise anything else during his 3 years

          as Australia’s Third Worst Prime Minister since the end of Rudd Mk2.

          15

          • #
            el gordo

            Tony also caved in at the election, to save his seat, but to no avail. Career politicians are always disappointing, but now that he is a free man and has connections with the RFS and Green Army, surely he should be on the short list.

            11

            • #
              hatband

              The Green Army?

              Is that even a thing?

              01

              • #
                el gordo

                Not yet.

                00

              • #
                hatband

                Sounds more than a bit sinister.

                Readers may remember the National Safety Council and

                John Friedrich from the late 1980s.

                The NSC [they’re still around] were about advising citizens on dangers

                around the home, Friedrich took over, and, within a couple of years, had

                helicopters Tanks, and a stockpiule of Machine Guns and ammunition.

                11

              • #
                el gordo

                Relax comrade, the Green Army will be composed of eager guest workers and backpackers. It won’t be cheap, but during La Nina years we could slacken off a bit.

                Ultimately the concept of a regular bushfire season will become a thing of the past.

                01

      • #

        Exactly. There’s no need to increase surveillance or intrusion of any sort.

        The normal problem of fire on a vast continent full of gums has been made worse by forced neglect. Let’s just leave people and groups free to make their homes and land safer than they have been. No need for a burn-off police or vegetation police to replace green police (who’ll likely be the same people with different rights to interfere). And there’s no need to get the whole country burnt-off in a season after decades of build-up and neglect.

        Neighbours agreeing on a good night for a winter burn; forestry clearing old tracks; NPs letting cattle chew down some high country growth…These are things we can sort pretty easily and don’t involve a new government “force” with a new and expensively researched logo.

        Lose the government, lose the logos, lose the programs and quotas. Start with freedom at the bottom.

        91

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Let Bush folk sort the problem
          They live there.
          They know the problem
          They know the answers !

          41

        • #
          hatband

          Mosomoso said:

          Lose the government, lose the logos, lose the programs and quotas. Start with freedom at the bottom.

          Government is for the people at the bottom.

          Lose the Government, and you’ve got Anarchy, the Rule of the Strong.

          The Little Man has no stake in that.

          00

    • #
      greggg

      I’d be so tempted to get the shotgun out and knock nosey drones out of the sky. Another step toward the growing surveillance state.

      40

  • #
    Hal

    Arson includes performing a backburn without a licence.

    101

    • #
      hatband

      Sure.

      But how many such cases caused the recent Bushfires?

      My guess would be zero.

      011

      • #
        PeterS

        NSW police data shows that since November 8, 24 people have been arrested for deliberately starting bushfires. 24 is greater than 0.

        83

        • #
          hatband

          You are being deliberately obtuse.

          I’m saying that people charged for doing unauthorised Back Burning are unlikely to have caused any major Bushfires

          You appear to be saying that 24 people have been charged with unauthorised Back Burning.

          314

          • #
            Environment Skeptic

            You appear to be saying children with matches observe fire restrictions.

            52

            • #
              Environment Skeptic

              Thought i would emphasize you, unobtrusively.
              You appear to be saying children with matches observe fire restrictions.

              42

          • #
            PeterS

            You appear to be saying 24 = 0.

            03

            • #
              hatband

              No, i’m saying that people charged over unauthorised Back Burning are unlikely

              to have caused out of control fires, because

              1. they presumably have good intentions and

              2. know what they’re doing.

              Clear enough for you, or would you prefer to be obtuse on the issue?

              Do you know how many of the 24 charged were doing unauthorised Back Burning?

              Evidently not.

              13

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          A more important question : how many people have saved their homes & lives by doing a back burn which was not “authorised” ?

          22

      • #
        sophocles

        But how many such cases caused the recent Bushfires?

        My guess would be zero.

        Don’t guess, Do research.

        The Police don’t seem to agree with your guess. They are in the business of finding and acquiring hard evidence. Emulate them.
        If you don’t, you’re just another purveyor of propaganda.

        44

        • #
          hatband

          You’re being obtuse.

          Another commenter has explained that

          Police may charge Unauthorised Back Burners with Arson.

          1. That makes unauthorised Back Burning fairly unlikely,

          because serious legal consequences may result

          2. Any unauthorised Back Burners among the 24 would be unlikely to have caused an out

          of control Bushfire because

          3. They’ve got good intentions and

          4. They’know what they’re doing.

          Clear enough?

          04

      • #
        Slithers

        The Forrest Road fire was one such.

        02

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      I wonder if . a home owner
      Faced with a bushfire that started elsewhere
      And may burn his home and kill the occupants
      Is allowed to lit a backburn to save himself & his property ?
      In former times Bush folk knew & did this to save themselves.

      172

      • #
        Dennis

        But that was before greenism disease became an epidemic, an invasion of bureaucracy and government.

        121

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Curiously I bloke I used to know years ago
          Is a rabid greenist
          Who did not do a back burn behind his home
          On bushland owned by the Community farm
          Of which he is a member.
          And then 3 weeks ago his home
          Burned down completely.
          He had abandoned it
          And evacuated to 120 ks away
          3 days earlier
          But he had lived there since 1988
          And had never done a fuel reduction burn
          In the bush behind his place
          Since buying the house.
          Curiously it was a back burn lit by local CFA
          In the public forest nearby
          Which blew over the road & firebreak
          And set alight the unburned bush
          On the community’s land
          And so burned down his home.
          Such is fate !
          And now of course he is loudly on Facebook
          Blaming Climate Change.

          221

      • #
        Hal

        Hatband is correct, 0. A backburn, by definition is lit in the path of an existing bushfire, at the right time after the ground is prepared.
        Peter S Im wondering how many of those 24 were people trying to defend their properties by backburning.
        Bill in Oz. The father and son who died near Cobargo defending their property (one of which was an experienced firefighter who had left the CFS when it was taken over by the state) had used heavy equipment to prepare a firebreak on preparation for backburning. When the time was right, the fire was approaching and the air was slack they asked the CFS to initiate the burn. The CFS refused. If they had started the backburn themselves they would have made themselves open to a charge of arson.

        90

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Hal, that is very very sad
          It seems that confronted with the choice of doing an illegal back burn
          Or dying in the Cobargo bush fires
          They chose to obey the law.
          And died !
          I wonder if the CFS crew involved were locals
          Or people from far away under the command of city based officers.
          Once again though, this illustrates the need for
          Fuel Reduction burns much much earlier !

          62

          • #
            hatband

            Just my opinion, Bill in Oz:

            Using the horrifying deaths of 2 men to make a point on a blog is in pretty poor taste, i would have thought.

            05

            • #
              Bill In Oz

              Is it bush folks lives and homes and farms
              That the Greenists are playing around with
              With all the centralisation of decisions
              About fuel reduction burns in forest
              And national parks.
              Those two deaths are a direct consequence !
              I add that a dozer contractor died
              When his machine rolled at Gelantipy in East Gippsland
              Making fire break there
              And two men died on Kangaroo Island
              Because for decades there has been
              A minimal cool burn policy
              On KI so as not to spook the tourists !
              Well that really worked !
              Now there are no tourists at all
              And the Island is 2/3rds. burned out!

              32

      • #
        hatband

        I don’t know,

        but if you’re suggesting that all 24 Charges of Arson relate to Back Burners trying

        to save their homes, i’d like to see some proof.

        03

  • #
    yarpos

    School holidays end soon. Assorted juveniles will be back in the city where they belong. Things may calm down a little.

    103

    • #
      a happy little debunker

      Assorted juveniles will be back in the city where they belong.

      Where they will participate in climate extinction events & bemoan the lack of their own inaction on climate change, by way of taking days/weeks of school in protest – rather than getting an education – that may just give them a clue

      111

    • #
      hatband

      The Bushfires were lit well before School Holidays.

      314

  • #
    TdeF

    It’s obvious. Bushfires are lit by climate change..

    82

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    Their ABC agenda is also laid bare when they ‘fact check’ the amount of prescribed burns – but fail to mention the substantive increase in National Forests.

    100

    • #
      John

      ABC “fact checks”, lol.

      That’s where they compare deviant remarks against The Party’s Doctrine, and find them lacking.

      90

    • #
      Dennis

      And UN Agenda 30 – Sustainability.

      And how did that work out in National Parks and other areas neglected?

      60

    • #
      Deano

      John Barron – the ABC’s ‘Fact Check’ guru presented a program a few weeks ago about the Y2K Bug. As the show progressed I could smell what it was leading up to: That just because the Y2K Bug didn’t end the world we shouldn’t assume that climate change will be the same false alarm. The big difference was of course, that the Y2K Bug was real, very identifiable and really only affected anything that needed to keep track of dates before and after 2000. The earth’s climate is a bit more complicated than 11101001.

      133

  • #
    PeterS

    There is little distinction between an organised arsonist and a terrorist. Yet they are treated so differently, like comparing a thief with a murderer.

    100

    • #
      hatband

      That’s right.

      And if the Arsonists weren’t organised, then why are their identities Secret Squirrel?

      Obfuscation appears to be the ABCs game.

      So, what, or who, are they covering up for?

      Why have they shown absolutely no interest in investigatively reporting the Arsons?

      The biggest story in Australia for many years, yet the entire Australian Media are

      supremely uninterested.

      Steady on Hatband. See my reply below. – Jo

      110

      • #
        el gordo

        The chattering class: ABC, SBS, Fairfax and Guardian seem reluctant to mention the arsonists because they want to blame this ‘unprecedented’ bushfire season on global warming.

        150

        • #

          No conspiracy needed.

          There’s no evidence they were or are organised.

          If they are minor’s their names would be suppressed.

          The media (as I explained, especially the ABC) have a stake in minimizing arson because they maximized “climate fear” and were wrong, but don’t want to advertise that.

          230

          • #
            hatband

            Yeah, if they were all minors.

            Confirmation that all the Arsonists were Minors is needed, that hasn’t been

            forthcoming, but if it was true, then wouldn’t the ABC and BigMedia be trumpeting

            it as a fact?

            03

          • #
            Graeme Bird

            None needed in a bipolar Popperian sense. None needed doesn’t tell you what actually happened. And you don’t find out what really happened unless you have several hypotheses on the fly at all times, and investigate each in parallel.

            10

      • #
        AndyG55

        When you look at the area burnt, the weather conditions and wind forecasts

        and where the fires actually started …

        …. could there have been much better place to start those fires !!

        100

        • #
          AndyG55

          Once those fires started on the western side of National Parks and State Forests…

          with the weather conditions of hot blustery westerly winds, and large fuel load build-up and very limited access…

          …. they were always going to be basically impossible to control.

          130

      • #
        AndyG55

        What would be really interesting is to find out is how the really big fires got started.

        They seem to have mostly started in remote areas.

        I suspect the arsonists they have caught would mainly be the cause of smaller localised fires.

        90

        • #
          el gordo

          The Gospers fire was a dry lightning strike and it burnt slowly, so they let it go. They should have fire bombed it right then and there, but that didn’t happen and the RC won’t be amused.

          00

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Who’s to say some aren’t terrorists?

      The absolute number one culprits for any terrorist activity in this country (and the world) amass in capitol cities, their hatred for in$idels isn’t exclusive to where they live.

      51

      • #
        hatband

        Could be.

        Just keep in mind that all Terrorism is Government sponsored.

        There aren’t any ”lone wolves”.

        07

  • #
    joseph

    I found this to be thought provoking. ‘Australia on Fire-The Beginning of Agenda 2030’.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cca6zQNwhoA&feature=emb_logo

    62

    • #
      Dennis

      I believe that if the silent majority of Australians were informed about all of the areas UN Agenda 30 – Sustainability is impacting on our lives and economic prosperity they would be very angry.

      The politicians have a lot of explaining to do, they are elected to represent we the people but clearly a majority of them have acted against our best interests and have permitted foreigners to influence what takes place in our once sovereign nation.

      150

      • #
        hatband

        Agenda 2030 means nothing to most people since it’s still only 2020.

        If it became known that the fires were lit in support of Agenda 2030, the Man in the Street

        might become very interested indeed.

        If that was the case, then it would make sense for the Media to continually spin, deflect

        and obfuscate the real reason the fires happened, as well as Gaslighting any questioning

        of the ”Firebugs, they’re all kids and old weirdos, so forget about them” Narrative.

        04

    • #
      hatband

      This guy sounds like limited hangout to me.

      Nowhere in his 22 minute monotone does he canvas the possibility that

      the fires were deliberately lit,

      even though he claims all the poor bushfire planning decisions were deliberate

      So, he’s just another climate change peddler.

      03

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Correct…although I am starting to now rather incomfortably wonder if as part of the eco-zealots insane agenda might be person or persons unknown being told to light fires to further the illusion of “climate change”….if enough of the state is on fire its a fairly in your face emotional trauna “overload” to provide “proof” of “climate change”…..

    From a tactical point of view, it makes perfect sense, especially if you have zero morals and an aim you want to achieve …..

    It would be interesting to know the background of those recently arrested for arson.

    I do hope Im wrong though…

    181

    • #
      Dennis

      We have viewed the images of the climate zealots attacking farms and blocking city thoroughfares to protest about their climate emergency hoax, and to protest about everything including free market capitalism.

      Arson would seem to be a logical extension of their activities?

      112

      • #
        hatband

        Where that scenario falls over is that these people have no experience lighting fires,

        their chances of incinerating themselves in dry bushland are pretty high.

        So, for your scenario to be correct, the Arsonists would have to be professionals,

        which means Military.

        09

        • #
          TedM

          Not really true Hatband. Fires develop, they don’t just reach their maximum intensity and rate of spread the moment ignition occurs. Only a really dumb arsonist would light a fire between themselves and their route of escape. That’s why early detection is so important, and so effective. Of course if fuel levels are high enough, and prevailing conditions severe or extreme, the required response time is less than what is possible in the real world.

          I think it’s a good thing that most arsonists don’t know much about fire dynamics or they would be more effective in the art of destruction.

          41

          • #
            hatband

            How can you possibly state that

            I think it’s a good thing that most arsonists don’t know much about fire dynamics or they would be more effective in the art of destruction.

            ±

            since

            1. many convicted of Arson in the forests have been Fire Volunteers, and

            2.We don’t know the identities of the Arsonists because

            no details have been released?

            13

        • #
          sophocles

          Hatband: you go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

          Now you’re claiming some expertise at fire-setting.

          How many did you light?

          02

        • #
          shannon

          Crap…..How do you explain a person throwing petrol in bottles into bush near Maitland then ?? He knew exactly what he was doing and so did the police that arrested him !

          20

    • #
      shannon

      “It would be interesting to know the background of those recently arrested for arson.”….

      It certainly would…..!!

      30

  • #
    Beertruk

    It would be nice to be able to comment on Their ABC news articles.

    100

    • #

      At least twice the ABC has allowed comments. trialled it, but given up. Even though they censored skeptics, they still couldn’t cope with people putting the truth right there under their own propaganda pieces.

      230

      • #
        PeterS

        In that case it’s time Morrison pulled his finger out and defunded the ABC rather than continuing to support a propaganda machine using taxpayers money.

        91

        • #
          hatband

          Rather than do throw the baby out with the bathwater,

          why not just tell them to allow comments?

          He’s the Prime Minister, and the Communications Minister is a Liberal,

          they’re in Government, so what are they waiting for?

          26

          • #
            mobihci

            you cant tell the difference between the government forcing them to do something and defunding them?

            we dont need the ABC for truth, in fact the fake news out of the ABC is far more sinister as they usually pretend to speak from authority. they should at least attempt to be politically bipartisan.

            43

            • #
              hatband

              Are you suggesting that it’s better to defund the ABC, throwing thousands out

              of work, and losing the product of generations of Technical Knowledge,

              rather than the Minister just directing the Commissioners to allow comments?

              It’s not a Separation of Powers Issue, the Government can give Directions

              to the ABC without the Rule of Law crashing & Burning.

              15

              • #
                el gordo

                The ABC is the propaganda wing of the Klimatariat and needs to be dismantled because its doing untold psychological harm to our women and children.

                Do you still believe carbon dioxide causes global warming?

                I still have faith in Ita and Speers to purge the newsroom of Trots, also the RC should force their hand and we’ll frog march them out the door.

                42

              • #
                mobihci

                Yes. the government should have no input at all. the days of requiring a public broadcaster are over. with the amount of fake news coming out of the ABC, it is clear that the ABC is not what you would expect a publicly funded organisation to be.

                42

              • #
                Kalm Keith

                Who exactly?

                Will be out of work.

                If the United Bloody Nations wants an advertising arm here in Australia let them pay for it themselves.

                KK

                32

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        InDaily had the same problem here in Adelaide
        We the readers would spit out the truth
        Right under their dopey’s journo’s story.
        So InDaily abolished comments
        And the dopey bastards ask us for money
        For them to censor us !

        70

  • #
    Dennis

    Please consider.

    The evidence was there for all to see, a massive build of tangled undergrowth and fire hazard material on the ground, a severe drought of years past drying the landscape and annual bushfire seasons leading up to 2019-2020.

    State governments responsible for State National Parks and through councils the issue of licences for land clearing and burning off fully aware of the bushfire emergency developing, and in the NSW example RFS Budget increased and various assets purchased and/or contracted including increasing the Fire Aviation fleet numbers of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft for fire bombing.

    Enter the Climate Council and their five members who are former fire commissioners claiming to have sought a meeting with the Prime Minister in April 2019 to warn about the possibility of a bushfire emergency in 2019-2020 bushfire season. And through the Climate Council pushing a climate emergency well before bushfire season. The PM and the Federal Government are not responsible for fire fighting, that is within State Emergency Services, Rural Bushfire Service, State Government responsibility.

    A false creatively accounted allegation made to the media that RFS Budget had been cut, which was untrue when the accounting is examined, there was a significant increase for 2019/20 financial year.

    Together with an increase in contracted aircraft the NSW Government purchased a Boeing 737 water bomber to be located at the Richmond RAAF Base permanently.

    Climate Council climate change emergency, man made global warming caused by Carbon Dioxide hoax stunt?

    And then an unusual significant increase in arson?

    Coincidental?

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    • #

      Delusion makes anything possible in the means-to-an-ends crowd, but for the moment, with no evidence, please keep speculation circumspect.

      It is also entirely believable that the long drought and fuel build up made huge fires inevitable, and once they started, the media feeding frenzy that used the event to promote climate change, and therefore made the fires look supernatural brought out the temptation in those inclined to do arson, and every night on TV they got another reminder.

      The rise in arson may be an unwitting side effect…

      150

      • #
        hatband

        That’s a reasonable point of view, the question I ask is whether the criminal profile

        of ”Firebugs” includes them going out into forests that are already well alight,

        and setting more fires?

        I recall that firefighters reported seeing Arsonists lighting fires while they were

        trying to contain fires.

        My picture of a ”Firebug” is a furtive bloke acting in secret, not someone brazenly

        lighting fires in full view of others without regard to consequences, which is what is

        claimed to have happened here.

        04

        • #
          el gordo

          The wildfires in America gives us a clue that arsonists are mental defects.

          ‘Research shows that fire-setters are significantly more likely to have been registered with psychiatric services compared with other criminal offenders, and four times more likely compared with community controls. Between 10 percent to 50 percent of patients who are admitted to medium-security forensic mental health services have a record of deliberate fire-setting. Fire-setting in adolescence and early adulthood predicts schizophrenia in later life.’

          Psychology Today

          04

          • #
            hatband

            We’re not interested in studies of large Criminal Populations in America going back

            decades, because the Bushfires are happening in Australia now, what happened

            somewhere else in the past isn’t immediately relevant here.

            27

            • #
              el gordo

              The recent wildfires in the US is not history, its current ongoing research.

              Your obsession with this issue is problematic.

              12

              • #
                hatband

                Problematic, eh?

                Isn’t that Wokester talk?

                01

              • #
                el gordo

                I like your abrasive style, keep up the effort, half of the fires are started by children.

                ‘A 2015 study of more than 110,000 fires found that 40 percent were deliberately lit, another 47 percent accidental, with the remaining 13 percent not known. Half of those who light fires are children and the most dangerous cohort are aged between 30 and 60 (mostly men).’

                12

  • #
    Deano

    My totally unscientifically based, no data, pure personal opinion feeling is – I’m sure there has been a rise in general arson attacks around the burbs in recent years. Cars being torched and buildings going up in flames where “Police suspect arson” seem to be on the increase. So I wonder if one could extrapolate that deliberately lit bush fires would also be increasing?

    81

    • #
      Dennis

      Mob rule, like Antifa thugs attacking journalist Andrew Bolt on a Melbourne CBD street.

      62

      • #
        hatband

        You’re getting carried away there.

        Those blokes that ‘attacked” Andrew Bolt were a couple of pencil neck Geeks who couldn’t

        even throw an effective punch.

        No charges were ever laid, which indicates lack of Police interest, but it was great

        publicity for Andrew Bolt.

        The Fraser Anning ”egging” was in that category too, in my opinion.

        09

    • #
      hatband

      No, because in the first case, you’re talking about vandalism.

      We don’t know what the motive is for the Bushfires but vandalism on a massive scale

      doesn’t sound real likely to me, anyway.

      03

      • #
        Deano

        I see your point. I tend to favour the idea that activists probably started some of the fires at least to ‘prove’ their point. It’s the only one of their predictions that can be made to happen when all the others fail to materialize.

        30

  • #
    TdeF

    While CO2 is blamed for drought and CO2 does not start fires, photosynthesis means that the amount of bush is steadily increasing. This is confirmed by the CSIRO but there is no provision for bush which is growing more and faster each year. Science is used to create a scare but not used to predict bush growth and steadily increasing danger.

    It’s the same with 400,000 windmills and hundreds of millions of solar panels. The media and Greta tell us we should cripple ourselves more, but no one points out that nothing done in the last 30 years has had any effect on CO2 levels.

    If scientists and observers were really concerned about CO2 levels, someone might check the obvious total failure to affect CO2 growth in the slightest. Nothing we are doing is working, certainly nothing we are doing in Australia.

    Or conversely that we have no control on CO2 levels at all because it’s not true because CO2 levels are a result of warming seas. James Hanson who started this scare was an atmospheric scientist who had studied the atmosphere of Venus, a planet where surface water cannot exist. So he concluded the Earth was identical, despite the fact that it is a water planet. Scientists can be wrong, like everyone else but his theory made him world famous through the IPCC formed in the same year. It is complete nonsense.

    And now it causes bushfires in Australia. It’s a form of madness, driven by $1.5Trillion a year and a 17 year old school dropout is lecturing the world on science and ethics.

    100

  • #
    TdeF

    And in carbon mad communist Victoria, we are paying 9x the price for electricity of a decade ago, despite the fact that 86% of power comes from coal and from the same power stations at the same cost.

    So where is the extra 8x going? To prevent CO2 increase with free windmills? What’s our return on that? How effective is it? Or is it a monstrous deceit, theft and total irresponsibility? Why aren’t the energy suppliers being prosecuted? Where is the ACCC? Where is the Royal Commission into electricity prices because it is beyond explanation and crippling.

    And why are we heavily subsidizing Alcoa, Whyalla, Port Pirie to pretend to make metal profitably, to pretend that having the world’s most expensive electricity is not making all manufacturing impossible and crippling the country? And now they want us to stop mining completely, like gas exploration. Our politicians are taxing us out of existence and giving the money to their friends and the media say nothing.

    150

  • #
    TdeF

    Why isn’t anyone pushing Climate Change prevention doing a cost benefit analysis on the massive world effort in reducing CO2 levels? Where has there been a success? Germany? Australia? America?

    So how is the world’s most ambitious and expensive program going? How much more do we have to suffer?

    And as it is far more important than stopping arson or bushfires, why aren’t we measuring it? When will it go back under 400ppm? Or are we the victims of the most outrageous fr*ud in human history because no one measures the benefit?

    Why aren’t the governments of Australia even mentioning that nothing has any effect on CO2 levels? You know, the levels responsible for all the weather related deaths in recent world history. Or should we wear hair shirts and chains and give alms to the UN?

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    • #
      TdeF

      It was front page news today, that Alcoa is complaining about the ridiculous price of (coal) electricity in Australia. Given that we are giving them $80,000 per worker to pretend, it is churlish for them to complain. After all, we are saving the world. Apparently.

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  • #
    william x

    The ABC journos seem to know the cause of bushfires. They tell us in print and media “the truth”. They promote themselves as infallible in knowledge of fire cause. They push it 24/7. They have done this for the last 2 months.

    Yet how many times, whilst investigating fires, has the Coroner or a Royal Commission asked the ABC or their “fire expert” journalists to submit a report or evidence for said fire cause and propagation?

    Amazing! despite their expertise on everything, it is None.

    The reporting will take months and should be left to the qualified fire service investigators and police to determine cause re these current bushfires.

    Not the ABC’s self proclaimed “fire expert” journalists and presenters.

    100

  • #
    StephenP

    Once this is over the bush will recover as it has done for thousands of years.
    The fuel load will build up again and the access roads and firebreaks will become impassable.
    There will be wet periods when there will be vigorous growth increasing the fuel load even more.
    Assuming the activists have their way there will be no fuel reduction burns or clearing firebreaks around houses.
    Regardless of any fossil fuel reduction, there will be dry periods when the fuel load becomes tinder dry and fires will start again, either by arson or lightning.
    I hope the EV fire appliances and water bombing planes are up to the job. /S

    110

    • #
      hatband

      The amount of houses in heavily timbered Outer Suburbs is incredible.

      If the Arson is deliberately organised, what we’ve just seen is only Prologue,

      Round 1 with 19 still to go, and we didn’t get through the First Round real well.

      52

  • #
    Ken Davis

    Every school holidays we have fires here in Wollongong lit by bored, angry, disadvantaged, brutalised kids (or the misanthropic antisocial adults they grow into). These people are EVERYWHERE. Fortunately there is not much here that will lead to disaster – just nuisance. But get a little further out of town with the right conditions – 20 psychopaths can do a lot of damage.

    100

    • #
      hatband

      Sure, but the big Bushfires started well before the School Holidays.

      Then there’s the question of whether these bored youths or older psychopaths are going to

      travel hundreds of Kilometres into the bush to light fires when there are plenty of

      opportunities close to home.

      03

      • #
        AndyG55

        I think that was the point I made up page.

        Where and how did the really big blazes start..

        always on the western side of huge overgrown National Parks and State Forests

        usually in remote ares.

        Managed to catch nearly all the major National Parks down the east coast.

        Royal National Park, not yet.

        41

        • #
          Dennis

          It was badly burnt in 1994 when Sydney was surrounded by bushfires, the Royal National Park bushfire came from dam catchment land previously well managed by the Sydney Water Board but converted to State National Park along with the Royal National Park.

          40

  • #
    TedM

    “Save the Koala’s Sell the ABC.”

    I guess the ABC is worth enough to save a koala or two.

    30

  • #
    AndyG55

    I guess the most positive point to put is that these bush-fires have cleared one heck of a lot of fire-load.

    Will the governments seize this opportunity to create the fire trails and breaks in the huge National Parks and State Forests?

    Or will we be back to square -5 in another 10-15 years

    70

    • #
      hatband

      We’re there right now.

      Never mind the Fuel Load, the amount of Eucalypt BioMass probably exceeds what was here in

      1788, then add the Fuel Load, which wasn’t and you’re looking at a catastrophe ready for

      the Arsonists’ Torch.

      Remember, the forest that burned from Bass Strait to New South Wales in 1939,

      did so at a time when Logging thinned the trees out, presumably

      some unofficial Fuel Reduction was done, and most importantly,

      Tree Growth Rates for the 30 years to 1939 were only 30% of the Pre 1910 Growth Rates,

      which didn’t return to Pre 1910 levels until 1990.

      We’ve now had 30 years of Pre 1910 Level Growth, which must mean a 230% increase in

      Biomass, and presumably a 230% increase in tree litter.

      32

      • #
        el gordo

        So lets harvest the lot, except for pocket national parks and wildlife corridors?

        22

        • #
          hatband

          Read my comment above.

          Your proposal may have worked if it was implemented 40 years ago,

          but even then i’m doubtful.

          What’s needed now is a mobilisation on the scale of our War in the Pacific effort

          from 1942 to 1945 to remove the threat.

          01

  • #
    R.B.

    Kids tend to light grass fires. We haven’t got details of who lit the fire that burnt Rappville to the ground but police are certain that it was arson. These are the truly dangerous fires that get on the news and are good for propaganda.

    Police might never have a clue about how many of these fires started, let alone enough to convict. If ever we are going to make a decision based on simple logic without much evidence, it’s not that there is an indirect link with global warming and drought in NSW when the globe as a whole is not drier, but that an arsonist who wants to start a mega blaze in heavily forrested areas with built up fuel loads is motivated by CC propaganda.

    51

    • #
      Wombat

      So right R.B. I was an R.F.S. first responder on that fire, lit after dark in the heaviest fuel load along that road. The Rappville district arson started in August 2019 when a Section 44 fire resulted from seven ignition points along a six kilometer stretch of road (after dark). At least seven other roadside ignitions (some multiple) have occurred, some even while the district was still burning five kilometers away. Evil lives HERE!

      50

    • #
      hatband

      R.B. said:

      If ever we are going to make a decision based on simple logic without much evidence,

      You’ve got it back to front: there’s plenty of Evidence that the fires were deliberately lit in a systematic pattern, but where’s the Logic in pointing the finger at

      people motivated by CC propaganda?

      01

  • #
    Paul

    In Forestry School, in 1974, we were taught arsonist annually caused 6 to 10% of fire ignitions. Similar level to lighting caused ignitions. A dry lighting storm could have over 100 lighting strikes. Not all strikes caused bushfires and some took up to 2 weeks to be found for various reasons.
    This fire season arson appears to be above the averaged of ignition causes.

    This fire season intensity and wide spread nature is due to poor forest management, in terms of lack of fuel reduction and poorly maintained fire trails and access roads.

    This poor maintenance could be a contributing factor into the large number of fire fighting units that have over turned causing injury and death

    81

    • #
      hatband

      That may or may not have been correct in 1974, School Textbooks were also still assuring us

      that Earthquakes couldn’t happen in Australia, because it was the Oldest Continent.

      What is true, though, is that of the 1700 odd recent Bushfires the NSW Arson Squad has

      investigated, 42% were Arson, 9% were lightning, and of the other 49%,

      a cause couldn’t be determined.

      01

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    form the abc article
    “NSW has been the epicentre of Australia’s bushfire crisis, but the facts show arson has little to do with it.
    This week, a NSW Police media release revealed 24 people had been charged over deliberately-lit bushfires this season.
    However, the majority of suspected arson relates to small grass fires and rubbish bins set alight, which have inflicted negligible damage and burnt a tiny area compared with fires sparked by lightning.
    The Gospers Mountain “mega-blaze” and the Green Wattle Creek fire, which are both near Sydney, were ignited by lightning.
    All the major blazes in the Snowy Mountains and South Coast which have taken hold since New Year’s Eve were also started by lightning.
    This includes the Dunns Road and Green Valley fires burning near the state’s south border, which on Friday formed a new “mega-blaze”.

    This is in line with current analysis and the CSIRO

    A question then – why do you think the arsonists so active this year?

    15

    • #
      AndyG55

      As Peter says, most of the really bad fires started inside the western boundaries of National Parks and State Forests. These areas are pretty hard to access, so it really does rule out petty arson.

      The problem was that they could not really be accessed to extinguish them properly because of the lack of maintained fire trails, and the build-up of fuel load etc, so they were left to burn on a “watch and act” basis.

      That gave them time to spread, until the weather conditions were just wrong, and we got the disaster we did.

      21

      • #
        hatband

        AndyG55 said:

        These areas are pretty hard to access, so it really does rule out petty arson.

        What’s ”petty arson”?

        The evidence is that the Arsonists were organised enough to access an area by either 4 WD

        or helicopter, by the sounds of your description.

        01

  • #

    You know, in Michael Crighton’s book, State of Fear, climate extremists intentionally created ‘natural’ disasters so they would have something to point to to support their crusade. Is it possible climate activists are doing the same in Australia? What with death threats et al, some of these people are clearly unbalanced.

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  • #
    Serp

    Fully a third of the comments are by hatband. I haven’t actually read any of them as experience has taught me there’s no content to hatband’s posts. I suppose like any infestation it will eventually die back.

    92

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Yes Serp, I’ve noticed the same thing
      I read a few randomly chosen ones
      And occasionally find myself agreeing.
      But i he seems to an online version of spin the bottle!
      Pure chance whether what he writes is on topic or makes sense !
      Is there a software upgrade around
      Which could just shuffle all his comments to the bottom of the thread ?
      Perhaps this is another trolling strategy !

      52

    • #
      Furiously curious

      Yeah, that was 15 minutes of my life I’ll never get back, and I learnt absolutely zero. Taking a note.

      32

    • #
      sophocles

      I wonder if he’s ever been or recently been diagnosed with a Cognitive Disability.
      He shows the symptoms …

      12

    • #
      sophocles

      PF started commenting late 2018 and became a shotgun commentator early last year.
      I’m seeing the same pattern with Hatband.

      12

  • #

    Interesting subject. According to news reports, the recent fire at Euroa in Victoria that burnt about 340 hectares is still under investigation. According to our farming neighbor who lives in the area, two 15 year olds were caught in the act of the lighting the fire. Cover up perhaps?

    30

    • #
      hatband

      If they were caught in the act, why wasn’t the fire put out then and there?

      00

      • #
        Graeme#4

        A recent WA roadside fire accidentally started when a trailer bearing failed and the gent pulled off the highway to see what was going on. The dry roadside weeds ignited easily and the fire rapidly spread. The gent tried to put out the fire but it took off across the bush.

        10

  • #
    pat

    heard this on a 2GB news bulletin last nite. took ages to find any mentions online:

    24 Jan: Facebook: NSW Police Force
    About 4.40pm (Thursday 23 January 2020), Fire and Rescue NSW crews were called to a bushfire in thick scrub within the Glenrock State Conservation Area. The fire was bordered by Burwood Road, the Fernleigh Track and the Yuelarbah Track.

    ***Whilst crews were in the process of extinguishing the blaze, two additional fires ignited beside the Fernleigh Track.

    It took crews several hours to bring the blazes under control, which burnt through approximately five hectares of the Glenrock State Conservation Area.
    Officers from Lake Macquarie Police District attended the scene and commenced investigations.
    Police are appealing to locate a man who may be able to assist with their inquiries.

    He’s described as being of Caucasian appearance, 170cm tall, aged in his mid to late 40s, with a solid build and scruffy dark brown hair which was long at the back similar to a mullet haircut.
    Anyone who may have seen or heard any suspicious activity in the area is urged to contact Crime Stoppers…
    https://www.facebook.com/pg/nswpoliceforce/posts/

    which led me to this, which is a repeat of the above:

    24 Jan: MirageNews: Police investigate suspicious bushfires – Glenrock State Conservation Area

    20

  • #
    David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

    I have a couple of concerns about the sources of ignition of a number of the recent fires. It seems to me that several started on the same day, a hot day with strong northwesterly wind in a line along the Great Divide from about Armidale to the Queensland border. An alternative description for the location would be sort of along the New England Highway. Or, to the NW of a number of fire bombs, commonly called National Parks.
    The other is with the numbers Jo quotes, especially the 745 “not yet determined” of the 1700 “investigated” by Police out of 12,000 fires started. 745 fires where something doesn’t look right. It’ll be interesting to see what causes are attributed to them. I commend the police for investigating them.
    Cheers
    Dave B

    40

    • #
      hatband

      Yeah, the figures are startling.

      9%, or 1 in 11 can be attributed to Natural Causes, 42% are Arson, and 49% couldn’t be

      determined, but let’s focus on reducing Fuel Loads, which is

      a medium to long term solution, at best.

      Also known as ”Kicking the can down the Road” in America, and

      ”Kicking it into the Long Grass” over here.

      01

      • #
        David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

        No,
        The fuel loads have just been reduced to something approaching zero. Let’s keep them that way.

        21

        • #
          hatband

          Reduced to zero in the burnt areas.

          What about unburnt areas with a huge fuel load.

          Those areas dwarf what’s been burnt so far.

          01

  • #
    DJCJ

    The fanatical obsession over the bushfires shown by the ABC over the past six weeks and its relentless crusade to take every opportunity to paint a link between anthropogenic emissions and fires has been nothing short of astounding. Its bias and loaded interviews, where its interviewers and journalists cleverly twist the discussion to the issue every single time plus constant reporting of nothing but the fires despite other very significant news occurring around the nation and internationally signalled it has become a ‘cheerleader’ and not a balanced, rational and pragmatic broadcaster. Reminds me now of one of those parochial fan-managed TV channels synonymous with the large rich football clubs around the world.

    70

  • #
    pat

    ABC’s Jonathan Green is back from his taxpayer-funded holiday to remind us in his opener that it is “invasion day weekend”.
    opening segment almost sounds pro-hazard reduction, but there’s a lot of CAGW baggage:

    AUDIO: 12m9s: 25 Jan: ABC Blueprint for Living: Burning country
    By Jonathan Green on Blueprint for Living
    Phillip Zylstra, Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University
    Shannon Foster, D’harawal woman and Aboriginal Knowledge lecturer, University of Technology Sydney
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/unlearned-country/11893526

    the guests:

    12 Jan: BBC: Australia fires: Aboriginal planners say the bush ‘needs to burn’
    by Gary Nunn
    “The bush needs to burn,” says Shannon Foster.
    She’s a knowledge keeper for the D’harawal people – relaying information passed on by her elders – and an Aboriginal Knowledge lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)…
    Her Aboriginal elders in Sydney have been assessing the overgrown bush and extremely dry kindling for some time, warning that a huge fire is coming: “They compared it to a kid with unkempt hair, saying it needs nurturing.”
    But local authorities have forbidden them from cultural burning when they’ve asked for permission…
    Since Australia was colonised in 1788, cultural burning was slowly eradicated. But recent years have seen moves to reintegrate it…

    “That said, Indigenous people had extremely detailed knowledge of ‘dirty country’ that needs a good burn,” says Associate Prof Preece, now of James Cook University…
    Drawbacks of the ancient practice
    Cultural burning, Prof Preece says, can reduce fuel on the ground from 10 tons to 1 ton. But it’s only effective protection for moderate fires, so it needs to be done in conjunction with hazard reduction burns.
    Even then, it only reduces hazards: “With the recent catastrophic conditions of humidity and high winds, nothing could stop these fires.”
    “Aboriginal people were taken off their country so there’s a re-learning process which is very useful and important. But it’s still early days and by itself, it’s not enough,” he says…

    Experts agree that cultural burning has limitations, partly because colonisation led to development and human-created climate change, presenting us with a very different landscape now to hundreds of years ago…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51043828

    more to come.

    00

    • #
      pat

      14 Oct 2019: Uni of Sydney: Elders for climate justice
      by Shannon Foster, D’harawal Saltwater Knowledge Keeper
      We are undeniably in the middle of a serious climate crisis. We may even be at the end and (almost) everyone is searching for an answer.
      The younger generations have been inspirational in stepping up and leading the way, like young Indigenous Australian, Amelia Telford, National Co-Director of Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network…

      Years ago, I remember hearing Dr David Suzuki explain that we are not destroying the earth, the earth will live on without us, what we are destroying is our ability to live on it. And this is the reality that climate deniers don’t seem to get…
      https://sydney.edu.au/science/news-and-events/2019/10/14/elders-for-climate-justice.html

      17 Apr 2018: The Conversation: Contrary to common belief, some forests get more fire-resistant with age
      by Philip Zylstra, Research Fellow, flammability and fire behaviour, University of Wollongong
      Disclosure: Philip Zylstra previously received funding from the Australian Alps Liaison Committee. The ACT National Parks Association contributed to publication costs of this research.

      An out-of-season bushfire raged through Sydney’s southwest at the weekend, burning more than 2,400 hectares and threatening homes.

      As the fire season extends and heatwaves become more frequent, it’s vital to preserve our natural protections. My research, recently released in the journal Austral Ecology (LINK), contradict one of the central assumptions in Australian fire management – that forest accumulate fuel over time and become increasingly flammable…

      Consistent with all of the other studies, I found that forests became more flammable in the years after they were burnt…
      More fire means more flammable forests, which in turn mean more fire…
      It may be the eleventh hour, but we’re better placed now to stand with the forests and add what we can to their fight to survive climate change…
      CHECK COMMENTS
      https://theconversation.com/contrary-to-common-belief-some-forests-get-more-fire-resistant-with-age-95059

      22 Jan 2020: RMIT/ABC Fact Check: Has NSW seen more than twice the amount of prescribed burning this decade compared with the last?
      Principal researcher: Ellen McCutchan
      Verdict: Fair call
      The claim
      While some politicians, including Barnaby Joyce, have suggested a lack of hazard reduction burning may have exacerbated the severity of the fires, landscape flammability expert ***Philip Zylstra said it was “completely false to say there has been a lack of prescribed burning”…
      “Prescribed burning rates have increased markedly,” Dr Zylstra, an adjunct associate professor at Curtin University, told ABC Radio.
      “In NSW, the last decade has seen more than twice the amount of prescribed burning compared to the decade before and in all mapped records of prescribed burning across NSW national parks it’s the highest decade.”

      Is that correct? RMIT ABC Fact Check considers the statistics…READ ON
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-22/prescribed-burning-nsw-backburning-hazard-reduction/11878316

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    PeterW

    As a firefighter – and resident in a fire-prone landscape with a lot of vulnerable assets – I’m not going to dismiss arson.

    BUT, and it is a very big “but”…… if we take arson out of the picture, we still have a majority of ignitions and we have done nothing to reduce the severity of the fires that they cause.
    If, on the other hand, we focus on landscape management, reducing fire intensity and enhancing access, then the damage caused by arson AND “other causes” will be reduced.

    The evidence from prior experience makes this blindingly obvious. Let us not focus on red herrings.

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      hatband

      As long as Australia has vast Eucalypt Forests, we’ll be at the mercy of Arsonists.

      The scale of work involved in continuous reduction of the Fuel Load is colossal, and would end up being the largest employer in Australia, by far.

      When Cook mapped the East Coast in 1770, he noted that the entire coast was blanketed in smoke from indigenous burning at all times.

      So, that is what you’d be looking at.

      It is totally unrealisatic.

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        Dennis

        You deliberately ignore why the burning was taking place, cool fires.

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          hatband

          The Whole East Coast was continuously covered in smoke from fires.

          It’s in the history books.

          Those are the conditions that would have to be endured 24/7 to emulate the

          pre-1788 indigenous fire practices.

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    Ross

    Maybe the ABC should talk to the Bendigo Police, they do not seem to agree with the 1% rubbish.

    https://www.police.vic.gov.au/public-appeal-following-nineteen-suspicious-fires-bendigo-area

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    Another Ian

    “Victoria Police appeal for help following 19 apparent bushfire arson offences in just one small town”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/01/victoria-police-appeal-for-help-following-19-apparent-bushfire-arson-offences-in-just-one-small-town.html

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    pandas

    if you search abc.net.au/news for “crimestoppers” or “crime stoppers”, there are 1,000s of results going back many years. yet, the ABC has accidentally forgotten to mention Crimestoppers 1800 in bushfire articles the last few months, even though police are requesting help from the public

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    Graeme Bird

    If personalities in the city of London were getting their friends [snip] to light fires everywhere would we really know about it? I’m not saying that anything like this is happening but is political correctness so very strong that this possibility isn’t being investigated? We can finally talk openly about Chinese soft power in this country, thanks to Clive Hamilton and Bravo to Clive. But has the bubble popped when it comes to the potential for a co-ordinated attack on this country?

    [ED]

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      hatband

      Fire as an Act of War?

      Maybe a couple hundred years ago, that would’ve been the first thing anyone thought of,

      but you’d be mercilessly Gaslighted and called a loon if you made that assertion today.

      However, at first they were ridiculing Arson as the cause, then there was a shift to

      blaming ”Firebugs”, then it was ”Kiddies on School Holidays”,

      now it’s ”Motivated Greenies” ]aka Jumping The Shark\, so perhaps

      we’re slowly getting there.

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        sophocles

        Fire as an Act of War?

        Of course it is:

        Coventry
        London
        Hamburg
        Berlin
        Dresden
        Tokyo
        Warsaw

        are major cities which were fire bombed during WW2 with 40% or more of the bomb-load incendiary bombs. Hamburg and particularly Dresden[1945] suffered huge firestorms.
        London didn’t suffer at all badly from the incendaries because its building code since 1666 (the days of The Great Fire of London) meant all London buildings were brick or stone. That’s why you don’t hear much about the Zeppelin bombing of London during WW1 – London was just not sufficiently flammable for the incendiaries.

        Yep, Fire as an Act of War. Obviously, you didn’t know that.

        Now if the Australian Bush was turned into Green painted concrete … 😀

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    Slithers

    What Sentence? Inconvenient Truth? Politically Embarrassing? Un-Declared War?
    One would think that with so many fires started by humans in this disastrous fire season the sentences handed down by the courts to those found guilty, whether accidental or deliberate fire starting would be in the public interest. It would be an object lesson to ‘would be’ arsonists or careless people who ignore total fire ban warnings.
    Yet…..
    https://www.9news.com.au/national/nsw-fires-police-charge-arsonist-at-balgownie-during-paraglider-rescue/d39d185d-962d-4707-b62a-56d06aafacd8
    This person has disappeared with-out trace. No reports from the court, no reports from MSM. I even sent e-mail enquiry to the channel 9 reporter. Zero information.

    I also find it somewhat incredible that the person got bail having been caught red-handed.
    ‘The alleged arsonist was granted strict conditional bail and is due to
    appear in Wollongong Local Court on December 3.’

    There is of course one other explanation that does not bare thinking too hard about, ‘Fake News’ perhaps?

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    George Cross

    http://sheikyermami.com/2020/01/australia-doesnt-have-a-bushfire-crisis-australia-has-an-arson-crisis/

    [George, when posting a link here you need to provide some description of what the link is about and why it is relevant to the discussion.] ED

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    George Cross

    http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/03/bushfire-jihad-in-australia
    [George, when posting a link here you need to provide some description of what the link is about and why it is relevant to the discussion.] ED

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    George Cross

    https://principia-scientific.org/six-shades-of-fire-lighters/

    [George, when posting a link here you need to provide some description of what the link is about and why it is relevant to the discussion.] ED

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    neil

    Parts of NSW are still in total fire ban, Melbourne has cancelled the Australia Day fire works because of the fires yet this morning I see a bloke out in the open walking around with a bunch of smoldering leaves and the police did absolutely nothing about it. Unbelievable!

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    Bob in Castlemaine

    The ABC 1% Vic government none, what is the reality?
    .
    Unmitigated bulltish from Sky News about Victoria’s arsonist lighting bushfires
    Sky News reporter:

    “We’ve heard multiple times that police have opened no investigations into arson related to the bushfires and today that was confirmed once again by the Commissioner of Emergency Management Victoria Andrew Crisp.”

    Public appeal [by police] following nineteen suspicious fires in Bendigo area.

    The appeal applies to police investigations into potential arson offences in the Bendigo area between 8 November 2019 and 18 January 2020.  That’s 18 in one region alone, who knows how many of cases of unsolved arson are under police investigation state wide?

    Seems Andrew Crisp’s old mates at VicPol aren’t talking to him anymore.  Why else would he come out with such BS.  Or could it be that Andrew is under the spell of the Andrews Government spin doctors?

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    the sting

    Seems that climate change only happens around Bendigo late on Friday nights ?????

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