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On 19 January, after several days of hot weather & low humidity spawned several fires, a chain of thunderstorms swept the area extending from Mundaring in the north to Manjimup in the south. Between 5.30 & 6pm, 10 fires started from LIGHTNING strikes 20-25km from Dwellingup, 110km south of Perth.
On 20 January, thunderstorms again swept the area, starting 9 more bushfires in State Forests near Dwellingup. In addition, fires were burning at Gooseberry Hill, Kalamundah, Glen Forest, Mellan, Dandalup, Greenmount, Denmark & Kingsbrook. Over 40,000ha had been burnt in 4 days.
After 4 weeks of constant firefighting, on 24 January, the temperature rose to 41C & relative humidity dropped to 14%. Because of a tropical cyclone to the north, strong winds of 50-60km/h blew into the south-west of the State, igniting all the extensive forests. Many small timber towns deep in the forests were hastily evacuated. Dwellingup became an evacuation centre, as police at Pinjarra, 24km away, received a message that fire, completely out of control, was approaching the town, containing 1,000 people. The last message to Pinjarra Post Office from Dwellingup reported that the local garage had exploded, & that houses on both sides of the P.O. were in flames. All roads into the town were cut by fire. Ionization of the atmosphere by the fire blacked out communication to the Forestry Department's portable two-way radio in the town. When the fire had passed & the radio became operable again, it was learnt that no serious casualties had occurred. All the people had been moved to a large open space near the town's centre & escaped the fire. However, 132 homes, 2 service stations & 3 shops had been destroyed. Nearby timber villages of Holyoak & Nanga Brook were almost completely destroyed, with no casualties, as residents were evacuated to Dwellingup. Between 11-15 February, blow-up conditions again occurred & moderate-heavy damage caused in the Manjimup-Pemberton-Shannon River area. In early March, serious fires hit the Augusta-Margaret River area. From January to March of that year, about 1.8M ha had been burnt in the south-west, with consequential large loss of livestock. |
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