A bushfire that has already been alight for six weeks on the world’s largest sand island is now dangerously close to the Kingfisher Bay resort and areas with 1000-year-old trees.
At the same time as Australia celebrates the reopening of state and territory borders, our hearts bleed for Queensland’s World Heritage-listed K’gari/Fraser Island, its people, habitats, and unique wildlife.
The blaze, which has been burning in the north of the largest sand island in the world for six weeks, is threatening major tourism and rainforest areas.
The Kingfisher Bay Resort closed its doors to all guests for two weeks from Monday, November 30, to Monday, December 14, as the fire is burning on two fronts and travelling south to the resort.
Yesterday, the staff at the Kingfisher Bay resort were told to prepare for evacuation.
QFES told The Guardian, the fire was encroaching on the island’s famous Valley of the Giants – which is home to trees more than 1,000 years old.
In a tweet yesterday, QFES announced that “extensive water bombing continues to be used on the K’gari (Fraser Island) fire with more than 1 million litres of water and gel dropped since Saturday (28/11)”.
The fire was started in mid-October by an illegal campfire and has since raged through 200,000 acres of rainforest.
While the current weather conditions are far from ideal, salt and freshwater continues to be dropped by planes and helicopters over the blaze in the hope that it can at least be steered away from tourism areas, and ecologically important sites and places important to the Butchulla people, the traditional owners and custodians of the land.
Yesterday, Queensland Fire and Emergency also extended a local fire ban to include the state’s south-east and extended it until 11.59pm on Monday, December 7.
We’d like to take this moment to thank the 75+ firefighters in the air and on the ground, alongside Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officers and Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation personnel for doing everything they can to save our precious K’gari/Fraser Island.