Indigenous rock art threatened by Grampians bushfires in Victoria's west
Fire crews are racing to protect Victoria's richest concentration of Indigenous rock art, as they tackle a series of out-of-control blazes ahead of an expected heatwave.
Bushfires continue to burn out of control at the Grampians national park in Victoria's west, after about 10,000 lightning strikes hit the ground in the state following hot conditions on Monday.
Firefighters were working to contain the blazes and prevent impacts on the national park that is home to about 200 Indigenous rock art sites, a State Control Centre spokesperson, Reegan Key, said on Friday.
The park contains 'the richest concentration of rock art in Victoria', which was among 500 Indigenous cultural sites in the area, she said.
'With three major fires now in the Grampians national park in the last month, we want to recognise the anxiety and impact these fires are having on the community themselves, but also the traditional owners of this country,' she said.
Watch and act warnings were issued on Friday for residents of Wartool, Zumsteins, Brimpaen, Mooralla, Woohlpooer, Big Cord, Strachans, Victoria Valley, Glenisla, Hynes, the eastern side of Rocklands and the Little Desert national park.
People along other parts of the park's western flank were told to monitor conditions.
A fire continues to burn at the Little Desert national park, northwest of the Grampians blaze, after claiming one home near the town of Dimboola, a second home further west and an event centre.
Country Fire Authority volunteers were backburning between the towns of Dunkeld and Cavendish to create fire breaks in the southern Grampians, amid fears the blazes at either end of the national park could meet.
Aircraft, bulldozers and ground crews were removing vegetation to create control lines to prevent fires from progressing, while spraying down areas that are difficult to reach.
Private land along the Victoria Range, in the western flank of the Grampians, remains at real risk after the fire burned more than 10,000ha.
On Thursday, Key said benign weather conditions on Friday and Saturday would offer firefighters an opportunity to get in and around the fires before an escalation in heat from Sunday.
'The next few days, hopefully we will have firefighters in the area working to support those communities and lessen the impacts,' she said.
'The focus will be very strongly on trying to minimise the potential impacts of those warmer days coming over the weekend and into next week.'
While the forecast for Victoria from Sunday onwards points to the mercury surpassing 40C, she said there would be an absence of strong winds.
'The fire does love heat and dry conditions, but it is when we see some significant winds you do see those fires take runs,' she said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- The Guardian
How the climate crisis threatens Indigenous traditions in Canada: ‘It's not the way it used to be'
Janelle Oombash stands on the smooth ice of an outdoor rink, keeping score and watching the time as two teams of teenagers run across the ice, whacking a ball with sticks under the afternoon sun. Outside the rink, a bonfire crackles, keeping spectators warm as they watch the game. Broomball has been played for more than a century in northern Ontario. The game is similar to hockey, but players use a ball instead of a puck and wear specialized shoes rather than skates. Now 31, Oombash started playing the game at age 11. Her dad is a coach and taught her to play. 'It's a big sport. Everybody plays broomball or hockey,' she said. Oombash organized today's broomball tournament in Cat Lake First Nation, a remote Ojibway community of 650 people nestled about 500km north of Lake Superior as a way to encourage teenagers to socialize. She pointed at two boys on the same team. 'These boys here, you would never see them talk. But in broomball, they can play together. They get along very well,' she said. But these broomball games are becoming a rare occurrence. Cat Lake has no indoor arena, affording them only a few weeks of ice each winter. 'We used to have tournaments every few weeks, but we haven't been able to do that because the ice goes bad really early,' Oombash said. 'It's been disappointing.' The outdoor rink opened in early February but then closed for a week due to warm temperatures, cancelling broomball and hockey practice for adults as they prepared to travel outside the community for competitive regional tournaments. 'That was supposed to be the week we had practice, but we cut it because of how warm it was,' she explained. 'We don't know how long we're going to have this ice.' The climate crisis is piling increasing pressure on Indigenous communities' constitutionally protected rights and traditions. Global heating is changing the migration patterns of animals that are crucial sources of food, and endangering sacred plants such as sage, burned in ceremonies, and black ash, used to weave baskets and make medicine. In northern Ontario, warming temperatures are threatening wintertime events such as broomball, hockey, ice fishing and goose hunting. Shorter winter seasons and disappearing ice are forcing subarctic communities to adapt. 'I'm hoping they build an arena so we could play all year round,' Oombash said. 'Because we all know the climate is going to change. We all know it's going to get warmer and warmer.' The landscape of northern Ontario consists of evergreen forests and spongy muskeg cut through by intertwined lakes and rivers. Dozens of remote First Nations are scattered across the north, accessible only by plane and thousands of kilometres of ice roads. In winter, the lakes freeze solid and snow cloaks the landscape, allowing people to travel overland to hunting camps. Winter is prime hunting season in Eabametoong First Nation, a remote community of about 1,600 people. It's the time of year that the lake surrounding the community freezes solid, enabling people to drive across and join family members in nearby communities for hunting trips. In March, Eabametoong resident Martha Papah was looking forward to spending the weekend at her adult son's hunting camp in the neighbouring community of Neskantaga. They planned to hunt beaver for meat and pelts, which can be made into blankets, hats or gloves. Beaver is a delicacy in winter because the animals haven't yet had the chance to eat plants that make their meat bitter. 'This time of year is good if you want to have beaver,' she said. To reach Neskantaga, Papah must drive over an ice road that crosses a 5.5km-wide frozen lake, with ice that has become thinner and more treacherous in recent years. 'I'm excited, and at the same time, you have to be on guard on the ice road. We drive really slow when we cross the lake. It's dangerous for us,' she said. There is no all-season road connecting the two communities and no direct flights. To visit her son without a winter road, Papah would need to fly 360km south to Thunder Bay, and then 420km north to Neskantaga, at a cost of C$1,500 round trip. 'It's much cheaper to go on the winter road,' she said. Warmer temperatures are especially impacting the spring goose hunt. In fall, Canadian geese flock south in iconic V-shape formations, returning in spring to their northern breeding grounds. It's the one time of year that geese gorge themselves to prepare for migration and breeding, which means more meat on the birds for hunters. This meat provides not only a traditional source of food, but an alternative to expensive groceries at the Northern Store. In April, hunters and their families travel to camps, where they shoot geese and cook the meat over campfires. They typically travel by snowmobile across the frozen land. But in recent years, open water has appeared along the lakes and rivers, cutting off travel. 'Global warming has disrupted every activity we do, like hunting for sustenance. So it's becoming really difficult,' said Solomon Atlookan, Eabametoong's chief. 'We used to go to our traditional territory way 'til late April on a snowmobile, and we had a lot of snow,' he said. 'In the last five years, none of us have gone there, to go spend a week and hunt geese during their migration, because there's no snow.' Eabametoong resident John Meeseetawaygeesic spends months each year out on the land, hunting, fishing and trapping – activities he shares on social media to followers all over the world. But travelling overland is riskier these days. 'I have to be cautious, I have to take my time and have to be careful,' he said. 'It's not the way it used to be. Used to go anywhere before, but not now. You have to observe everywhere you go now. It's dangerous now.' He said the April goose hunt is more complicated now. 'Because of the ice melting, we can't really go anywhere. Years ago, when the ice was good and the snow was there, we would be everywhere. But now we can't really do that because the ice has been melting too fast.' He added that migration patterns of animals are changing. 'We're not catching anything, and now we don't know where the animals are going.' On 7 March, Meeseetawaygeesic boarded a small, 40-seat plane. He gripped the arms of his seat as the plane lifted off the short runway. These bumpy, low-flying planes make him nervous. When he's not hunting, Meeseetawaygeesic coaches the local men's hockey team, Pick Your Poison. He and his teammates boarded the plane heading south to Thunder Bay, toward their final destination of Dryden, Ontario. Held in March every year, the Northern men's hockey tournament in Dryden is the biggest event of the year for hockey teams in the north. 'We've been hitting all the tournaments this winter, so I think we're ready for the big one.,' Meeseetawaygeesic said. The previous week, Pick Your Poison won a smaller tournament and used the prize money to pay for their flights. Normally, hockey players from northern communities drive south along ice roads to reach the big tournament, but these routes are becoming unreliable. A few nights earlier, Meeseetawaygeesic's truck got stranded on a winter road. Warm temperatures made the road's snowy surface softer than usual, and his truck became trapped in the snow. So they had to fly. The winter roads that freeze each year make it cheaper for teams to travel to tournaments. But spring is arriving earlier each year, cutting short the winter road season. 'With climate change, some of the reserves up north will have a hard time going home after the tournament next week because of the melting of the snow and ice,' he said. To motivate his team, Meeseetawaygeesic tells them: 'Play hard, play smart, have fun. Winning is not everything. Even losing is not everything. It's a matter of being out there and enjoying yourself and meeting other people.' After arriving in Dryden, Pick Your Poison went on to win the championship in the B-side division. This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center
The Guardian
16-03-2025
- The Guardian
Rain comes to aid of firefighters after fast-moving blaze destroys Melbourne home
A well timed sprinkling of rain has come to the aid of firefighters battling a blaze that destroyed a home on the outskirts of Melbourne. The blaze swept through rugged terrain at Montrose in the city's outer east on Saturday night, sparking an emergency warning for residents in its path after igniting about 9pm. A home was lost and another significantly damaged after the out-of-control fire made a sudden run through the Dr Ken Leversha Reserve. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The fire, which started about 1km west of the Mount Dandenong observatory, had scorched 33 hectares as of Sunday morning. The emergency warning was downgraded to watch and act alert about 3.30am as about 200 firefighters, four helicopters and two bulldozers battled the blaze. Rain has since fallen over the fire ground as water bombers continue to dose burning trees. Almost 10mm of rain has fallen at Coldstream, just north of Montrose, since 9am. Ground crews will remain on site into Sunday evening to prevent short-range spotting throwing embers towards nearby houses. 'I'm fairly confident that we won't lose any structures today,' Country Fire Authority incident controller Bernard Barbetti told ABC TV. 'There was some concern that it may spot over and get over into the Dandenong Ranges, but I can't see that happening with the conditions today.' Montrose is in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne's outer east. About 25 residents took shelter in a relief centre at Kilsyth Sports Centre. Residents were not completely out of the woods due to a potential change in wind conditions. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'We expect a wind change about midday which may give us some more control problems, so that's why the watch and act is still in place,' Barbetti said. 'I'm fairly confident the fire won't spread much beyond its current area. 'But it's a long, unburnt area. There are a lot of dead trees.' All nine Victorian districts had high fire danger ratings on Sunday as the end of the summer bushfire season approaches. South Australian fire crews were battling blazes at Katarapko in the Riverland region and another bushfire 20km south of Lucindale in the state's lower south-east. Both were burning at advice level. High temperatures also had firefighters on high alert across vast swathes of NSW, including Sydney, ahead of an expected cool change arriving on Sunday evening. The fire risk was rated extreme for greater Sydney and the Southern Slopes, with total fire bans active in those regions and two others.
The Independent
04-03-2025
- The Independent
Indigenous migrants in northern Colombia battle worsening droughts and floods
Standing next to her makeshift home of scrap metal, wood and plastic tarp, 47-year-old Nelly Mengual recounts how severe flooding and winds tore off her roof a few months ago, leaving her knee-deep in water in her home. She lives in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Riohacha, in northern Colombia's arid, wind-swept region, where thousands of other Wayuu people, native to the La Guajira region spanning Colombia and Venezuela, also reside. Although many residents were born in Colombia, it is the Wayuu who fled Venezuela who face the greatest hardship. Having escaped what many describe as economic crisis, they now live in these settlements without access to running water — and for many, without electricity. The Wayuu, whose traditional lands span Colombia and Venezuela, view the border as a political construct rather than a cultural divide, with their relationships and networks transcending national lines. 'This entire hut. Our belongings, what little we had. Everything was lost,' said Mengual, who makes ends meet by recycling scrap material in Maicao. The Wayuu, the largest Indigenous group in Colombia, are facing the dual threats of climate change-driven droughts and floods. Scientists warn that more severe, prolonged drought periods punctuated by flashes of torrential rain are only getting more common as the world warms. Aside from damaging people's homes, they are also draining water sources, destroying crops, and increasing health risks from waterborne diseases. Many Wayuu families are forced to migrate in search of essential resources, putting even more pressure on already overcrowded urban areas. Intense flooding challenges the Wayuu's way of life Ingrid Gonzalez, a Wayuu community leader from Maracaibo who's lived in the Villa del Sol settlement near Riohacha for six years, says those more traditional Wayuu homes, made with sticks and covered in mud, are very susceptible to the rainy season. 'There are many, many houses that flood and fill up with water,' said 29-year-old Gonzalez. 'A strong river of water passes through here, and the mud houses collapse.' 'Some people manage to preserve their homes by reinforcing them, but the damage is still significant,' she said. 'Several of my own roofing sheets were blown off.' Samuel Lanao, head of Corpoguajira, La Guajira's environment authority, said in 2024 extreme winter floods caused significant losses of homes, crops, and domestic animals in Indigenous communities, particularly among those coming from neighboring Venezuela. 'Because of climate change, there's been a rise in vector-borne diseases like dengue and Zika. Dengue, in particular, has hit Indigenous communities very, very hard,' he said. Lanao said Corpoguajira has created a Climate Change Plan to cut emissions and boost community and ecosystem resilience. The shift in weather patterns is undeniable to Camilo Martinez, La Guajira base manager for the Danish Refugee Council, which has a strong presence in the region. With 14 years of experience in the area, he has witnessed these changes firsthand. 'Years ago when I arrived here, there was fog and in certain hours of the morning it was cold. Today that has stopped, as well as in the snow peaks on the nearby mountains ... you don't see that much anymore,' Martinez told The Associated Press at the Uyatpana Indigenous community, on the outskirts of Maicao. Martinez says the months the rainy season starts has changed, but also the intensity of the rain too when it eventually comes. Scientific evidence of climate change in La Guajira, supported by data from Colombia's Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) and various studies, includes rising temperatures, prolonged droughts like the 2012–2016 crisis, irregular rainfall patterns, and increased desertification. Heat and drought tests informal settlements Last year's heat was the hottest Gonzalez, the community leader, can remember. 'There are houses where the heat is intense, which affects people, especially those with high blood pressure. They feel tired, flushed, and even unwell,' she said. 'The heat is so strong that it even affects the animals. Neighbors who have chickens have lost some of them due to the extreme heat, as the animals are suffocating.' A significant portion of the Wayuu population maintains traditional, semi-nomadic lifestyles, residing in rancherias — thatched-roof huts made from dried cacti and mud — and herding cattle and goats. In many informal settlements, residents lack access to running water or sanitation services. Water sellers transport untreated water in barrels, using mules to distribute it between homes for a fee. While many people rely on collecting rainwater, the increasing unpredictability of rainfall has made this source of water less dependable. 'They have been forced to buy water from sources that aren't clean, transported by mules or carts that make long journeys to bring it to families,' said Martinez. 'This water isn't drinkable—it can only be used for washing or cooking. But people are left with no choice but to drink it. This is one of the biggest consequences of the droughts and the lack of rainfall during these seasons.' Many non-governmental organizations say they step in to support these areas in La Guajira where state assistance is minimal or entirely absent. Colombia's environment ministry did not respond to AP's requests for comment. Wayuu leader Anibal Mercado told AP the migrant Wayuu population suffers the most because of climate change. 'You find them picking up garbage, you find them recycling, which has never been seen before. And that is a product of the neglect of the government. The State has been promoting neoliberal policies that go against traditional rights, with which the Wayuu used to provide for their own economy... their own food," he said. Many work to rebuild, again and again In the neighborhood of Uyatpana, 28-year-old Laura Pushaina sits on a stool, weaving a chinchorro, a traditional Wayuu hammock used for sleeping. With five children between the ages of one and ten, she says the intricate work will take her four days to complete. Pushaina is one of thousands of Wayuu people who cross into Colombia and establish settlements. Due to shifting political and economic conditions in the region, many have left homes in neighboring Venezuela. Many, like Pushaina, told the AP they hope to return to their rancherias on the Venezuelan side of the border, but they believe the political and economic situation remains too unstable to do so. Some also said that relocating from the informal settlements would help, as the land is unsuitable for living without running water or proper sewage infrastructure. Just a few months ago, Pushaina's home was destroyed by the floods. 'I've lived through the worst of times," she said. 'The water would seep through the mud, and sometimes it came in like a river, flowing through here.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
