Gell River Bushfire
On the Denison Range.
December 27th – 28th 2018
In late December 2018 I set out from the Gordon River on an intended return hike toward Lake Curly and beyond.
With an afternoon start, I camped at Gordonvale on the 27th. A twilight thunderstorm crashed dry lighting overhead. On ascending the range between Great Dome and Reeds Peak in the early afternoon of the 28th, a nascent bushfire smoked behind a ridge in the Gell River region north of Badger Flat. Closer to my location, numerous spotfires encircled Battlement.
An hour later the fire was much prominent behind the ridgeline leading toward Battlement. Parks closed the area, and a number of walkers including myself were evacuated (🙏🏻).
In the following months, The Gell River bushfire burnt over 34,000 hectares of Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
In a changing climate scenario these ancient forests will be subject to increasing threat from uncontrolled fire, whether from cumulative effects of small incremental losses such as has occurred in 2019 or single large-scale events that have happened in the past. Data presented to the review team demonstrates the increasing impact of bushfires on the TWWHA. Fire records are absent or lacking from pre-1980s but the increasing frequency of larger scale fire events is apparent. Notably, more area was burnt in 2019 than the previous 10 years combined.
The following photos were taken on the evening of the 27th and day of the 28th around Gordonvale, the Vale of Rasselas, Lake Rhona and the Denison Ranges region.
