The Courier Mail, Monday July 29th, 1946 Trove, National Library of Australia By a Staff Correspondent TOWNSVILLE, Sunday. — Fires are burning to-night in an almost unbroken chain from the edge of Brisbane to Townsville, 800 miles distant.
The coastal fires provide air travellers with a graphic picture of parched Queensland.Deeper inland, even greater areas of dry brush and grass are burning or waiting, like tinder, for a careless match or spark. From Rockhampton to Gordonvale, farmers are burning off cane. Forestry officers in other areas are burning fire breaks. Long Smoke Trails Columns of smoke loom from hills above some coastal towns, In the hills north and south of Mackay tonight smoke from two separate groups of fires stretched in trails for many miles. South of Maryborough there is another group of fires. From some of these the smoke was rising yesterday afternoon to a height of 3000ft. One air traveller said: ‘They look like pictures of the Bikini bomb explosion.’ Some fires are blackening areas of dry grass on which ‘ small and large graziers depend for fodder while the drought lasts. A Forestry Department management officer (Mr. Pohlman) said tonight that no fires had been reported in forestry areas, but burning off operations were continuing. Brisbane FiresGrass and rubbish fires round Brisbane increased yesterday after the light rain on Friday morning.Fire engines were called to 10 fires in the metropolitan area. No dam-age was done.
Comment by LoadedDog: A little thought indicates to me that in 1946 climate change had nothing to do with the fires, rather it points to lack of management coming so soon after the war. The good citizens WERE preoccupied after all.
