BY ASHLEY GEELAN with HOLLY HALES and CALLUM GODDE for AAP
Holidaymakers and locals in a popular Victorian coastal region of Cape Otway have been told it’s too late to leave as a nearby bushfire burns.
UPDATE: 9pm: The risk of fire has been reduced as firefighters have contained a fire on Blanket Bay Road, near Cape Otway.
Residents are advised to monitor weather conditions and warnings and review their fire survival plans.
Blanket Bay Road is now open. However, traffic management points are in place with speed restrictions also in place.
Smoke may be visible from nearby communities and roads.
At this stage, it is understood the fire was ignited by a dry lightning strike.
UPDATE 4:25pm: The Watch and Act remains in place for Cape Otway however firefighters have contained the fire on Blanket Bay Road.
Glenaire, Hordern Vale and nearby communities are advised to remain alert as conditions may change.
Roads in the area may be closed to traffic.
EARLIER: The Blanket Bay Road, Cape Otway fire has since been downgraded to a Watch and Act. Whilst firefighters have been able to contain the fire, those who evacuated have been advised it is not yet safe to return.
The warning area includes Cape Otway, Glenaire, Hordern Vale Apollo Bay, Cape Otway, Johanna, Marengo and Cape Horn.
There is no immediate threat to the community and no action is currently required.
The community should stay informed as conditions may change at any time.
Firefighters have been able to slow the spread of fire for now, but the situation can change at any time.
Wye River CFA Captain Andrew Hack, speaking to Justin Stevens on ABC Radio Melbourne said: “he was dispatched at 20 past one this morning.”
Over 20 local CFA brigades attended the fire after being called early this morning.
Bulldozers are currently working on creating firebreaks in the area.
Forest Fire Management Victoria was handed control of the fire later this morning.
EARLIER: A VicEmergency warning issued just before 7am on Wednesday told those left in the impacted area it was “too late to leave”.
“You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive,” the post said.
Campers in the region have reportedly been evacuated as a separate watch and act alert has been issued for Hordern Vale and Glenaire.
Apollo Bay Community Hall, east of the blaze, has been set up as an evacuation centre.
The fresh fires come as tourism operators and farmers plead for more support to get back on their feet following another Victorian bushfire that destroyed homes and killed hundreds of animals.
The Grampians National Park blaze was declared contained on Monday after burning for three weeks, scorching 76,000 hectares of land and bringing holiday tourism in the western Victorian region to a standstill.
The park remains closed but residents can return to their properties.
Many businesses in surrounding towns were not ready to reopen straight away, Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said.
“A lot of the supplies they had for that busy period would have been used up or thrown out,” he told AAP.
“Now begins the task of rebuilding without the cash that they would have had from that Christmas period.”
Mr Sleeman estimates the fire cost the local economy more than $1.9 million.
He said the road to recovery would be long and tough, declaring the visitor experience would be diminished if operators were unable to get back on their feet.
“We’re certainly going to need the support of state government with some reopening, recovery marketing dollars,” Mr Sleeman said.
Northern Grampians Shire mayor Karen Hyslop said the council would work to get relief for businesses, pointing out many were also impacted by bushfires in February that wiped out a third of the town of Pomonal.
“There was COVID and then there was the fires in February and now this,” she said.
Four residential properties in Moyston and Mafeking were destroyed in the Grampian fires, along with 40 outbuildings in the area.
Some 13,538ha of farmland was burnt, 540km of fencing damaged and preliminary livestock losses tally at 775 sheep, one horse, one cow and 1285 beehives.
The impact to pastures was significant, said Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking.
“The farmers we met were still quite shell-shocked,” he said.
“It’s going to be two years or more to fully recovery, to get pastures fully established, fences completed, get infrastructure rebuilt.”
Beyond the immediate need for fencing to keep livestock off roads, Mr Hosking said providing fodder and livestock agistment were priorities for local farmers.
“Farmers right across Victoria, NSW, South Australia are very generously donating fodder and agistment to some of those impacted farmers,” he said.
“But the challenge of actually connecting the two … is still an expensive process so I think there’s a role for government to step in and provide some fodder subsidies.”
For more information on what you can and can’t do visit the Can I or Can’t I page on the CFA website.
Victorians can find out if it is a Total Fire Ban on the CFA website www.cfa.vic.gov.au, where it is usually published by 5pm the day before a Total Fire Ban.
They include:
- ABC local radio, commercial and designated radio stations of Sky News (keep a transistor radio handy with spare batteries);
- The VicEmergency App (but don’t rely on it);
- The VicEmergency website www.emergency.vic.gov.au (but don’t rely on it);
- The VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226 (but don’t rely on being able to get through);
- CFA or VicEmergency Twitter or Facebook (but don’t rely on it).
Amateur radio operators contributed to this report.
