Chargé d’Affaires Dan Clune and his wife Judy paid us a visit over the weekend. The intent was to attend the Memorial for bushfire victims, but Dan and I thought it important to come down a day early and visit the troops.
Dan and Judy attended meetings/briefings at the Churchill Fire (22 lives lost and alleged arsonist arrested) with one of our Burned Area Emergency Response teams. It was good to have the Ambassador engage with our teams as well as pay his respects to those who lost their lives in this tragedy.
On Saturday night we orchestrated a dinner with the Ambassador and his wife, the Secretary of DSE (and Wife), Executive Director of DSE Land and Fire Management, both Chief Officer's for DSE and CFA, as well as our good friend Gary Morgan (Bushfire CRC CEO) and his wife Rhonda. As I mentioned in my toast, it was truly incredible to have some of the greatest minds involved in current Victorian bushfire management around the table; my only regret was that it took this inauspicious occasion to bring us all together.
Tomorrow is anticipated to be a very bad fire day (highs @ 100 degrees and winds around 30 mph. Following suit, an additional 217 fire fighters are scheduled to arrive in Victoria today ahead of tomorrow's extreme fire danger weather. These fire fighters are from New South Wales (126), Australia Capital Territory (50) and Western Australia (41).
Updated figures from 26 February, 2009:
Fatalities 210
State / Community Infrastructure buildings 31
Commercial buildings 59
Private Dwellings (homes): 2,029
Agricultural Buildings/Facilities 2,385
Livestock: 11,210
Total Acreage Burned: 1,111,974 acres
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