Australia fires photos show startling before and after destruction

Updated

Before-and-after photos show the deep wounds catastrophic fires can leave in less than a fortnight.

This bushfire season was always predicted to be ferocious, but with months of hot weather to go, it's already left an indelible scar on the nation.

The scale is immense. Nearly 11 million hectares burned; more than 2,000 homes destroyed; 23 lives lost, and; an estimated 1 billion-plus animals dead.

The fire season was already in full swing by the second week of November. But by Christmas and New Year, the situation was dire. Some wondered if we were seeing the end of the typical Australian summer holiday.

The discussion rages over whether this is the new normal — or a preview of worse to come as climate change accelerates — but we already know that affected areas will take years, decades, to recover.

As the country braces for another dangerous weekend, take a look at some of the damage wrought in the past fortnight.

NSW's South Coast

Tourists loved the pretty town of Cobargo in southern NSW, which was famous for its quaint main street where turn-of-the-century storefronts had been transformed into tea rooms, art galleries and antique shops.

The town's tight-knit community of just 776 residents loved it too.

But by the time an "apocalyptic" firestorm had consumed Cobargo on December 31, the main street had been devastated and two men were dead.

Those who left recall watching the flames threaten the outskirts of town: a red glow hovering above the main street, menacing, the roar of the fire all anyone could hear.

And then it hit. Firefighters have described the blaze that assaulted the town as an "inferno" that obliterated everything in its path.

When residents returned it was clear that Cobargo would never be the same again — and it wasn't alone on the South Coast.

In the early hours of New Year's Eve, just a few minutes after Cobargo residents woke to find mobile alerts urging them to leave, residents of Mogo were also watching flames destroy homes and businesses.

The Clyde Mountain Fire had been menacing Batemans Bay from the north for weeks, shrouding the town in smoke. As year-end approached, the fire grew quickly, merging with the Currowan Fire from the south.

People were fleeing towards Batemans Bay.

The town's beach became a refuge for dozens of families — images that harked back to wartime landing or desperate refugees. It is not surprising that many described this fight against nature as a war.

Groups gathered elsewhere in town too. Red skies from huge flames in the distance consumed the view in front of them and silhouetted the town like a macabre film set.

Further north, the same megafire that had tortured Cobargo was moving east from inland Braidwood towards Lake Conjola. Holidaying families were trapped by the flames and many escaped into the lake itself, driving cars or pulling children into the water for safety

Entire streets of homes in Conjola Park were lost. Survivors recounted experiencing smoke so thick it blocked out everything more than 50 centimetres away.

East Gippsland

To the south in Victoria, more ominous predictions were coming to pass.

"Some fires could burn for months," Victorian authorities warned in early December, as attention shifted to the state's east, where out-of-control blazes had spread through bushland near the Snowy River National Park.

Extreme temperatures and variable winds had emergency services on edge, but there were hopes an expected cool change would offer a reprieve.

Instead, the fires would ultimately etch East Gippsland into the national consciousness, in harrowing scenes later described as like "the gates of hell".

Multiple blazes across the region had been burning since November, but were largely eclipsed by the devastation along the NSW coast.

That is, until the days before Christmas, when things took a marked turn. One bushfire began generating its own weather after quadrupling in size; days later, authorities urged those in East Gippsland — including some 30,000 tourists — to evacuate.

By Monday, December 30, the warnings had intensified: the Princes Highway was closed east of Bairnsdale and fears grew that a south-westerly wind change would push one blaze back towards the coastal community of Mallacoota.

That evening, flames tore through the farming communities of Sarsfield and Clifton Creek, east of Bairnsdale, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Mallacoota

Some 200 kilometres east, those along the coast were not immune from the devastation.

Erratic bushfires that had burned through more than 200,000 hectares of East Gippsland were now bearing down on Mallacoota, as authorities had feared, with an "apocalyptic" red hue that would engulf the town.

Thousands of people fled to the waterside as fire raced towards the popular holiday destination. Some escaped on boats, while others were told they might have to throw themselves into the sea if the flames came too close.

By New Year's Day, streetscapes had been reduced to rubble; the idyllic seaside town now just a shell.

In the days to follow, some residents and holidaymakers — still cut off by bushfires — were evacuated from the region aboard Navy vessels, while others were airlifted to safety.

Further north, and the rural communities of Corryong and Cudgewa, near the NSW border, were grappling with the fallout from their own New Year's Eve inferno.

The towns, which are 10 minutes apart, were both left decimated by a fire front — just one of a huge complex of fires stretching from north of Bairnsdale to the NSW border.

Snowy Mountains

Further north again, fires were raging across the south-west slopes and Snowy Mountains by the weekend.

The Dunns Road fire tore through Batlow and the Kosciuszko National Park and into the snowfields.

A popular ski resort at Selwyn was completely destroyed.

ABC cameraman Matt Roberts compared the damage to a previous visit he made with his family during winter.

As the fire swept eastwards and the ACT braced to see if it would cross its border, Canberra was already suffering.

A pall of smoke — similar to what Sydney had seen numerous times earlier in the season — had resolutely settled over the city, with air quality now rated the worst in the world.

Kangaroo Island

Over in South Australia, a blaze that had broken out on Kangaroo Island at the end of December was worsening.

Last Friday, the "virtually unstoppable" Ravine blaze began to spread quickly.

As the fire continued to burn eastward, towns were evacuated. Two men — Dick Lang and his son Clayton — died as they were overtaken by fire on the Playford Highway.

By yesterday, 200,000 hectares were destroyed — almost half the island.

The island's Mayor, Michael Pengilly, was upbeat amid the disaster when he spoke to ABC Radio.

"The native bush will start regenerating quite quickly. In a few weeks, particularly out west, you'll see a lot of green shoots coming out," he said.

Across the country, shoots will break through the ashy ground, rubble will be cleared and houses rebuilt, but the deeper scars left by this catastrophe will take longer to heal.

Topics: bushfire, fires, disasters-and-accidents, australia, act, nsw, nt, qld, sa, tas, vic, wa, cobargo-2550, mogo-2536, sarsfield-3875, bairnsdale-3875, mallacoota-3892, corryong-3707, cudgewa-3705, batlow-2730, sydney-2000, parndana-5220

First posted