The people of the Pilliga are no strangers to fire, but there were some nerves on edge late last year in the face of two bushfires that ran 12 kilometres in one direction and then turned, joined and made another 25 kilometre run in under twelve hours.

It was an eye opener for newly appointed forester, Tamara Campbell, directing Forests NSW field staff from Baradine. But it was even a surprise for veteran local firefighters.

It began with lightning strikes and was dubbed the Pilliga 4 fire; the fourth to be brought under a Section 44 bushfire emergency run by the NSW Rural Fire Service from Coonabarabran, and declared to control a series of fires from the same storm.

“It started on the 28th November,” Tamara said. “It ran under strong south westerly winds which turned south easterly, pushing the fire to cypress forests in the north west around the Aloes.

“Forests NSW staff from Baradine and Narrabri withdrew from the firestorm that developed, and monitored its progress.

“At 11pm on the 29th of November we were discussing establishing protection lines with graders to keep the fire out of Baradine.

“Thankfully, lower temperatures and wind speed overnight pulled the fire up about five kilometres from the town.”

Baradine is the major Pilliga township, and is home to many forest workers.

The next day reinforcements came from Forests NSW coastal regions, as well as volunteers from NSW and Queensland. A major battle ensued for several weeks to contain and control the fire.

It was a literally ‘baptism-of-fire’ for 15 newly trained brush cutter operators, under the guidance of ‘battle hardened’ Forests NSW fireground crews.

After the initial night’s run, the fire was effectively stopped in its tracks with more than 180km of fireline being held. It ultimately burnt 103446 hectares.

A further 22682 hectares was burnt in the Kerringle fire, which Tamara said made a big initial run on the same evening.

“But it ran into a hazard reduced area from earlier in 2006, and an area burnt by wildfire the previous year, and stopped,” Tamara said.

Each of the fires began in different spots in Pilliga Nature Reserve.

That wasn’t the last fire for the season. In December lightning again ignited a blaze that, like the others, forced the closure of the Newell Highway, a main freight route between Melbourne and Brisbane. Further strikes started even more fires in January.

Much of the area burnt in the fires had been severely affected by a 145000 hectare fire in 1997.

Baradine forester-in-charge, Tom Newby, was deputy incident controller.

“The 2006 fires took 12 hours to cover the same distance the ‘97 fire moved in three days,” Tom said.

Forests NSW lost cypress forests and two wooden bridges. A major salvage harvest operation commenced immediately.

“Forests NSW and industry moved quickly on salvage harvesting, as cypress is susceptible to jewel beetles that bore holes in wood when it is stressed or fire affected, and from radial cracking as the logs dry out under severe drought conditions,” Tom said.

By mid January, more than 1000 tonnes of wood had been removed and sawn.

This article appears in the Autumn 2007 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.