Well, we are now into Day 3 of the Sisters Beach bushfires. We now have three “incidents” which thankfully are only at the “Advice” level. They are all still listed as “Going” which means that they are not yet controlled. We’ve had helicopters overhead all day and that reminds me of how during the Huon Valley fires I would run outside nearly every time I heard one, even weeks afterwards.

The fire causing most concern at present is one that is heading eastwards towards Lake Llewellyn. That is a man-made lake with a small settlement on the left-hand side of Sisters Beach Road just before you reach the main part of the village. I don’t really know whether to call Sisters Beach a township, a village or what because apart from the shop, fire station and amenities block there are no facilities here. It started life as a community of beach shacks. Locals tend to refer to it as “the village”. The original family who developed Sisters Beach put the lake in many years ago. I’m told that there used to be water skiing on it until a speed limit was put on boats on the lake. The fire seems to be on the opposite side of the lake to the homes but there are a lot of trees and it has been breezy so there is concern. It’s not easy to fight fires in a National Park, there are issues of access.

There was a shower of rain earlier this afternoon but I don’t know if it was really enough to be a lot of help.

If the fire gets up to Sisters Beach Road and it is closed to traffic, we’ll be in a bit of trouble because we won’t be able to leave and anyone who has gone to work, school or anything in Wynyard or surrounding area wouldn’t be able to return. We went to Wynyard this morning and it was fine. I know Naomi wants to go out tomorrow but we’ll check the conditions first.

I’ll post again if anything changes for better or worse.