High Country Fire damage

Just had a week in Porepunkah (near Bright) - while most of the "tourist" things are open for business - there are a lot of restrictions as to where you can drive in the area - for instance the Mt Buffalo Road was closed - apparently the chalet was abandoned by staff on recommendation until further notice - also the Buckland Valley road was open for travel - but no camping or off road stuff was possible - the DSE and firies are doing a tremendous job and would have welcomed the rain on New Years Eve - from our campground we could see a lot of smoke from backburning -
We came back through Whitfield to Mansfield and Yea - and this is where you can see the extent of the fire up there - right up to the edge of the road in a lot of places -
The effects will be far reaching - for instance the La Cantina winery (who do wine with no preservatives and don't filter like ordinary wines - prices are good too - wine is terrific) are still waiting to find out what damage the smoke will do to the grapes - having already had about 60% of their grapes damaged by frost - this is another blow to the area.
Lets hope people head up to these places to support them, and realise that at this stage camping is limited in the bush. We stayed at the Riverview Caravan Park in Porepunkah - nice relaxed setting - plenty of trees and right ono the river. Nice people running it as well.
Happy New Year
jules

I haven't driven around too much. I went up to Falls Creek and across to Bright to have a bit of a look around. Doesn't look as bad as the '03 fires as these fires appear to have kept close to the ground.
The grapes maybe still unaffected. A wine guru was saying on the radio that the grapes are to immature but then I had a Chardonay from Annapurna Winery from the '03 fires (which burned around the area in Jan) and it had a smokey taste!

Leroy

the new look Craigs Hut...

G'day John, well said 'Craigs hut was not historic, but a movie mock up...'.
There was certainly too much hysteria about that 'loss'

andy

Craigs might not have been hoistoric but it was quintessential. Many ppl, including myself are drawn back to look at it time and time again. It has a great feeling about the place. Yes its a film set, blah bla blah but I reckon it was a great place

"Quintessential"!! yep for sure agree with you 100%.

"Quintessential Hollywood"!!
Its appealing because that's the effect the movie makers wanted, God forbid they make it ugly for the film.

Me I find the feeling's and the view of the High Country as "Quintessential" as you can get without the need to add a tourist attraction to blot the scenery.

I feel for them too mate. Woods Point too will feel it for a while. High fuel prices test them but this is worse. Have a good trip to Heyfield. Hug for Cammo.

thanks for the grass while there.. cam had a blast as usual..
will hug and have good time in Heyfield.

Hey mate, careful the way you put that. People may think I am a local supplier.......

Cam seems to be building confidence which is great to see.

You mean you're not????
Give me my money back if you can't supply ;-)

Hey, John, thats your Port Campbell mob. There connected with the fishos. We watched over by the Feds this week anyway...... LOL

Mich..
contact the Vic Huts Association.. they *MAY* have the most up to date info, but with mass backburns still going on round the place, I wouldnt expect any thing final for few mths yet..

www.vhcha.org.au/

That's good news annez. We were there about a week before the fires and it is a great spot. I don't hold the same hopes for the houses across the river or the ones up by Tobacco flat.