camp fires in summer

There is no hard & fast rule on non fire ban days, other than the size of the fire, 1 meter in diameter, the length of the timber on the fire, also 1 metre & the clearing of flammable material around the fire site.

The only thing is plain old common sense & the ability to say NO to kids!

TFB today
National Parks are closed on catastrophic days now,
wouldn't be all that much firewood around PF anyway, you'd think.. busy place
is it worth it just for cooking marshmellows anyway, you could do that in your backyard

There are in SA. NO fires in fire danger season without a permit.

Or you could teach your kids something responsible and don't have a campfire!

Happy trails, Mike.

thanx, o'course common sense first! last thing i would want is a out of controll fire on our hands! i was just wondering if there was any rules/laws about it! will just play it by ear and see what its like up there!

Laws probably vary from State to State, but during the stipulated Fire Danger
Period, usually Oct to April in NSW, you can be fined a lot of $$ for lighting a fire
without a permit. In times of total fire ban the laws are even tougher. I would
not be leaving it to chance, find out what applies to your State...google will tell
you all you need to know......oldbaz.

The Department of Sparks and Embers rules for Vic are here:

Campfires

Cheers

Pete

Hi Archar,
Obviously you have your head screwed on the right way... because you are asking!

For goodness sake people, don't crucify him for asking, he was unsure, and asked a question. Isn't that what we all do??

Dave

Now living in a rural area - just down the road from a popular camping spot listed in ' 4wheel touring south east NSW"

where we have had about 10 mm rain in the past 2 months and today hit 45 deg - PLEASE DO NOT CAMP NEAR ME IF YOUR HAVING A FIRE

You will be putting my life and that of my family's life in danger -so you can have a cooked marsh mellow

fires are like 2 yr old near a pool -- you can not leave it for 1 min .... or things can go wrong ...

common sense , as other posters have said is not NOT have a fire at all ...

i am sure this advice will be ignored , but should be in the back of your mind if your fire does get away from you ....

Boc

You could end up like a farmer in NZ some years ago who didnt stub a butt

right out and burnt several thousand hectares.

He was a good guy and admitted he caused it but didnt like the bill for putting it out.

You could end up with an arson charge for lighting an illegal fire and it got away

We are in the Adelaide hills and in a TFB so I wouldnt even light the Cobb over the last few days.


Have fun with care

Why not leave the marsh mellows to a cooler or wetter time of year and find a different way of amusing the kids?

Apart from the illegality of a campfire according to other posts it is unwise.

Surely we should be guided by wisdom and common sense as well as law and it is a no go to have a camp fire on high fire risk days.

"I could understand people getting very upset with someone lighting a campfire on a high fire risk day." As first written it is open to misinterpretation.


Flynnie

this was only a question, i wouldnt even think about starting fire if there was any risk of a fire, they had a fair bit of rain in the area a few weeks ago, and was just wonder what the general feeling was! we have neva had a fire in summer as most of the time it has been to dry, but i have seen alot of people who do.
but no fire for me i think!!!!!!

Hi Archar

I don't know if the other states are similar, but in WA most rural Shires have total fire ban periods, such a from a date in November through to Autumn. In times of a late Autumn season break, the ban will be extended. This includes all camp fires.

When camping in the Kimberley year before last, someone in a park camp lit a campfire to cook lunch on a windy day. We all spent the afternoon bucketing water from the river and using that and towels to fight the bushfire. One young couple from Germany were really panicking as their camper had broken down and they could not move it; the young lady only had one tiny bucket, but it too took its place in the bucket relay. At the start, i never imagined we would stop this fast spreading fire on such a hot and windy day.

I know a lot of people here say it isn't camping without a camp fire, but we always cook on gas. Being on a farm, we have seen too many bushfires, and some of these have been caused by campfires - lit by people who didn't understand.

Motherhen

Living in a Shire where you would probably get lynched if you lit a fire in summer.