Firefighters from across the Mid North Coast were recently sent to Victoria to assist with blazes in the Grampians and Little Desert National Parks – which have now been contained after many weeks.

However, fire crews remain on scene with challenging strong winds and hot conditions forecast. 

🚒 Local heroes answer the call

The fire specialists were deployed to Victoria to relieve Country Fire Association (CFA) crews who had been working on the fires since December.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS), National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Fire and Rescue NSW, plus NSW Forestry Corporation joined forces to help battle the fire fronts.

Local Forestry firefighters Aden Hitchcock from Dorrigo, David McLaughlin from Coffs Harbour, Paul Douglas from Wauchope and Daniel Carey from Taree were deployed last week.

They replaced a five-person crew that departed on February 1, which was led by Wauchope’s Gary Miller, who was deployed for seven days as an Operations Officer in the Incident Management Team (IMT) at Ararat.

Miller was alongside firefighters Hannah Mangnall and Bronson Lovett from Wauchope and Daniel Macaree and James Martin from Maitland.

“We were there to give the local Victorian IMT personnel some time off as they have been fighting fires and overseeing the fire management since December with major efforts involved in the containment of the fires in the Grampians," Miller said.

The Mid North Coast crew were some of around 200 personnel who contributed to the effort in controlling the Victorian fires.

🔥 Zooming out on the damage from western Victoria’s multiple bushfires

On January 27, dry lightning started fires in two new sections of the Grampians National Park and at the Little Desert National Park. 

The Little Desert fire spread quickly within the first couple of days and ended up burning more than 95,000 hectares.  

The Grampians fires merged with the original Yarram Gap Road fire from December 17 (2024) due to ongoing fire activity and back burning. 

The Wallaby Rocks section of the fire was contained on February 8 with more than 59,000 hectares burnt. 

The Yarram Gap Road section was contained on January 6 and declared under control seven days later, with a fire footprint circumference of 422 kilometres, more than 76,000 hectares of national park and agricultural land burnt. 

Four residential properties were lost from the Grampians fires and one property, and one business from the Little Desert fire. 

There were also 40 outbuildings lost at the Grampians and two at Little Desert along with significant stock losses and impacts to wildlife and vegetation across both fire regions.

“We’ve had a long and challenging fire season so far with crews from across the state and interstate working on the bushfires since December,” State Response Controller David Nugent said.

🤝 Firefighting across borders and sharing resources

Climate change in NSW is having a significant effect on the predictability and length of the bushfire season. Last year was the second-hottest on record, with changing wind and rain conditions only making the job of containing fires more difficult.

Rebel Talbert, Forestry Corporation’s Senior Manager Fire and Natural Hazards, said that “while we have had fires in NSW and the threat especially in the south and the west is not over yet, it is important to share resources around the country when we can”.

“Our firefighters are highly skilled and experienced in Australian bushland firefighting and are always ready to lend a hand in regional NSW or further afield.”

🤚 Repaying help from the Black Summer Bushfires

It is common practice for firefighters to be deployed interstate and even outside of Australia.

In July 2024, 31 Australian firefighters were deployed to Canada where there was 650 fires were active. The deployment was to repay the favour which saw Canadian firies assist on the Australian 2019-2020 Black Summer Bushfires.

Forestry Corporation added 96 new recruits to its firefighting roster in December 2024 as NSW prepares to mark the fifth anniversary of the Black Summer Bushfires.

☀️ Hotter weather, strong winds, and more challenges

Fire crews remain at both fires treating hazardous trees, monitoring hot spots and consolidating containment lines. 

Conditions over the next few days are still going to be challenging, with strong winds forecast from the south accompanied by warm to hot conditions for the rest of the week.