Just a few before and after photos of the bushland around Batchelor after the local prescribed burns.
All the native vegetation has been destroyed and all the local wildlife has gone, as there is no shade, shelter, food or nesting places left.
The old railway embankment is now fully exposed and the cuttings visible, although the view now has little beauty to recommend it.
Our wallabies, lorikeets, red-tailed cockatoos, blue-faced honeyeaters and the friendly little local possums are no more. There is no food, shelter, nesting spots left for these animals and if they survived the inferno, they have left the area, making it a even more barren place.
While the local native vegetation has been annihilated, the noxious weed Gamba grass has new green growth shooting already, a mere fortnight after the fire.
My pleasant afternoon walks through the bush are a thing of the past. Many trees are still dropping braches, so walking here is quite dangerous…
Interestingly, the fire has also revealed a bit of history normally covered up by the bush. This is probably the remains of a WWII machine gun emplacement, located not far from the end of Batchelor airport wartime runway.
