TALKING TURKEY No 121 NOVEMBER 2012 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE WAGSTAFFE TO

KILLCARE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC

WAGSTAFFE TO KILLCARE COMMUNITY ASSOC (WTKCA) CONTACT: 4360 1709 WEBSITE: - WWW.WAGSTAFFETOKILLCARE.ORG.AU

NEXT MEETING

Monday, 12TH November

at 7.30 at Wagstaffe Hall

Guest Speaker:

Michelle Biddulph

Captain of the Killcare Rural

Fire Service

Providing an update on the RFS

and answering questions.

BOUDDI PARK BUSHFIRES DOMINATE THIS EDITION OF TALKING TURKEY.

See inside for the story and photos

The community is invited to

Wagstaffe Hall TO COME AND THANK OUR FIRIES FOR THE

WONDERFUL JOB THEY DID TO SAVE OUR COMMUNITY FROM A MAJOR

DISASTER.

WHEN: Sunday 4th November TIME at 4pm

BRING A PLATE TO HELP CATER Refreshments

provided

What a very generous community! “What’s been on” follow-up

The Hardys Bay 11th Annual Pink Day Luncheon was a huge success. Over 120 ladies attended the function and over $17,000 was raised for this great cause. In addition and because of the huge sup-port and the contributions received from our sponsors more than 95% of the proceeds will be donated directly to the National Breast Cancer Founda-tion. We would also like to give an extra BIG THANK YOU to all our local busi-nesses whose support was once again FANTASTIC. As well THANKS to the Rural Fire Brigade for their fantastic efforts in saving property AND the RSL in the lead up to the big day. What a great result ! Heidi Holt

LONG WEEKEND ART FAIR—An amazing result! Thank you to all exhibitors and visitors to the art show. More than 600 people attended and gave generous dona-tions at the door, totalling $800. We sold 17 artworks, almost 20%, an excellent result. When commission from sales was combined with donations we raised a total

of over $1,500 for the children's play area at the tennis courts. All local artists were invited to enter and 30 responded -- we would have liked more, so please start painting and consider entering next year. All entries were hung. The Garden Club and Pretty Beach Pre-school also raised substantial amounts from their stalls to boost their funds. Thank you to everyone for your support and generosity.

Thank you to WTKCA for their generous support and help with the show especially Graeme (EFTPOS) Anderson. The aim of the Art Fair is to give ALL locals an oppor-tunity to exhibit and sell their artwork, raise funds for a local community project and have some fun -- all achieved! Footy finals kept many people away; attendance was low compared to other years so this was a remarkable result. Jean Scott

Pretty Beach Public School Seaside Fair

A very big thank you to both the school and peninsula communities for your support of the Seaside Fair. With your generous donations and attendance we raised a lot of money (TBA) for various school projects. With the Bushfire on the Friday we were unsure whether we would even be able to proceed. However, with the hard work of the Firies, and some luck with the weather, it turned out to be a great day. We had some fantastic stalls and great entertainment and rides. THANK YOU Rose Mackay (P&C President)

14 local residents from the peninsula rode in the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Charity Bike Ride on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October. Over 1600 cyclists from NSW took part raising $5.7 million dollars for the Chris O’Brien ‘Lifehouse’ at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. It turned out to be the largest single fund raising event in Australian History. Most people have signed up to do it again next year. Many thanks to the community. There are still a couple of opportunities to be involved… The Jersey auction finishes on 23rd November 2012 at Wagstaffe Store. NRL Hire A Hubby Auction. Retired NRL players, Nigel Vagana and Andrew (Bobcat) Ryan, are being auctioned off as per details on the website www.aussiecharities.com.au

TALKING TURKEY www.wagstaffetokillcare.org.au November 2012 Page 2

THE BOUDDI PARK FIRE October 5, 2012

On Friday 5th October the scene was set. Temperature 35 degrees, humidity 16% and a strong south westerly wind eddying around the Bouddi Peninsula. Forecast: strong southerly change mid-morning. At 6am the ferry-master and a fishing boat reported two people on the northern end of Lobster Beach and a fire getting away. The fire ran up the gully quickly in a westerly direction and at 7am a walker reported the fire arriving at the Flannel Flower track. The Killcare Rural Fire Service moved quickly and sent the message to headquarters that this was a big one. The response was enormous. MacMasters and Copacabana came in fast and as the morn-ing progressed, 12 Rural Fire Brigades, 9 Sydney NSW Fire Brigades and 3 National Parks trucks arrived. And just as important, they were accompanied by about 130 fighters. Around lunchtime a technical communication first occurred: every fixed phone line and every mobile phone line with a local address received a warning message about the fire. The whole complexity of the situation became apparent whilst interviewing Warwick Teasdale, the Rural Fire Group Captain who was Incident Controller, and watching him draw lines on the paper showing the problem areas. A westerly wind was spreading the fire across the area, and a southerly was expected within hours that would turn the attack on a very wide front. At Lobster Beach ridge five houses at the southern end were highly exposed; along High View Road to the south several more houses were endangered and there were more houses around the corner in Venice Road, Como Parade and Heath Road to worry about. Along Hawke Head drive another string of houses was threatened on each side. Some areas burned slowly as they had been reduced several years ago, but in other areas it spread much faster and often crowned, so the handling of each area differed. The big National Park area towards the back of the Surf Club was fortunately a slow-burning area due to previous hazard reductions. To compound the whole issue the old 1960s Fire Trail through the Bouddi National Park became a concern because of sections closed off. The only access road to the site was Hawke Head Drive. The first containment line in the National Park was set up on the old fire trail with trucks, hoses and manual rakes. Then big spot fires started behind them, and they had to evacuate leaving some hoses behind as the flames surrounded the area. At about midday, the Killcare Brigade truck was climbing an old fire trail, when it had the front axle gymnastically compromised enough to drop the front transmission driveshaft spline. It only needed a 30 minute mechanic’s job to undo the front universal, but who had 30 minutes, the spanners and where was the mechanic? So the truck was abandoned and recovered later with only minor plastic damage! At Pretty Beach House they fought to danger point and as they exited they hit the big sprinkler button. The external spray-stands, pumps and tanks worked overtime and saved the buildings, apart from one verandah. During Friday morning only fixed wing planes with limited capacity were available, but later in the afternoon (and on Saturday and Sunday) helicopters scooped salt water and dumped it where needed.

The second containment line, at the helipad in the park, was lost. And a third. Finally Warwick reported to Steve Marsh at Kariong that the fire had broken four containment lines. This is puz-zling, until you go along Hawke Head Drive and have a look. The burnt out topography defies the imagination.

TALKING TURKEY www.wagstaffetokillcare.org.au November 2012 Page 3

To fight Bush fires you need water, hand rakes, and back-fires and people to utilise them to ‘Fight Fire with Fire’. But in mountainous country and swirling winds the situation changes rapidly. At Lobster a back-fire was started at about 10am in a vertical line from Lobster Beach right up to Moore’s house. A truck pulled water from the hydrant in High View Road and pushed the water up to the ridge and off to hoses. The southerly change came in about 1pm and as a good back-fire break had been created, the fire coming back from the south burnt out. By 4 pm the ridge-line above Lobster Beach was SAFE . The fire was charging across the expanse and the spot-fires were spreading in all directions. So now the firies’ back-fires were started in Como Parade, Heath Road, and later behind houses near the RSL Club. One episode reports a bridge player, happily playing at Wagstaffe Hall at 2pm, going back home to Heath Road for a minute to get some headache tablets, only to find his absent neighbour’s back yard burning furiously! By mid afternoon there had been many home evacuations from Como Parade, Venice Road and Heath Road. Channel 7 reported the disappearance of one householder’s ‘pussycat’. (The cat re-turned that night!) Some owners stayed and just kept spraying their back gardens with hoses for hours. A few months ago at a meeting between the Firies and the Lobster Beach house owners it became obvious that everything in the big picture depended on having water pressure in the street mains. On the Friday Gosford Council Engineers were here, prepared to keep the big Council tanks as full as they could be. A huge water-tanker sat at Pretty Beach all day, ready to refill trucks if the mains supply collapsed. By Friday midnight the fight was near the RSL Club. A dedicated team with rakes started at the top of the hill and manually cut a containment line right down and along the hill to get a starting point for backfires, which were then lit. Another team had to step in and carry on the work. How did the workers keep up their strength? Two special catering vehicles kept up a supply of food, and some house owners forced sandwiches on some firies who according to their usual code first said, ‘No thanks’. Enquiries as to where all the visiting crews slept received many varying answers from, “Who slept?” to “In the truck.” It was all a literal ‘baptism of fire’ for Michelle Biddulph, the newly elected captain of our Killcare team. Her team of about 15 stalwarts racked up on average 15 hard active frontline hours each on Friday through to Saturday morning. The end result was 1. No personal major injuries. 2. No property loss apart from a couple of verandahs. 3. A park 75% burnt out that will recover in time. 4. A group of homeowners and firies who have learnt a huge amount from such a major fire so early in the season. This is the account of the fight on the ground but as in all battles the background team had to call the shots: get the helicopters, arrange the food, work with the Police, bring in Sydney teams, balance the other major fire to the north at Wyee, send the water tanker, arrange support where brigades had been drawn away from their homes, get the ambulance support ready and...all the support functions that keep an army in the field. We can only say “THANKS A MILLION” and we look forward on 4th November to just shaking hands and expressing our thoughts to a lot of dedicated individuals who served us well.

Our thanks to Graeme Anderson for this story.

November 2012 INSERT TALKING TURKEY www.wagstaffetokillcare.org.au

Helicopter scooping up water

View from the air

View from Pretty Beach early afternoon

Pretty Beach a few hours later

FIRE RAGES AT PRETTY BEACH on FRIDAY 5th OCTOBER 2012

Local base—Hardys Bay RSL

Three of our heroes

Moore’s famous house—one of many saved

November 2012 INSERT TALKING TURKEY www.wagstaffetokillcare.org.au

How close is that?

Fire reaching its peak

AJ Lewis hosing down his backyard in Heath Road

The aftermath—a moonscape

November 2012 Page 4 TALKING TURKEY www.wagstaffetokillcare.org.au

***If you are thinking of booking the Hall for a function later in the year, be sure to make inquiries soon, as there have been a lot of bookings coming through. Hall

NOVEMBER AT THE HALL *Monday

9.30-11.00 am Yoga with Gai 4360 1854 6.00-8.00 am Pilates 4384 5005 Monday (12th) WTKCA meeting 7.30 pm *Tuesday

9.15 & 10.15 am Tai-Chi with Jacquie Dawson 4360 2665 / 0408 602 669 (2nd & 4th) 1.30-4.00 pm Knit 2 Chat Too 4360 2926 5.30 pm Yogalates Anne Love 0411 049 969 *Wednesday

7.30-8.30 am Tai Chi 4360 2705 6.30-7.30 pm Zumba Fitness with Rosalie 0409 128 632 *Thursday

7.30-8.30 am Tai Chi 4360 2705 9.15-10.15 am Clinical Pilates with Jo Frize 4360 2707 2.00-5.00 pm Mahjong 4360 2178 5.15-7.45 pm Jujitsu with Guido 0418 169 092 *Friday

7.30-8.30 am Tai Chi 4360 2705 9.30-11.00 am Yoga with Gai 4360 1854 1.30-4.30 pm Old Wags Bridge Group ( except 4th Friday) 4360 1612 4th Friday (23rd) 1.30-5.00 pm South Bouddi Friendship Group 4360 1002

Carving update The carvers continue to chip away at the poles and are making great progress with a strong environmental theme coming through. The curiosity and encouragement shown by locals and visitors alike has been overwhelming and we thank you all for your sup-port. We are all having a lot of fun and it's a steep learning curve. If you haven't seen the carvings yet, the poles are on the grass at the back of Wagstaffe hall near the wharf where you can view them at any time. The friendly carvers are there every Saturday from 11 am. Call in to see them at work.

Sewing machine assistance required please. I have been given a beautiful Janome sewing machine but without instructions. Is there someone who could show me how to thread the bobbin? My machine is a Husqvarna--quite different. Anna Bell--0418 294 749

WHEELBARROW HEIST— Could whoever took the wheel barrow from a driveway in High View Rd after emptying the rubbish in it, thinking it was all being thrown out, please return it!!! There will be no ques-tions asked.

HALL BOOKINGS: PHONE Roger Hayward 0459 152 642