725 kilometres south-east of Adelaide is the Tasmanian Island in Bass Straight, called King Island. Bushfires are raging out of control there at the moment and the low pressure weather systems are blowing the smoke across the continent to South Australia. Today we are bathed in the smoke of this disastrous fire and we must spare a thought for the folks of King Island. Dorothea Mackellar said in her poem, "Core of my Heart",
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…
This 'filmy veil' of greyness tells us of our neighbours and their turn at distress; bushfires, an Australian event that occurs like perpetual motion, every summer. But we know, we'll see, "She pays us back threefold".
10 comments:
I´m sorry to hear that M.Benaut. Hope things will get better soon.
Your poem is a good touch to the information in your post.
Oh dear, yes indeed. I lived on Tasmania for three years and was caught in a bush fire and well know how terrible they can be. Really sorry to hear about King Island. A wonderful place.
Jilly x
Goodness M. Benaut. When i first saw the photo i sighed with delight, thinking such a beautiful heat haze and how yet again i was envious. Then, i read.
I'm very sorry to hear of this it must be a terrible thing to be caught up in, Thoughts with them.
It happened the same to me than Lynn. I saw your pic on the portal and thought waht a beautiful sight you bring us today!
But it's really sad. In Spain this summer was really dramatic and lots of forest vanish off because of fire.
And the worst thing about it is that mostly of them were started on purpose.
Bushfiers are quite a severe problem in the continent, aren't they? It must be very difficult dealing with them indeed. We do have forest fires in Bhutan, but they're quite small and easily contained.
About the co-ordinates, I posted a link on the photo blog to a tiny zip file that contains a Google Earth placemark to the Bhutan Gate. If you missed it, here's the link again.
My sister-in-law is from Tazzie...
Hope they get them under control soon...
Smoke like that is yucky and it just permeates everything...
Here's to clearer skies ahead!
;)
Thanks, Monica,
It doesn't bother us too much, but the Islanders are having a rough timeof it.
Kate,
Dorothea McKellar wrote "Core of my Heart", which has become a sort of national symbolic poem. Check out Dorothea McKellar on Wikipedia. Hope you are settling-in nicely in Mexico.
Jilly,
Wow, you have experienced a bushfire!! Terrifying. So different to the beautiful hillsides of Gorbio. Do you have a view down to the Mediterranean Sea?
Lynn,
We WILL get you here one day, you won't even have to attend language classes. J J. But, do practise the Aussie accent.
Dsole,
I know you have fires too. I see them more on French TV than on Aussie TV. Hope they were not too close to you.
Utsav,
Thanks for that, but I can't open the link. I'm either stupid or computer illiterate. I'll keep trying.
Ame,
Your sis-in-law can educate you guys in pronouncing things like JAVVAGOODWEEKENDMATE? and other highly intellectual stuff!! And you two had better get down here also, we have the same climate. We must be related !!! And, you know how much I loved that car photo, mate.
Sweet dreams to all. I'm tucking in early tonight, 1:15 AM. Blogging ####### crikey!
Stunning photo with the smoke, and terrible story behind it.
Hi, you've got a great blog here. You know, Adelaide is the only Australian capital I have yet to visit. Will correct this situation one day.
Post a Comment