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| Rainforest destroyed along road to Eungella |
The unprecedented burning of pristine rainforest around Eungella in the central Queensland hinterland is a stark warning of climate change-related environmental challenges that lie ahead. Rainforest has been reduced to ash in and around Eungella National Park, though the full extent of the damage is not yet known.
Unlike eucalypt forest, rainforest is extremely susceptible to fire and the habitat will struggle to regenerate. This is the first time in Australia that a substantial area of rainforest has evidently been impacted severely by wildfire. Alarm bells should be ringing loudly.
A spate of wildfires anywhere near this scale in late-spring and the beginning of summer has never before been witnessed in subtropical Queensland. It was inconceivable that pristine rainforest in places such as Eungella National Park could succumb to fire. If Eungella can burn, no rainforest is safe.
It's not just Eungella. An estimated 600,000 hectares have burned as more than 100 fires have raged across central and south-east Queensland over the past week. Towns have been evacuated. An unrelenting heatwave has seen temperature highs in many centres breaking records, day after day. At the moment, a fire is raging through the Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park, threatening the heathland habitat of the Eastern Ground Parrot and other rare wildlife.
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| Fire-fighting along the Eungella road |
Eungella resident Roger Sharp was one of many in the town evacuated in the face of the fire. He has lived there for 20 years. "It has just gone crazy,' Mr Sharp told the ABC. "It's something that no one has seen up there before." Fire station officer Ross Nunn said crews battled flames more than 15 metres high around Eungella: "It's like walking into purgatory, it's ballistic out there. The heat is so intense you can't get anywhere near it; if you do get close you'd melt the truck... Normally fires burn up to rainforests and go out but it's burning right through the rainforest. I don't know if it's ever going to come back." Eu
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| Wildfire at Deepwater, north of Bundaberg |
University of Queensland fire ecologist Philip Stewart told the ABC the impact may be felt for generations; rainforest could take centuries go regenerate. Dr Stewart said: "With the drought that we're seeing and the types of weather conditions, obviously we're going to be seeing catastrophic types of impact on that vegetation. There is a very good likelihood there will be a high mortality of those species."
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| Rainforest in Eungella National Park |
The Eungella Honeyeater is found nowhere but in the Eungella rainforests, 80km west of Mackay; it is too early to know if the bird's tiny distribution has been impacted. Rainforest is the primary tourist attraction for the town of Eungella and operators fear its destruction will undermine the local economy. Meanwhile, as Rome burns, many continue to fiddle.
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| Eungella Honeyeater |
