Bega Valley

A case study in folly #7: an avoidable inferno – the 2015 Wye River fire

2 January 2026 / 4 Comments

How many disasters must we have, and how much public and private money needs to be spent, before we stop accepting a situation that can and should be avoided?

Professor Mark Adams, landowner at Separation Creek

Introduction

Christmas should be a time of family, rest, and renewal. For the small coastal communities of Wye River and Separation Creek on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, Christmas Day 2015 brought devastation instead.

A case study in folly #5: Firestorm of incompetence – what Yankees Gap says about modern fire management

1 August 2025 / 9 Comments

The fire that should never have happened

This is not just a story of a fire that got out of control — it’s a story of a system that was never in control to begin with.

On 9 August 2018, a landholder on Yankees Gap Road near Bemboka, on the south coast of New South Wales, did what many had done before him.

Three days of hell in the valley

3 November 2023 / 10 Comments

Introduction

This month marks the 55^th anniversary of the worst fires experienced in the Bellinger Valley since European settlement. The late spring and early summer of 1968 was one of the worst fire seasons experienced in New South Wales. Spring was exceptionally dry in coastal areas, with Sydney only receiving 29.5 mm for the season, easily the driest on record.