Good usage of the vernacular as well…

Sorry for the typo.

Ivan.

The “gum” tree has developed in hand with fire, as it needs it to enable the seed pod to burst and start new life. True, some of the blackened tree stumps may also produce suckers which may grow into trees themselves.

The expansion of Canberra suburbs, and the mis-guided planing that placed tree plantations too close (with pine trees – an exotic here in Australia, but useful for commercial reasons, for building frames etc., and paper pulp), has caused the same conditions that enable wildfires to menace our Human endeavours in many parts of the world.

Ivan.

As a child, my mother would wheel me in my carriage to Griffith Park.

Thanks for the pics, and a reminder of our trip.

If it turns out he’s an illegal alien, I fear Southern California will collapse into an ideological singularity.

Be afraid, be very afraid…

Glad to see Griffith was spared. It would be a significant loss both to the local and science communities. Griffith attracts a lot attention from local schools, etc.

GAry 7

Oh, the remains of the Mt. Stromlo observatory are by the way visible in Google Earth, just search for “mt. stromlo australia”. The walls next to the green patch surrounded by what looks like a small race-track used to be the admin builiding, the buildings to the north-east are the observatories, the furthest to the north-east, next to green patch is where we had dinner ( yes, it was no longer in service at the time, so it was being used for functions )

Hmm, terribly interesting story .. sorry .. LOL

He who touches the stars,

burns his fingers

At least this is not something we have to worry about in the UK

Flooding from incessant rain yes

Raging forest fires? – not really although you can get some peat fires in the Peak District National Park

I’ve just become a professional Science Communicator here in Sydney (after being an amateur one for most of my life). In fact, you can hear my first, tentative steps on Diffusion Science Radio (community radio) at the above address. Thanks for the inspiration, and let’s keep up the *good* communication between the States and Australia.

Just wanted to communicate that.

The latest report (as of 10:00 PM here in L.A.) is that the fire should be fully contained by tomorrow night. The observatory and the zoo are both out of danger and people who live on the edge of the park who were evacuated are now able to go back home. The only real man-made artifacts that were damaged were some power lines which caused the blackout of about 2,000 homes. All in all, a relatively happy ending to what could have been a serious tragedy.

You are right about Stromlo Phil. I was taken on an inspection of the ruins a couple of months after the fire. The impact of the intense heat on mirrors and domes was dramatic to see. Going to Stromlo always felt like a drive out into the country from Canberra as it was surrounded by pine plantations. Of course this is partly what did the damage in the fires. These days there are no new plantations being planted on the hill and all the debris was removed. Now it looks much smaller and closer than before. Only benefit is that some of the staff no have a view from their office windows on the mountains but this does not compensate for the destruction of all those wonderful telescopes and domes.

All the observatories here in Australia did major re-evaluation of their fire safety plans following the Stromlo fire. Since then we have had a bushfire very close to the Parkes Dish but fortunately no damage other than farmland crops and fences being destroyed.

Your comment about eucalypts struck home in reverse for me. Visiting Lawrence Berkeley Labs and the countryside out of San Francisco felt like I could be driving down a road here. Funnily enough I was out at our telescope at Parkes a few years ago and ended up helping to show a film location scout around. He needed to find somewhere for a big budget US sci-fi film that required a radio telescope or transmitter. He was impressed by Parkes but thought they would need to digitally remove the gum trees to make it look like the US. I had to inform him that it may not be necessary. In the end nothing came of the visit. I haven’t seen the film that was proposed so don’t know if it even ended up with a telescope in it.

I’m down here in Hervey Bay in Queensland for a few days, Australia is nice but not for a full week .
Joke aside, I can’t wait until we move back down here, after we have seen every single castle, palace, church, garden, lake, loch and ruin (or any combination thereoff) in England, Scotland and Ireland.