Australia Fires Update

The situation in parts of Australian wine country look pretty tough for growers. The following update is today’s view reported in an Australian wine media company … https://winetitles.com.au/agw-bushfire-update-wineries-are-hurting/. Tough to say at this time what will be smoke tainted, this year’s crop burned out, and completely lost plants. Tough situation for many growers in these areas and especially hard on the smaller growers.

Another update article … https://winetitles.com.au/nsw-wineries-left-shocked-by-damage-in-wake-of-bushfire/ . Looks like a full report will come out next month in the next issue of Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker.

Another article … Fires Damage Australian Grapes | Wine Enthusiast . Note the daily high temperatures and the average daily high of 107.4 F in December for Australia!

Really heart breaking to read about the fires down under. Been to Oz a couple of times and absolutely love it there.

Horrible what is happening there.

A good place to donate to help support relief for wildlife: https://www.wires.org.au Easy to donate on FB.

A number of wineries in the Adelaide hills were directly impacted with the fires too.

If anyone is interested in details or donating or making purchases direct from the affected wineries below has links:

It’s terrible. A real holocaust. The smoke has reached Argentina. And everyone will be worrying about smoke taint, even if they don’t get fire damage themselves.

I have a couple of friends who are long time fire/rescue guys down there, and they say it is bad. Very bad. These are guys with 30+ years of experience who don’t get shook up easily.

They also sent me a link to support the families of a couple of firefighters killed recently, if anyone is interested in sending the families anything.

https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/general-news/featured/support-for-firefighter-families

It is very bad. You can’t stop fires like this unless you have rain, and decent rain.
I believe the area lost is close to 6 million hectares (15 million acres). For a sense of scale 2 million acres were lost in the devastating Californian fires.
As has been identified in another thread a third of the Adelaide Hills vineyards have been lost or damaged. There are wineries now desperately searching for fruit for the 2020 vintage.
Just two nights ago we hosted a friend from NSW who lost one of his farms. He stayed to defend his property and stud heard. The speed and ferocity of the fire necessitated a hast exit, whereby he drove at high speed through the fire front. He is still visibly shaken.
Having said all that, The US travel warning to Australia is a bit overstated - the country is open for business for tourists and many regions that rely on the tourist dollars desperately need visitors.