Fire out of control in the Eighteen Mile Swamp, possible site of wreck of Madagascar

[OzSwampfrog]

A massive fire is out of control on North Stradbroke Island, near the site of the wreck in the Eighteen Mile Swamp in Queensland, Australia (now believed to be that of the Madagascar). It broke out last Sunday, apparently after a lightning strike near Blue Lake, in the middle of the island. Police had evacuated over 1000 campers days ago, the town of Dunwich was also under threat until winds changed to northerly today. At midday, there were a few smaller fires in the south of the island, but by 5pm, fires had jumped containment lines and were burning out of control, as in this image, pushing south and also into the swamp. It is however impossible to know if the vegetation directly at the wreck site has been burned away. Thick smoke makes it too dangerous to enter the area. Temperatures of over 40 degrees are expected tomorrow and the heatwave is expected to continue for a few days. The relevance of this image to TreasureNet: thick vegetation has hidden the remains for 160 years, the wreck had only ever been seen directly after such fires. By now however, nothing above the mud of the swamp remains, the protruding beams had all been burnt away by the mid 1900s by successive fires. A new fire (they only occur roughly every twenty years) will however make it much easier to access the site, but nothing will be visible above ground, so get your metal detectors ready... Please only enter the area with permission from the Quandamooka Elders and from National Parks and Wildlfe Services. The local museum would appreciate contributions of anything found at the site. I should add that nothing of the gold cargo remains there - what the mutineers could not carry away themselves before setting fire to the ship just of the coast would have been taken to a second site and buried.

 

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[tamrock]

Sad to see, hope folks get away from all that safely.

 

[OzSwampfrog]

Hi, yeah, so far nobody has been hurt and no homes lost, but tonight the fire is approaching Dunwich again and some streets are being evacuated. The settlement of Myora has already been evacuated earlier. It's looking pretty bad, water, power and mobile phones are about to be cut off because the fire has hit the facilities. I'd like to call some friends to see if I can bring anything over to help like drinking water containers if at least land lines are working. Just when we thought Dunwich was safe, that wind changed again. It might even be in that photo on the other thread - that anvil shaped fire cloud looked like the southerly change hitting the island. Thanks for your kind thoughts.

 

[OzSwampfrog]

Just an update on this - fires are now under control, no homes or human lives lost but the impact on koalas, wallabies and possums, snakes and echidnas etc will be great. It's extremely sad that two of three areas of koala food trees have been burnt, only one survives in the north of the island. Straddie was home to about 50 koalas, but they were genetically pure because of the island habitat and apparently not affected by the disease, a form of chlamydia, which affects most mainland colonies. It's still unsure ho many survived. I'll try and add a photo to the main thread showing Dunwich streets, taken from the mainland at Wellington Point, a few days ago, with a small fire still burning and the slope of a hill burnt out on the left. The wreck site is now apparently easier to access.