Rhonda Bracey: At Random

A year to the day that Yarloop was all but destroyed by one of the worst bushfires in Western Australian (European) history, I travelled to Perth along Forrest Highway, which the fire had jumped on its path of destruction to the coast. The bush is recovering slowly, with many weed species taking hold. The grass trees have sent up many spears (stimulated by the fire?), though not all are straight — many are very twisted. I don’t know if the twisting is natural or a result of the trauma to the plants by the fires. Many other trees/bushes are dead and will eventually fall over/drop branhces, or be taken over by other vegetation.

Some photos while driving to and from Perth this past weekend — the first photo is of the bush alongside the highway in an area not burnt (this is what it used to look like before the fires):

Update: Photos from 31 March 2018, some two years and nearly 3 months after the Yarloop fires. These were taken on Forrest Highway in one of the areas the fire burnt through. The recovery of many of the trees is quite remarkable. Some are just dead, but many have recovered. Sometime in the past few months, the Main Roads people have also trimmed away any dead branches on the verges that were likely to break off and potentially become a road hazard.

Update: 4 September 2018: Two years, 8 months since the Yarloop fires… Springtime and the amazing regenerative nature of the Australian bush after devastating and catastrophic fire just stuns me. Some photos from my drive back from Perth today. While there are still a lot of dead and burnt branches, the understorey seems to have fully recovered and is thick with new life. Many of the burnt trees seem to have recovered too, and are covered in leaf growth.

See also:

• Six months after the Yarloop fires
• Driving to and from Perth (about three weeks after the fires)
• The day I evacuated because of the fires