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Little Desert, Grampians fires keep western Vic on alert

Liz Wells January 29, 2025

Fire crews have largely been able to contain the Little Desert fire within the national park’s boundary and prevent it from getting into farming land and threatening property, including the township of Dimboola. Photo: Warracknabeal CFA

FIRES in western Victoria have parts of this major cropping and grazing region on alert ahead of a return to heatwave conditions expected by Sunday.

The major fire is burning in the Little Desert National Park, which stretches west from the south-western outskirts of Dimboola.

The park’s longest boundary sits roughly 10km south of the main rail line linking South Australia and Victoria.

The 132,647ha national park is surrounded by farms, whose cereal, canola, and pulse crops were harvested in November and December, and the district’s sheep are mostly grazing on stubble and eating supplementary feed amid the hot and dry conditions.

Dimboola has a population of around 1500 people, many of whom evacuated due to the fire’s threat, and have since returned home.

Dimboola also has two grain-handling facilities, oat processor Blue Lake Milling east of town, and Cargill’s GrainFlow site to the north.

Neither have been affected, although GrainFlow Dimboola, currently holding barley, canola, and wheat, closed yesterday because of the proximity of the fire.

Interruption to rail

Victoria has two rail-freight networks, with Australian Rail Track Corporation in charge of standard gauge, and V/Line in charge of broad gauge.

In response to the fire threat, ARTC at 6pm on Monday closed the Kaniva-Horsham track, part of the Adelaide-Melbourne line, at the request of Victoria Police.

“Once the fire threat had passed, the track was handed back to ARTC yesterday at 10.35am, and following our inspections, normal operations resumed in the afternoon,” ARTC said in a statement.

“Several freight trains were delayed during the track closure.”

Grain Central understands these were three container trains, and bulk grain services have not been affected.

Some V/Line services have also been affected.

Around Little Desert National Park, a number of roads are closed to general traffic in an area bordered roughly by Warracknabeal in the north-east, Horsham in the south-east, and to the west, the Kaniva-Edenhope Road.

The road runs parallel to the South Australian border roughly 30km to its west, and between it sits the western section of the Little Desert National Park which has escaped damage from the current fire so far.

The Western Highway between Kaniva and Horsham is believed to have reopened today, and road freight operators including Riordan Grain Services are not reporting delays due to the fires, as trucks have been able to reroute where necessary.

Unprecedented size, speed

Lawloit mixed farmer John Bennett said fires are common in the nearby Little Desert, but are normally contained by human intervention and/or running up against a previous burn which acts as a firebreak.

“We regularly have fire in the Little Desert due to lightning, if not every year, then every other,” Mr Bennett said.

“Normally, farmers and firefighters can contain them.”

He said Monday’s fire was a different beast.

“In my time, I’ve never seen such a large percentage get burnt; maybe 80pc of the block east of Kaniva has burnt.

“The ignition point was south of Lowloit, and it got to roughly 60km away in the space of an afternoon.”

The Little Desert National Park fire has destroyed at least one home and several outbuildings.

The Vic Emergency website said the fire is not yet under control, and is active along the park’s northern boundary.

“There is also some fire activity along the southern edge that may be generating some smoke,” the website said.

“Smoke from this fire may be experienced in communities north of the Little Desert, including Nhill and Kiata.

“This may persist for a few days.”

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast light winds and maximum temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius for today and tomorrow ahead of a hotter day on Saturday.

A return to 40 degrees or more is forecast from Sunday to Tuesday, but only light winds of up to 20kmh, which are favourable for crews looking to control current or subsequent blazes.

Further south and into Victoria’s grazing and mixed-farming country, fires continue to plague the Grampians National Park region, with a blaze in the Wallaby Rocks region prompting a “leave immediately” call to residents and visitors today.

Please check the VicEmergency website for the latest information with regard to fires and road closures.

 

 

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