Australia has often been described as a “land of droughts and flooding rains” and it has always had bushfires, (also described as ‘wildfires’). Worldwide coverage showed wildfires started in our Eastern States, exacerbated by the weather and drought, in August 2019. These conditions aren’t new to Australians. High temperatures and strong winds, combined with the lengthy drought and low moisture in the soil kept the fires blazing. The extreme heat came after the driest spring on record, and reports show we are experiencing drier, hotter and longer summers. Finally, into February, significant rains have come but some inaccessible fires in remote areas are still burning. Many fires have been downgraded.

Fire officers report that the majority of blazes were started by dry lightning storms, many in heavily wooded National Parks where the Australian native trees are highly combustible. The recent devastating bushfires impacted and burnt about 11 million hectares of land. It killed at least 50,000 livestock, burned more than 3,000 homes and the nation is mourning the deaths of 29 people. Sadly, it is estimated that a large number of native animals have also died. People overseas have been concerned by the images of fire and perhaps misled by maps suggesting that nearly the whole of our nation was ablaze, when in fact 2% of Australian land mass was affected. One consequence of these reports was many millions of dollars in bookings made by overseas tourists have been cancelled and current flight bookings are down by 30% to 40% in some of our tourism locations.

The good news is that THE ROSE GARDENS AND MAJORITY OF SCENIC PLACES which we have planned to visit during the 2021 WFRS World Rose Convention in Adelaide, and the Pre and Post-Convention tours throughout Australia, HAVE NOT BEEN AFFECTED by fires (with one exception a Rhododendron Garden in the Blue Mountains which is doing its best to recover).

In South Australia and New South Wales we will take you to some of the fire affected areas so that you can see how quickly our natural vegetation recovers from fire, and some trees are already regenerating.

The best thing our global rose friends can do to help us and our communities is to honour us with your attendance at the WFRS World Rose Convention in Australia in October, 2021.