by Administrator
19. February 2009 08:37
A twelve day wildfire that claimed the lives of 201 people in southern Australia's Victoria region is finally beginning to reach its end game thanks to the tireless efforts of countless firefighters, and a bit of cooperation from mother nature. 24 Wineries seem to have been seriously effected, and a staggering 5% of the Yarra Valley's vineyards have been devastated by the blaze.
Luckily it would appear that all is not lost. Most of the vineyards are actually expected to survive, with mainly the leaves and fruit of the vines being burned while the resilient roots remained in tact. Thank god for good irrigation. Still, one has to wonder about the further reaching effects of this tragedy on the heals of a massive drought, and drastically declining export sales of Aussie wine.
In an interesting side note, this tragedy is a good reminder to not so easily shrug off the "old ways" of our cultures. In Australia, the indigenous Aborigines have been living with bush fires for thousands of years. As such they learned how to actually use these massive blazes to both cleanse and shape the land. They would control them by strategically burning certain patches to control the path of the fire. Technology and science are great, but there's a lot to be said for 10,000 years of practice.
