Primary Source:
(sorry, written in German)
AUSTRALIA
BUSH FIRE
HISTORY
1974 - 1975
bush fires were
much larger in area
than the 2019-2020
bush fires (so far).
Australian
bush fires
of 2019-2020
have burnt an area
as big as southern
Germany, so far.
( in yellow, on map below )
( in yellow, on map below )
But in 1974 - 1975,
fires burnt an area
as large as France
and Spain combined.
( in red, on map below )
( in red, on map below )
‘In the summer of 1974/1975,
an area in Australia burned
to the tune of about the size
of Spain and France.
For the sake of perspective:
Bush fires are generally
nothing unusual in the
Australian summer.
Often large areas
are affected.
The last time
a huge fire
raged was in
February 2009.
The so-called
Black-Saturday-bush fires
killed over 170 people and
destroyed 1800 houses. […]
Since the beginning
of the great bush fires
in October 2019,
more than 100,000
square kilometres
of land burned
throughout Australia,
which is roughly
the size of Bavaria and
Baden-Württemberg
combined.
Thousands of houses
were destroyed.'”
Bavaria and
Baden-Württemberg
have a combined area
of around 105,000
square kilometers,
which is pretty big !
WetterOnline reminds us
that Australia has had
much worse:
"In the summer of 1974/1975
the flames burned over
an area of about one million
square kilometers.
This corresponds to an area
about three times the size
of Germany.”
That means an area
that is nine times greater
than what has been
affected this year!
Back in 1975,
atmospheric CO2
concentrations
were BELOW the
“safe” 350 ppm.
Stephan Pyne,
a US professor
wrote a book called
“Burning Bush;
a fire history
of Australia”.
On the fires of 1974/75
he says that the season
was the worst in 30 years.
He not only touches
on the state of Victoria
that saw the worst fires,
and where 4.5 million
hectares were lost
which was 1/5
of the state.
He also claims that overall
about 117 million hectares
were burnt, predominantly
in the interior where there
were few communities
and it was much less noticed.
He added that the scale
of the area affected
was largely detected
by satellite after the fact .
The total area represented
15 % of the Australian landmass.
The Black Thursday fires
of February 6, 1851
burnt through around
5 million hectares of
Victoria, the smallest
mainland state, located
in the temperate zone
in the south east
of Australia.
The Black Thursday fires
remain the largest bush fires
in Victoria since European
settlement.