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Border crossings meant same blaze had three names, bushfire inquiry hears

Lane SaintyNCA NewsWire
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Camera IconNot Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia

The infamous blaze that turned the sky red at Mallacoota on New Year’s Eve 2019 was known by three different names as it burned out of control during the Black Summer bushfires.

The Snowy 9 - Banana Track fire was sparked by a lightning strike on December 29 that year at the small town of Wingan River in East Gippsland, Victoria.

It roared towards the NSW border and crossed at two locations, into different local government areas and on different days.

Convention dictated each crossing was considered a new fire and so the blaze adopted two more monikers: the Border fire and the Rockton fire.

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Detective Glenn Bradley told the NSW bushfires coronial inquiry on Thursday it was sometimes difficult to survey the damage done by a single fire when it had two names and figures were coming in from different LGAs.

For instance, the senior fire investigator said, he could not state with precision how many boundary fences had been destroyed by the Border fire or how many livestock were killed in the Rockton fire.

The Border fire, which crossed over into NSW near Timbillica on New Year’s Eve 2019, destroyed 111 homes and damaged 25.

A total of 353 structures — including houses, facilities and outbuildings — were razed and 86 damaged as the fire burned in the Bega Valley LGA.

Among the facilities hit by the fires was the Eden chip mill in Edrom, which was the largest employer in the area, counsel assisting the coroner Adam Casselden said.

“It was severely impacted by the fires, with 100,000 tonnes of wood chips going up into smoke,” Mr Casselden said.

The Rockton fire destroyed four homes and damaged one after entering the state in the Snowy Monaro LGA on January 5.

The inquiry continues.

Originally published as Border crossings meant same blaze had three names, bushfire inquiry hears

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