About 50 homes lost as bushfire rips through Harcourt and Ravenswood

A fast-moving bushfire that began near Fogarty's Gap Road on Friday afternoon ripped through Harcourt and Ravenswood in Victoria, destroying homes and critical infrastructure, authorities and residents said. Victoria's emergency management commissioner, Tim Wiebusch, told media about 50 homes had been lost in the Ravenswood and Harcourt fire, which he said was a 'conservative number'.

Residents returned to scenes of patchwork destruction. Peter Suelzle held the brass house numbers from his gate post after the post was incinerated, yet his house remained standing while his next-door neighbour's home was burned to the ground. Sheds were buckled and their contents reduced to 'toxic rubble', and access to Harcourt was blocked by police though some onlookers evaded roadblocks before being turned away.

The blaze jumped the Calder Freeway and burned over Mount Alexander, cutting telecommunications, water, sewage and rail services and knocking out the broadcasting capacity for ABC local radio. Homes in Harcourt, Castlemaine and surrounding areas lost power, internet and water pressure; Phoenix FM 106.7 was rebroadcasting ABC local radio.

A transmission line that provides backup power to nearby Castlemaine was also destroyed, removing redundancy for the larger town. CFA incident controller Michael Masters said the fire 'ran really quickly … under 100km/h plus winds' and sent spot fires about 7km east, making the situation too dynamic to allow residents to return.

Key Topics

World, Harcourt, Ravenswood, Mount Alexander, Calder Freeway, Tim Wiebusch