News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 48

This week saw another of our grand children graduate. This time it was Zac as he graduated from Junior school to Senior school. Junior school finishes in Yr 9 and the start of Senior school is year 10.

He wont change schools just moves to Senior for the last 3 years of schooling when hell finish in Year 12.We stayed at their place over the weekend to attend Zoes 18th Party and proudly showed off his certificates for 100% attendance.

So proud of him. He doesnt know what he wants to do after finishing school yet but will get some certificates over the next 3 years that will give him some qualifications at the end of school.

Whether whatever he does will be his chosen path we will have to wait and see. Once again it was livestreamed as parents could not attend. A lot of schools have a no parents on school ground policy since Covid restrictions were applied. Its quite sad really as so many parents are missing graduations, presentation nights, school plays etc.

It really has been a hard year for both parents and kids.

Well an update on the fire on the Word Heritage listed Fraser Island/Kgari that has been raging for the past 6 weeks now.

Weve been seeing the glow in the sky from the mainland every night as we watch it burn further south each day.

At the moment the area around Kingfisher Resort is of major concern and staff and visitors have been evacuated. Queensland Fire and Emergency services have taken over as the lead agency now with Queensland Parks and Wildlife and the Butchella Corporation assisting and the plan of action at the moment is trying to steer the fire away from the resort.

There is no chance of extinguishing so property protection is and has been the main focus. With no rain in sight for at least another week, due to terrain and weather conditions it will continue to burn.

Aerial water bombers have been working each and every day to dump millions of litres of water but it is more of a containment measure than an extinguishment measure at this stage.

Crews on the ground have been working long days trying to cut and clean up breaks where they can. We are all hoping that we get some good heavy solid rain soon.

Wildlife losses will be high but dingoes and their pups are being seen more along the beaches as they try and stay ahead of the fire.

Its really sad to see but weve had some spectacular moons at night and sunsets each day because of the smoke haze from the island.

The yellow outline is the area burnt since the satellite image and the red box is Kingfisher Resort.

Over 80 thousand hectares have been burnt out to date.

Last week our granddaughter Zoe had her Yr 12 formal and then two days later she Graduated Yr 12…. Finished school for good! Again due to Covid only 2 people could attend, which of course was her Dad and step mum.

But the school did a Livestream for the families of all the graduating students which was great as we were able to watch her in real time.

It was a fabulous feeling to see her name go up and watch her receive her certificate. All the family is so proud of her and wish her well for the new chapter in her life.

Next weekend we will be going down to attend her 18th Birthday when our little Zoe officially turns adult! Lucky restrictions on how many people can attend functions now have been relaxed and we can go down to help her celebrate.

What a special night it was on Wednesday 18th November when our granddaughter Zoe went to her high school formal.

It was the culmination of 12years of school and a night to celebrate.

What made it even more special was the fact that Zoe is the first of any of the family on my husbands side to graduate Yr 12.

To say the whole family is proud of her is an understatement. In the photos she is with her Dad who was just bursting with pride. Poppy (her dads dad) said it was the best news we had all year.

Zoe will turn 18 on the 3rd December and we will be going down to her party and be able to celebrate with all the family then.

I think she looks stunning and it really feels strange in a nice kind of way to see the little girl who we watched grow up all dressed up as a young lady now.

Not sure what career path she wants to take but to achieve this Im sure she will achieve anything she wants to.

Our beautiful island is burning!Most of you would have heard of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.

It is now known as Kgari. About 4 weeks ago an illegal campfire started a fire which has now spread over 30675 hectares and is still burning.

The Orchid Beach resort had a backburn put in around it to save it but as its uninhabited through most of the rest of the island Parks have let it burn.

Parks and Wildlife are the ones who are monitoring it. The terrain is quite harsh with just a few tracks throughout the area with big sand dunes so very hard to get vehicles, let alone fire trucks around the land.

The area with the lines on the pictured map is roughly the burnt out area so far and with the winds weve been having it is pushing the fire in a southerly direction.

We need some good rain to arrive but sadly none forecast for at least a week and then it wont be enough to put it out, just slow it down a little.

Pristine rainforest is being destroyed but hopefully it will recover.

Normally we wouldnt see these fires on Fraser but with the lack of rain the past couple of years it has allowed the fire to get a hold.

Such a shame but on a positive a lot of our native vegetation actually needs fire to regenerate so hopefully if we can get some good rain this wet season it will help it recover.

The photo shows the 3 main fire fronts and it was taken from the mainland.