Heavy rain has come to the aid of firefighters battling a bushfire threatening the main sealed road in and out of Western Australia.
Key points:
- A bushfire is burning close to the Eyre Highway near Fraser Range, 800km east of Perth
- Late rain has reduced the risk of the fire jumping the highway and forcing its closure
- The Eyre Highway stretches 1,668km from Norseman in WA to Port Augusta in SA
The fire has burned more than 18,000 hectares near Fraser Range, about 100km east of Norseman and 800km from Perth.
Authorities had been warning travellers to expect a 48-hour closure of the Eyre Highway, the main freight and travel link between WA and Australia’s east coast.
But Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) incident controller Phillip Hay said a late-afternoon storm had eased conditions at the fireground.
“Mother Nature has been very kind, and given us a bit of late rain this afternoon,” he told ABC Regional Drive.
“We had some pretty hairy conditions, which tested our crews.
“But thankfully that rain has arrived and reduces the risk of the fire approaching the highway.”
With hot conditions forecast over coming days, he said travel and freight movement could cautiously resume.
“We still have a lot of work left to consolidate the fire,” he said.
“The immediate risk is definitely reduced, but we ask people to remain alert and up-to-date.”
A ban on heavy vehicle movements issued late on Wednesday is expected to remain in place for the remainder of today.
While the rain has helped on the fireground, a severe weather warning remains in place for much of the Goldfields.
High winds have caused some minor damage in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, toppling the city’s Christmas tree in Centennial Park.
Lessons learned for freight industry
The road is the heaviest trafficked interstate route in and out of WA, with the alternate route a near-7,000km trip via Alice Springs, Katherine, Kununurra and onwards to Perth.
The state’s supply of fresh produce alone requires 90 road trains travelling the highway each week.
It is the first time bushfires have threatened the Eyre Highway since 2020, when it was closed for 12 days over the New Year period, as the Black Summer bushfires devastated the east coast.
Those fires saw more than 300 emergency personnel deployed from across the state as more than 550,000 hectares were destroyed and motorists were trapped at remote roadhouses for several days.
Western Roads Federation spokesman Cam Dumnesy said the rain was welcome news.
“Rain has changed the risk profile for us, it wasn’t looking good,” he said.
He said the freight industry had learned significant lessons from the previous disasters.
“We’ve been working closely with DFES and Main Roads to improve communication with the transport industry,” he said.
The closure, combined with flooding that blocked WA’s northern border crossing at Kununurra, spurred support for the sealing of alternate routes through central Australia, including the Tanami Road and Outback Highway.