Lobethal Weather

On 20^th December 2019 a catastrophic bushfire (wildfire) broke out at Cudlee Creek and quickly spread
a path of destruction through Lobethal, Woodside, Lenswood, Mount Torrens Charleston, and Harrogate
a distance of about 15 km (nearly 10 miles), with a perimeter of about 130 km (over 80 miles).
Over 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) were burnt with one person killed and 87 homes, nearly 500 other
buildings, hundreds of vehicles, crops, livestock and pets lost.
Luckily our home was not affected.

These photos were taken from our home.

Our thanks goes out to the CFS and volunteers for their effort which saved our town, however, sadly, some homes were lost.
We were fortunate as we did not suffer any major damage, but many friends lost homes or had property damage.

The Cudlee Creek fire was declared an emergency disaster as Country Fire Service crews continue to battle flare-ups ahead of deteriorating weather conditions.
As at 23/12/2019 the number of houses destroyed by the fire was 87, along with almost 500 other buildings and 278 vehicles and these number are likely to increase as the fire is still uncontained (24/12/2019).
Agricultural losses are also mounting with about 1100 hectares of vineyards thought destroyed or damaged, equal to about one-third of the area’s grape production.
The industry’s potential damage bill is expected to be in excess of $100 million.

Starting in Cudlee Creek on Friday, the flames tore a path of destruction through Lenswood, Lobethal, Charleston, Woodside, Harrogate and nearly everything in between before being halted near Mt Torrens, more than 13km away.

As I am updating this page 11:00AM (24/12/2019) I am hearing more sirens from fire units passing through Lobethal on their way to the fire - Currently there are 60 units at the fire, earlier there were 74 units and 2 aircraft.

MAP OF THE BUSHFIRE AREA (24/12/2019)