Serious bushfires have broken out in central east Queensland, which is even further north than I would have thought. There's been no mention how the fires started but I bet it was a so called 'permit burn' that was started by some farmer to backburn a buffer to his property and then just left to burn in the hope that the summer rains would come like normal and put it out. It didn't. What did come was record heat and big dry westerlies coming directly off the desert.

Drove a 150km coming back home today (well south of the wildfires) and saw four or five of these back burns. Right now the conditions here are 'borderline' - it's hot but no big wind - but if that wind comes it's absurd having theses backburns smouldering away - forget about a faulty electricity-line - these are big, untended fires covering 100's of hectares that are set to explode.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/queensland/parts-of-central-queensland-declar...