A large bushfire which has been burning south-west of Alice Springs for the past 48 hours has now been declared to not be a threat to the town.

District Officer of the NT Fire and Rescue Service, Dave Pettit said the blaze had been brought under control through extensive back-burning and clearing of fire breaks.

“It’s a credit to the hard work of all those involved in fighting the fire that there was no loss of property or injuries.

“The success can be attributed to the combined efforts of Bushfires NT, NT Fire and rescue, volunteer firefighters, NT Emergency Services volunteers and Parks and Wildlife staff who worked tirelessly for the past couple of days,” said District Officer Dave Pettit.

Over 650 square kilometres of country has been lost at this time with the western flanks continuing to burn away from Alice Springs.

The larger of the two fires originated on the Tanami Highway on the Monday 8 August. This fire was contained on its eastern flank on Tuesday 9 August by back burning a 10 km break along the rail corridor. The southern flank was contained in the early hours of Thursday morning by back burning along a 5 km fire break bulldozed through the rough and hilly terrain behind the Larapinta Drive subdivisions. Crews are still working to widen this break.

The fire to the west of Alice Springs that originated on Tuesday 9 August in the Golden Mile area was contained on the eastern flank within the Simpson Gap National Park on Wednesday 10 August.

At the peak of the fires, 57 personnel from the NT Emergency Services, local council and contractors were working to gain control of the fires. Over the course of the events, approximately 900 man hours were committed toward fire fighting and support roles.

The Alice Springs EOC was stood down at 10:30pm on Wednesday 10 August.

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Amy Sloan
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