Worst fire season in a decade: Kimberley counts the cost of 300 bushfires

Written on the 12 November 2017

Pastoralists in Western Australia's remote Kimberley say they have experienced one of the worst fire seasons of the past decade with up to 300 fires wreaking havoc across the region.

The large wet season rains and increased fuel loads created the perfect storm for fires across the region and authorities say some of the most devastating fires on pastoral lands were deliberately lit.

A fire that scorched three million hectares burned across the Kimberley WA long weekend was the work of an arsonist as well as fires that sparked the four devastating ''fire whirls'' that ripped through half a million hectares on Leopold Down station north of Fitzroy Crossing.

The record-breaking wet season and some late unseasonal rain in the dry may have produced plenty of fat and happy cattle, but it also left excess fuel for fires around the north.

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Source: ABC Rural