STRAGGLERS still on the Lake Wendouree foreshore after Saturday night’s spectacular fireworks got a bit more than they expected after three pontoons on the lake caught fire minutes after the celebrations concluded.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Amazingly though it’s not the first time the lake has been set ablaze, after reeds caught fire when the lake was dry in 2009.
It was the same weekend 10 years ago the last time the lake was on fire.
Fortunately at the weekend it was much less severe, with the fires contained to three pontoons.
A Ballarat City Fire spokesman said it wasn’t completely unusual for firework pontoons to catch alight either after such displays, as cardboard on the pontoons can spark after a pyrontechnic display.
For a trip down memory lane, read below how we covered the 2009 blaze.
HOW THE COURIER COVERED THE 2009 FIRE
Lake fire looks suspicious, says CFA (Friday, January 23, 2009)
A second fire on Lake Wendouree in less than a month is believed to be deliberately lit.
The Country Fire Authority confirmed a blaze which broke out at Durham Point, on the north side of the lake, about 4.20am yesterday was suspicious.
The fire burnt about a square kilometre of mainly fairy grass and reeds before it was brought under control about 8am.
Fighting the fire was difficult because of a lack of access for heavy fire trucks.
However, fire fighters were able to walk fire hoses out to the centre. Some lighter all-terrain vehicles were able to move onto the lake.
During the early morning fire, residents as far away as Sebastopol called in to report the smell of smoke on a total fire ban day.
Despite the fumes and flames, joggers, walkers and cyclists were still out in force from around 6am.
Some interrupted their exercise routines to take photos and video footage of the action.
Wendouree Pde was closed to traffic between Forest and Burnbank streets for several hours while the fire was put out.
The CFA spent all day yesterday carrying out blacking works on the lake, with drifting smoke blanketing much of Ballarat, fanned by 20kmh north-westerly winds.
A CFA spokesman said yesterday police will be brought in to investigate the cause.
The spokesman said the fire could continue to smoulder in the lake bed for several days, with smoke also expected to be present for some time.
Yesterday’s blaze follows a similar fire on the lake on December 30 last year, which burnt eight hectares of fairy grass and reeds.
After an investigation, it was determined Ballarat City Council staff had sparked the fire, which began about 100 metres from the northern shore, near Forest St.
It took three hours to bring under control.
Residents unfazed by nearby blaze
A couple of Wendouree Pde residents did not feel threatened by yesterday’s deliberately-lit blaze.
In fact, most seemed relieved to be rid of the fairy grass that blew across from Lake Wendouree and covered their houses this time last year.
Mardie Gribble told The Courier she wasn’t the ‘‘slightest bit’’ worried about the fire that started on the dry lake bed about 4.20am.
‘‘It didn’t really matter to us much,’’ Mrs Gribble said.
‘‘Last year we got three or four bags of fairy grass from there.’’
Trudi Kannourakis said, while she was also relieved the fairy grass had been burnt, she believed the council’s fire management plan had worked very well.
‘‘I think they (the council and CFA) did very well today,’’ Mrs Kannourakis said.
‘‘I didn’t feel threatened at all.
‘‘I just feel worried about the fireworks.
‘‘I think it’s dangerous for them to go ahead. ‘‘It (Lake Wendouree) is a tinderfield just waiting for something to happen.’’
Fireworks display still set to go ahead
The Australia Day fireworks display is still planned to go off with a bang at Lake Wendouree.
3BA general manager John Fitzgibbon said the annual spectacular was still planned for Monday night, despite yesterday’s second fire on the lake in 24 days.
Mr Fitzgibbon held talks yesterday with the Country Fire Authority and Ballarat City Council to review the Skyworks display.
‘‘We will continue discussions today but at this stage it is still going ahead,’’ Mr Fitzgibbon said.
‘‘We’ve had no indication it won’t proceed.’’
However, he said the CFA and the council’s main priority yesterday was bringing the fire under control and carrying out blacking works, so the fireworks issue would be looked at in greater detail today.
This year’s display is set to launch from a new site at the finish of the rowing course, next to the Olympic Rings, due to fairy grass on the lake’s northern side.
Both fires began on or near Durham Point, on the north side of Lake Wendouree.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment, Ballarat City, CFA and 3BA had already developed a contingency plan for the Skyworks spectacular.
A number of new fireworks from Japan will be incorporated in this year’s display.
Have you signed up to The Courier's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.