Total fire ban and mass outage plunge Victorians into darkness

We are told to expect more wild weather events as a result of climate change* – and so it was this week that the good old state of Victoria was forecast to have a 37 degree day with high winds expected. A total fire ban was enforced* across the state.

The forecast was right on the money and the mercury rose to 37 and in many areas of the state beyond that figure.

Dry lightning strikes started fires out in the Grampians National Park and before you knew it, towns like Pomonal in the west had lost 25 homes to bushfires and many more were on high alert.

To make matters worse, the wind change brought massive gusts which brought down six electricity transmission towers*, which caused one of the state’s main coal fired power stations, Loy Yang A, to shut down. This then meant the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) had to turn off customers’ power (because there wasn’t enough being generated) and so we had power blackouts across the state.

At one time up to 500,000 homes and businesses were out.

Then we had thousands of call outs for trees across power lines which all needed repairing. Sounds like a disaster movie? No, just another day in Victoria, where you can have four seasons in one day. How about the four seasons of the apocalypse* in one day?

A day like this would dominate the news in the next day’s media, but I had no electricity, so to draw a cartoon for the next day’s paper, I first had to set up our generator* at home so I could turn on the computer and luminate* my desk lamp.

With what time I had left before my fast approaching deadline, I decided the drawing would be on the blackouts and how people would be sitting at home in darkness that night and possibly for the next several days.

My thoughts were that despite living in the 21st century and our economy being directed to renewables* and electricity and away from gas and fossil fuels*, we are totally helpless when the power goes out. Not just no lights, but no internet and no mobile phone communication. Some of us may have batteries that could power the home, or like me a diesel generator, but for most of us, we would be reliant on the good old candle that night to light our homes. Ironically, at least we could rely on a centuries old technology, the humble candle, to light the way.

So I sketched Joe Citizen sitting at a candle lit table in the darkness with Victoria’s Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio. Lucky for the candle, one might think, but I like to have a punchline in my cartoons, and that was delivered in the second panel of the cartoon where the Energy Minister blows out the candle flame, plunging them into darkness!

Why, you may ask?

“It is a total fire ban day,” Ms D’Ambrosio exclaims.

No flames. Ugh.

A footnote: as I write this column three days after the catastrophic* weather event, we are still reliant on the diesel generator at our place, and the odd candle!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• climate change: long-term changes in average weather patterns in Earth’s local, regional and global climates
• enforced: to make sure that people obey something by making it a law or rule
• transmission towers: structures that transmit and receive power, radio, telecommunication, electrical, television and other electromagnetic signals
• apocalypse: a very serious event resulting in great destruction and change
• generator: a machine that converts one form of energy into another, especially mechanical energy
• luminate: to light up, illuminate
• renewables: types of energy like wind power and solar power that can be replaced as quickly as they are used
• fossil fuels: non-renewable energy sources such as coal, coal, natural gas, derived gas and crude oil
• catastrophic: causing sudden and very great harm or destruction

EXTRA READING

370,000 Victorians in the dark after power outage

Turning air into electricity

Schoolkids thank the fireys fighting bushfires

QUICK QUIZ

1. Which special area in Victoria experienced the worst of the fires?
2. How did those fires start?
3. What else happened when the wind change brought massive gusts?
4. How many households were without power at the height of the crisis?
5. What rule was being enforced that meant people could not even light a candle?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Cartoon analysis
After reading and analysing the Mark Knight cartoon in the Kids News article, answer the following questions to help you get the full meaning out of his drawing:

What is the main issue Mark Knight is highlighting?

Who is portrayed in the cartoon?

How are they portrayed?

What is the humour in the drawing?

Who might agree with his viewpoint?

Who might disagree or possibly be offended by this viewpoint?

Do you think he makes a good point? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Write a response to this cartoon from the viewpoint of one of the people or objects portrayed in the cartoon. Think, what would be their response to the speech bubble and satire from the cartoon.

Write or draw your response below.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine this story is part of an animated series made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell the complete story and this article is only Part 1. Think about what the rest of the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking