Qualla: 2016 Waroona-Yarloop Bushfire

2016 Waroona-Yarloop Bushfire: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The lightning struck twice on the afternoon of 5 January 2016, igniting two separate fires in the Lane Poole Reserve state forest near Dwellingup. A Parks and Wildlife officer had noticed the hotspots on the Sentinel satellite monitoring system by 6:30 that morning. Within days, what had started as two manageable forest fires merged into a front that burned from the forests of the Darling Scarp across the Swan Coastal Plain and did not stop until it reached the Indian Ocean. Two people died. The historic town of Yarloop was effectively destroyed, with 166 of its approximately 256 buildings reduced to ash and only 90 left standing. Total losses reached 181 structures across the fire's path, and the combined cost of firefighting, damage, and recovery was estimated at $155 million.

2016 Waroona-Yarloop Bushfire: Forty Years of Drying Out

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Bureau of Meteorology had been tracking a troubling trend: rainfall in the region had been declining for four decades, and 2015 was 10 percent drier than the already-reduced average. Southwestern Western Australia's Mediterranean climate concentrates nearly all its rain betwe...

2016 Waroona-Yarloop Bushfire: The Night Yarloop Burned

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Yarloop was a town built on timber. Its famous workshops, once the mechanical heart of the Millars timber empire, contained heritage boilers, engineering machines, and steam and diesel locomotives. The museum curator, Geoff Fortune, later estimated $12 million in damage to the co...

2016 Waroona-Yarloop Bushfire: Aftermath and Anger

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The days following the fire were marked by frustration as much as grief. Roadblocks prevented evacuated residents from returning to check on properties or feed livestock, and some farmers vowed to bypass the barriers by any means necessary. Livestock owners eventually began break...

2016 Waroona-Yarloop Bushfire: Rising from the Ash

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By 2018, Yarloop's population had dropped from 395 to 120. The Shire of Harvey issued building permits for 30 new houses and adopted a Town Development Plan that gave remaining residents a voice in how their community would be rebuilt. A new fire brigade station was officially op...