This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchelor. To New South Wales, my good colleague

Jeremy Zakis, reporting on the climate, the reptiles, the cricket, and the adventures of Dallas

and the magpies. We begin with the Grampian fire. This is a product of the climate. Last we spoke to Jeremy, the

Grampian fire was forcing evacuations. This is in Victoria. That's south of where Jeremy is right

now. And I'm understanding that these fires are let burn for weeks. Jeremy, a very good day to you.

Is the Grampian fire the largest fire on the continent?

And why do you let it burn?

Good evening to you.

Good evening to you.

Good day, John. Yes, I can say as we speak,

the Grampian fire is by far the largest fire on the continent.

And just to put it in perspective, this fire at the moment,

if you draw a box

around it, it's roughly in a box approximately 200 miles long by approximately 150 miles wide.

So this is a very, very large area for a fire. And within that box, the fire is pretty consistently

across the ground there. So it's a lot of spot fires, but a lot of large,

large banks of flame just still pushing forward

and throughout the valleys there.

And really, at the moment,

the only way to fight it, John, is to actually let it burn out

because being such a large fire in a part of the Grampians

where there's a lot of valleys,

...