The future is now ...

It is qute a bizarre experience siting in a chilly living room in Edinburgh watching places you know and have been burning amid an unprecedented heatwave.

Last week four consective days above 43 degrees left the area surrounding my home city of Melbourne scorched tinder dry, giant fields of kindling and basted grass just waiting for a spark. Today it was 46 degrees, with gusting winds: like living in a fan forced oven.

When the fires started, and sadly it is likely that some were deliberately lit, the result was an instantaneous cauldron of flam moving at speeds of 60kmh.

While the loss of life - police are estimating at the moment that 40 people are dead - is awful, we do have to face the fact that such fires are part and parcel of Australian life. And we are making the situation worse.

Just like if you swim in t waters off the coast of Victoria, you need to be aware that there are 6m Great Whites in those same seas, thus, if you are going to live in the bush in south eastern Australia, you need to be prepared for fires.

And if the Victorian Government is content to let 1500 people a week move to Melbourne and for the city's suburbs to expand ever further outward, then it has to accept the fact that more people and houses will be placed in the fire danger zone.

Melbourne is expanding too fast and the lack of infrastructure, from transport to the ability to provide enough water, is becoming more and more apparent.

Still a great city though.