Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended the flow of information during the height of the fire situation in central Queensland, saying authorities did a fantastic job in unprecedented conditions.
Ms Palaszczuk confirmed on Thursday the town of Gracemere just to the south of Rockhampton had been saved, after a sudden fire sprang up on Wednesday afternoon, forcing the urgent evacuation of all eight thousand residents of the community.
The mass exodus was managed largely without a hitch, with all residents either making it to their own alternate accommodation or to the emergency evacuation centre in Rockhampton Showgrounds.
However, some have complained that it was hard to get information about the unfolding situation from authorities on the ground, and they were left in the dark about whether their homes had been destroyed.
The premier said authorities were responding to a rapidly unfolding situation as it happened, and tried to get as much information to people as soon as it was available.
"We had literally finished a press conference, we went in and got the information that we needed to evacuate Gracemere," Ms Palaszczuk told Channel Nine on Thursday.
"We are telling the public as quickly as we are getting the information ourselves. Like I said to you, unprecedented, unchartered waters in terms of these fires, the likes of which Queensland has never seen before in our life time or the history of this state."
Authorities will today release fire maps which show the full extent of the nearly 200 bushfires which scorched the state on Wednesday.
Ms Palaszczuk said she hoped those maps would show people how volatile the situation was, and why people needed to heed emergency warnings to leave if they were given.
A number of people in the Rules Beach community in the path of the Deepwater fire between Gladstone and Bundaberg refused to leave ahead of the fire reaching them on Wednesday, and a handful of Gracemere residents also initially didn't plan to leave, although all residents eventually left ahead of the firewalls reaching them.
The premier said the fire situation was unprecedented in the history of Queensland, with conditions so severe they were off the charts.
"In Victoria, we used to see a fire danger level of 100. If it was over 100, that was deemed catastrophic. Well, in that Rockhampton central region yesterday, it was 135," Ms Palaszczuk told ABC news.
"So we need everybody to listen because if we ask you to evacuate, we are doing this in the best interest of your family so please listen, listen to the authorities."
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