REMEMBER WHEN

THE worst winter storm since 2001 dumped heavy snow over vast tracts of southeastern Australia while local firefighters battled to save homes from a bushfire at Worongary.

The snowfalls ranged as far north as the NSW Northern Tablelands, about 300km from the Gold Coast.

Worongary residents were convinced a serial arsonist was living among them after fire crews were called to a threatening blaze in neighbouring bushland

The fire, which crept within metres of homes, was the fourth fire to burn through privately-owned land in the previous month.

Home-owners on Nabarlek Drive were convinced the fire was deliberately lit after one resident found an empty petrol can hidden in the area.

They said the fire, which started around noon, was the biggest of the four and they feared that next time it could be worse.

”I walked into the bushes just after the fire started and found a petrol tin and a plastic oil container covered in cardboard,’’ said resident Brendan Murray.

”There have been rumours that the fires were deliberately lit, and this just topped it off.’’

Mr Murray said he would go back and get the containers when the fire died down and would hand them over to the police.

His wife Kay said a man who owned 800 acres of bushland behind the residents’ homes lived in a tin shed in the middle of the scrub. ”He has been living there for years,’’ she said.