Emirates reopens resort in Australia after bushfires led to its temporary closure

Dubai’s Emirates Group has confirmed that its One&Only Wolgan Valley resort in Australia reopened in early February, after it was temporarily closed due to the bushfire crisis in the country.

The five-star resort has now started receiving guests, a statement said.

The resort itself was not affected by the bushfire and the native wildlife part of the 7,000-acre Wolgan reserve including kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, reptiles and birdlife have already returned, the statement said.

Large areas of the bushland surrounding the resort were also unaffected by the bushfire tragedy.

Those lands affected are starting to regenerate with the recent rains, Emirates said. Habitat restoration work has also been stepped up to support the regeneration of the landscape.

“We have built a seedbank of over one million seeds representing 25 local native species that is now playing a vital role in repopulating areas of damage,” said Simone Brooks, Activities and Conservation manager.

At least 33 people were killed, an estimated one billion animals wiped out and thousands of homes destroyed in the recent bushfires in Australia, which burned out more than 11 million hectares of land.

On February 13, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service confirmed that all the bush and grass fires in NSW were finally “contained”.

In what has been a very traumatic, exhausting and anxious bush fire season so far, for the first time this season all bush and grass fires in NSW are now contained.
It has taken a lot of work by firefighters, emergency services and communities to get to this point. #nswrfs pic.twitter.com/RhqmcYhJ1j

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) February 13, 2020