TELL May-June 2020

Fires blazing in the surrounding mountains
intensified a few days later,
Hallie, as Business Manager of
the local Steiner School, opened
up the school for children and
staff and their families. We
spent five days there, creating a
community. Some of us worked
on protecting the school, filling
gutters with water, setting up
sprinkler systems and wetting the
ground. Others went shopping
and prepared three meals per day
for us all, and others organised
the children, with games, movies
and knitting – after all, we were
at a Steiner school. I was lucky to
have the school grounds to bring
my horses to, that apart from
riding, are used in my work in
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy.
I had to evacuate my horses
and relocate them four times
to make sure they were safe.
More than 56 per cent of the land
mass of the Bega Valley has been
burnt. Our family personally
know at least 15 people who
have lost their homes entirely,
and many, many others who
lost 1000’s of acres of fencing,
hundreds of sheds, equipment
and tools, and vehicles. It cannot
be understated the loss of so
20
many animals (cows, horses,
sheep, pets and wildlife) and so
much flora. We had three deaths
here too – three people who were
a very strong and vibrant part of
the community. The blackened
earth with burnt out trees was
widespread against the landscape.
Some areas in the Valley –
Tinpot, Wandella, Yowrie,
Kiah, Wyndham – places you
may not have heard of – don’t
have any grass growing back.
The heat was so elevated – the
scorching so deep - we barely
see return of animals, and the
community is going out and
leaving food for native animals
who may otherwise starve.
BlazeAid and Rubicon have
been helping farmers with
fencing and knocking down
burnt trees that would otherwise
fall with any wind that comes.
One friend lost 1400 acres of
fencing, and 22 sheds. No-one
here insures their fencing – it's
just too exorbitant. He raced
back to defend his home and
his stock. He saved his home –
but had no sewerage, electricity
or water for the following seven
weeks. And then, if one saved
their home – but had lost other
things – insurance was not quite
so forthcoming with payouts.
I heard a 70 year old friend of
mine on the phone with her
insurance agent (she saved her
home but the fire damaged
carpets and an electricity pole
fell on the corner of her house
leaving a gaping hole), and
needed perhaps 30 square
metres of new carpet – having to
argue about having this carpet
replaced. She explained that
the company would have been
putting out a lot more money
if she hadn’t been defending
her home. Most of the people
that stayed to defend said they
would never do so again. They
did not expect flames 150 feet
in the air, or to find themselves
barricaded in the darkened
(no electricity) Quaama Rural
Fire Shed with 30 other people
while the fireballs surrounded
them. They were defended by
13 members of the local Brogo
Fire Brigade – with the average
age of firefighter in their mid
50’s who saved their lives.
The trauma of such a fire event is
akin to a war. The trauma to the
firefighters, those who stayed to
defend, those who were trapped,
those that lost animals and the
flora and fauna surrounding
their often very simple homes.
Trauma can exist from the grief
we all feel for the loss of habitat
surrounding us. I went to visit
my friends who lost all their
fencing 7 weeks after the fires
and the soil there was still hot.
And now we have the Corona
Virus – and many of those
volunteering down here with
a variety of organisations, will
head home as living in tents
together and eating together is