Bushfire

It was a long, scary, sleepless night. I wasn’t sure whether to share this week’s experiences here but they are still filling my mind. I am sharing more photographs than the terrifying view from my home around midnight on Saturday night, with the final photograph being almost unbelievably beautiful.

This was the view from my place in the early hours of Sunday morning. We evacuated for the second time in 12 hours, quickly bundling Little Miss 6 and the baby twins into cars, along with two indoor cats and a Golden Retriever. At this point there were fires on both sides of us. It was a long, scary and sleepless night and I didn’t know until late Sunday morning whether my home and precious bushland were still standing. A wind change was a blessing for us and a nightmare for those on the other side of the creek where one home was lost and two others damaged – my heart goes out to the families that were impacted. It was also a nightmare for the wildlife.

If you live near bushland please make sure your bushfire plan is up to date. Get your information from more than one source – we used the Vic Emergency App, the ABC, emergency scanners and we stayed vigilant watching for any changes.

The Red Cross has helpful information on preparing for emergencies as do local fire brigades – if you don’t already have an up-to-date disaster plan please organise one. I only realised when de-briefing how smoothly we’d faced this crisis. Well, I think my eldest daughter helped me to think positively as she is the National Evaluation Advisor for the Australian Red Cross and she said some kind things about my bushfire planning and the way I do my best to keep the property as safe as I can from ember attack.

Water bombing helicopters flew very low over the house as they collected water from a nearby retarding basin and returned to the burning bushland, while 45 fire trucks and 3 or 4 bulldozers were working on the ground. My heartfelt thanks to each and every member of every crew for their incredible skills that managed to contain the fires and to their families who waited anxiously at home for their return. My thanks also to my fabulous neighbours who shared messages and photographs.

We were early leavers for the first evacuation. For me it was when a second fire started as I thought it could be arson (as happened in the area in 1997). This possibility is being investigated by police (more on this further on in the post). That evening we were given the all clear to go home. A police officer asked for my driver’s licence to prove I was a resident. I’m sure my answer was one of the strangest he got that night as I said I’d forgotten to evacuate with it but I’d brought my dog! I decided to stay awake all night, staying vigilant as the fire was so close. When a down-draught from Mt Dandenong caused the fire to flare up we left for the second time, not long before the terrifying ‘Too late to leave, shelter in place’ advice was sent out via VicEmergency.

Huge thanks to my wonderful middle daughter for surrounding me with love that night, and to the beaut family that housed the rest of the family. And also to the countless people who offered a place to stay – we are truly blessed to have such beautiful family and friends.

The fire area, Dr Ken Leversha Reserve, is still closed. Despite the welcome rain that fell on Sunday some trees are still smouldering and registering 400+ degrees Celsius. The reserve will remain closed until all the trees have been bull-dozed or deemed safe. I stayed well away from the burned area while looking for injured wildlife and took the image above with a 600mm super zoom lens.

The police have spoken with, and released, the four ‘boys’ that were seen on the rarely used tracks in the reserve just before the fires started. My gut feeling is that these boys may not be arsonists and that perhaps they were smoking or some other activity that caused the horrendous fires to start. I might be wrong of course (I will add an update to this post when more is known) but after teaching for many years I think there is far more goodness than bad in the world and I’m concerned that these boys and their families might also be distressed. Saturday was not a Total Fire Ban day though everything in the area was tinder dry as we’d had virtually no rain for many weeks. Bushfires can start in many ways including by lightening strikes but many are started by human activity. Campfires that haven’t been properly extinguished, or have been abandoned, are often the cause, as are downed powerlines, discarded cigarettes and sparks from machinery.

While walking between my property and the fire site I heard two Sulphur-crested Cockatoos shrieking in an unusual way as they flew. It was strange enough for me to check the sky and see this Wedge-tailed Eagle soaring overhead looking for an easy catch.

I photographed this Grey Fantail in the unaffected retarding basin adjacent to the fire area and yet the scene still looks somehow looks dismal apart from the hope I felt when this tiny bird starting flitting around me. Another positive was the loud chorus of Banjo, or pobblebonk, frogs that had been aroused (the perfect word!) by the rain.

And speaking of hope… last night the sky lit up with a fiery sunset (which was staggeringly beautiful but also very unsettling) while opposite the sunset was this stunning rainbow. This is the only rainbow I’ve ever seen span the property in this way. And to make the scene even more incredible please look at the tree on the left, with the rainbow glowing behind it… the very same tree that in the first photograph had the fire raging behind it.

Happy birding, stay safe, Kim

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