About 2.30pm, a fire had started in a road just to the west of our place. It swept to the south of us and a reasonable distance away. For a while it looked like it was going to miss us.
But it didn’t.
At around 5pm, the wind shifted to a westerly and then a south westerly and the front roared our way heralding its approach with a vanguard of noise and smoke, embers and spotfires.
The power went out
We had a small window of opportunity to evacuate with the fire crews - we took it.
And waited with the car just under a kilometre away to see what would happen next. The wind changed again and the fire veered back onto the southerly track.
The front had passed on to wreak its ruthless havoc on other properties leaving us on a flank.
We couldn’t get back home via the road because of the risk from fire weakened trees. But we were able to travel over blackened ground in the paddocks next door to our place. Our house was still standing! We started working to put out the spot fires, starting with those closest and working out.
We lost the sheds and everything in them. But the two of us and our house were still standing – the house, a little scorched, and us, a little traumatised!
We know we were very, very fortunate!
There’s a lot of work to be done. But, thanks to help from friends, we’ve made real progress with clearing up.
Everything about the property is different, stripped bare. But that’s slowly changing too.
It’s hard to believe this was just over 6 weeks ago now and Nature has moved on! Green shoots are bursting through blackened tree trunks. In the herb garden, the sage and oregano and thyme are sending up tender green leaves.
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| Hot spots after the fire front had gone |
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| A couple of days later: Stark and bare... but still rather beautiful. |
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| The hakea enjoyed its toasting ... |
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| ...as did the protea. |
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| An odd "treasure" we found in the remains of the shed. This used to be a brass padlock. |
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| A friend gave us a punnet of petunias. They're a splash of colour in the sepia! |
Sharon, your experience seems like a terrifying nightmare. Something everyone living near bushland in Australia is terrified of happening. I know you lost some property but thank heaven you and your husband are all right.
ReplyDeleteAmazing to see new shoots of life coming through - and to see the plants that need fire to reproduce.
Thanks for the update!
Hi Kandy, it's now just over 6 weeks since the fire and it does have a rather unreal feeling to it. Thought my aching muscles from the unaccustomed work are feeling very real right this minute having just come in from a solid day of digging and clearing!
DeleteIt's so interesting to see the little changes from day to day.
:)
Hi Sharon
ReplyDeleteIt must have been so frightening but thank heavens you are both safe and yes that is Australia out of the blackened ground the new seeds of life shoot up. It is an experience you will never forget and fingers crossed never have to go through again hugs and thanks for the photos and the update.
Have Fun
Helen
Thanks for the hugs, Helen. We feel very lucky indeed and it is an experience I would be happy not to have again! On the day, I felt... very puny and insignificant.
Delete:)
This is so horrific, Sharon. Incredible that your house survived, but I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been. Can't express how grateful and received I am that you and your family are safe and well. We watch the fires on the news but it brings it too close to home when friends are threatened. Thanks for the update and lots and lots and lots of hugs and good thoughts!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the hugs and thoughts, Jen. We'd done our usual preparations leading up to the fire season and I'd given the garden its "summer haircut/crewcut" just the weekend before the fire. Glenn had mowed and I'd organised the paddocks to be slashed. So I think those factors helped us enormously... but afterwards I could also see where there was a big element of dumb luck with where the embers didn't go. We have a TO DO LIST of improvements.
DeleteSharon, what a terrifying and astonishing experience. So glad you made it through, albeit with some property loss. We might see more of this in a future book?!
ReplyDeleteHi Malvina! It was an astonishing experience and I think I probably will write about it in the future... though... it was strangely hard to write this blog. I phaffed about with it for hours before I posted and nearly opted for something else entirely.
Delete:)
Ack! Big hugs from me, Sharon. I'm sure I would have been entirely useless in the terrifying experience you and hubby found yourselves in.
ReplyDeleteIt must seem surreal now looking at it with some space and time and looking out at your charred landscape must also seem surreal.
Amy, thanks for the big hugs! All hugs gratefully received! I don't wish this experience on you (or anyone!) but I bet you'd have handled it fantastically well with your background in a high pressure hospital setting.
DeleteI'm used to looking out at the new landscape now but it was weird to start with - I'd look out the window and get a little shock and then remember what had happened.
Talk about a terrifying adventure, Sharon! So glad you and your DH managed to evacuate...and that your house is still standing. The pictures are amazing. I love how those petunias are a crazy blob of hopeful colour in an otherwise charred landscape.
ReplyDeleteThe lines going through my mind at the moment: "...her beauty and her terror, the wide brown land for me." I think this experience should definitely make it into a book at some point!
Michelle, I think I'd like to stick to road-trip adventures from now on! ;)
DeleteYou know, I'd never been big on petunias but after this they are high on my favourite flower list. It's been so therapeutic to have them to look after - something small and manageable in an overwhelming chaos. There's something so... hopeful about them and the lovely splash of pink.
Oh gosh, thank you for reminding me of that poem. Dorothea MacKellar summed it up beautifully, didn't she!