{ One Year On - My Black Saturday Story }

I will be away on Sunday so thought I would post this today.

Sunday is February 7th - one year since the devastating Black Saturday bushfires which tore through my community. For those who don't know, I live in Murrindindi which is in the Kinglake/Yea/Marysville area north of Melbourne.  The Murrindindi fire which burnt Marysville to the ground was started (deliberately) at the old sawmill, about 4 km's from Ythanbrae. What is referred to as the Kilmore fire, took out Kinglake and Flowerdale and swept into Glenburn which 4 km's on the other side of Ythanbrae. We were between the two fire fronts. We were very fortunate that the wind took the Murrindindi fire over the opposite ridge to us. At about midnight the wind direction changed and started blowing the fire back towards our property. The following two weeks Mr M spent fighting the fires as a member of our local CFA brigade. He was burnt (not seriously, but still has scars) on his chest. Members of his brigade bore the brunt of the fire much worse and were hospitalised with smoke inhalation and sheer exhaustion. Our tiny, tight knit community of Murrindindi and Glenburn were so very lucky - although a lot of homes, properties and livelihoods were lost, we did not lose any lives. 

Photo I took of Yea-Kinglake Road five weeks after Black Saturday.

I began this blog after Black Saturday - so have never really written much on the topic. Now is as good a time as any. On February 7th 2009 we were attending our friends wedding an hour north west of Bendigo, 2 1/2 hours away from Ythanbrae. Mr M was best man, we were very much looking forward to this wedding. I left work on the Friday afternoon in 48 degree Celsius heat. I remember asking my workmate John what he had planned for the hot weekend, as a CFA member he said 'Sit at the fire shed and wait for a fire to start. It will happen'. It was inevitable.

Whilst photos were being taken in between the wedding ceremony and reception Mr M was getting frantic messages and phone calls from his boss Andrew, who manages the main bigger farm, Larnoo. Andrew is extremely level headed, Mr M knew he would not even consider calling him at a wedding unless it was an extreme emergency. I arrived at the reception to chaos. Bendigo was on fire. There was no power, the roads were blocked and fire engines and ambulances were screeching past. Mr M and the bridal party arrived. He grabbed me, said 'We have to go home' and that was it, I told him to not be so ridiculous, we couldn't miss the wedding, stop making a scene, and smiled politely at the people around us. I now know he was trying not to panic me, but he said no, we are going home. Now. 

View from Paul's front yard (where we evacuated to) - this was taken about a week after Black Saturday.

The two and half hour drive home was spent with phone calls to Ythanbrae's owner in Melbourne, and Andrew, and his wife Natalie who told us the roads were blocked to Ythanbrae, come to Larnoo to stay with them. Our four dogs, Archie and all the cattle were at Ythanbrae. We made the decision that if we could we had to get to the cottage (and beyond to the cattle). 

Mr M's parents live in Gippsland in a very fire prone area in a bush area. We originally thought things would be worse there. His dad and brother-in-law had stayed to defend the house, his mum (who is in a wheelchair) was evacuated early. We found out Mr M's dad had abandoned the house to go into town to the football oval. Their house is very well prepared for fire. Mr M started to worry that if his dad thought he had to leave, things might be a lot worse than anyone could tell.

Smoke - low visibility. About a week after Black Saturday.

We arrived in Yea at about 9pm (although I can't really recall the time, it was hard to tell as it got pitch black at 4pm that day). The streets were packed with hundreds of people that had come down the mountain from Kinglake and Flowerdale. There were caravans, trailers, horse floats, people wandering aimlessly, cars driving slowly through it all. The road was blocked to get to Ythanbrae. The guy on the road block said he couldn't stop us but we had better go see the police. I started to break down, I started crying hysterically and screamed at the man that we had to get home. Mr M ran to the police station and banged on the door. Of course no police were there, they were in the streets trying to control the massive surge of people coming in to the town. While he was gone I called my mum - she had seen the news but thought we would be at the wedding, she now tells me she couldn't even understand what I was saying I was crying and blubbering so much.

We decide to take a back road to Ythanbrae. As we drive towards home, ash and embers start hitting our car. Mr M turned to me and said 'Do you want to turn back?' I said no. We passed no other vehicle on the 15km's to our driveway other than fire trucks heading back into Yea. Away from the fire. As we drove in to Ythanbrae Mr M used our UHF radio to call his brigade's captain. 

"Where do you want me?"

"Go home. There is nothing we can do. This thing is out of control."

"Should I send Em back into town?"

"I can't make that decision. You decide if you stay and defend or leave. If you stay, you need to brace for imminent impact. Repeat - brace for imminent impact."

Mr M 'home' (at Paul's) from a hard day fighting fires. 

This is when I started to get it together. I needed to get my head around the fact we were defending against a fire storm. We leapt out of the car. We grabbed the working dogs out of their pens, I kept them in the laundry on wet towels. Buddy was coughing a lot from the smoke. Tessa was hysterically crying and whimpering. We immediately put long, thick pants on, socks, boots and woolen jumpers on. It was still about 38 degrees. It was 10pm. I thought I was going to faint.

I spent the next couple of hours in a blur, soaking wet towels, laying them all around our windows and doors. I climbed up our man hole into the roof cavity to check for embers and lay more wet towels and woolen blankets. We set up our sprinkler system to be hitting the house. I fell into a bizarre sense of security. The water was hitting the roof - it seemed like it was raining. Outside though we couldn't see much more than 5 metres for the smoke and couldn't hear each other for the howling wind.

The dogs at Paul's - about a week after Black Saturday. Smoke still bad.

We called our neighbour, Paul, who was in a much better position to defend his home than us. The cottage at Ythanbrae is weatherboard, next to bush. If embers were hitting us, there was no way we could defend it. We decided at 2 am that we could not stay and defend. We had to leave.

Mr M's ute with the fire fighting unit on the back.

Mr M had to get the cattle though. He went on the motorbike and mustered them down to lower ground, away from bush and with dams in their paddocks, surprisingly they were calm and most jumped straight into the water to stay safe. From the top of Mount Dorothy (the highest point on Ythanbrae) he tried to see where the fire front was coming from. Of course he couldn't see anything for the smoke.

The dam in front of the cottage turned black in the weeks following Black Saturday.

Meanwhile, I packed our entire life into our car. We tried to take a lot of paperwork, birth certificates, insurance papers. The first things Mr M grabbed was his file of notes from me from when we were at high school together, he still has every single one we used to pass in between classes. He also grabbed a photo of his grandparents farm and his grandfathers stick. I called Mr M's sister, she had been evacuated from Mr M's parents multiple times, she knew what to grab. She was amazing - barking orders at me through the phone. We later found out we were the last house on the line to still have phone connection, and the mobile towers had been burnt out.

Mr M had the fire fighting unit already on the back of the ute. He said I would have to drive our car with the four dogs to Paul's, could I do that? I was terrified. There was no visibility with tree branches flying through the air. I nodded, but said first I need to let Archie go. If the fire came through Ythanbrae I didn't want Archie to be trapped in a paddock. I opened his gate and simply let him run. The last I saw him he was galloping away in the opposite direction to where we were heading. (Addition: We later found Archie, perfectly fine, roaming aimlessly around the hills of Ythanbrae.) Mr M got in the car and showed me how to cover myself in a woolen blanket he gave me and crouch on the floor. He got in the ute, I got in my car. 

Ready?

Yep.

Now - if we get separated or you lose sight of me. Just keep driving. Just drive to Paul's. Promise?

Yep.

Got a little bit hot that night in the cottage.

We got to Paul's at 3.30 am. I was exhausted and could hardly stand up. Mr M and Paul insisted I go to bed. They would stay up through the night. I went to bed, but had a lot of trouble sleeping although I was exhausted. For the next 6 months I experienced nightmares and would wake up in the middle of the night smelling smoke. 

The next two weeks were a whole other story. The actual night of Black Saturday was just the beginning. But that is for another day. I am (and I'm sure you are too!) totally drained from just that recount. 

  

Our neighbours gate.

We were so very, very lucky. Our friends and neighbours lost homes, friends, relatives, children, parents. I am in no way trying to glorify the events that unfolded on that night or in the weeks and months after. I am simply putting my story out there, to tell a true account of what happened in my case. It definitely changed my life and the way I look at and live my life.

This is a map I emailed to family and friends the week after Black Saturday who were worried about us. The purple strip is Ythanbrae. As the winds changed the fire spotted ahead of itself and eventually burnt to Ythanbrae's back fence and further towards Yea on the western front and further towards Alex on the eastern front.