Bushfires - The Next Season

Victoria has barely started the recovery from one bushfire season before being told, this week, to expect an upcoming season that could be potentially worse.

I suppose a lot of people are praying for a LOT of Spring rain and for milder temperatures than what is expected. However, prayer's one thing...giving God a hand by doing some safety-oriented preparation is another.

But essentially, the State of Victoria, as individuals and as a community will have to prepare and work hard to ensure we do NOT get a repeat of February 2009.

That may mean even the staunchest conservationist thinking about clearing a safety buffer between his home and dangerous trees which become fire fuel. It may mean making sure emergency sirens are ready to warn any small town at a moment's notice, hang former regulations on not disturbing people.

It means emergency communications being better able to handle things than back in February. It means better planning by the relevent authories and getting their acts together.

It means learning some valuable lessons from February and applying them. NOT ignoring them.

The thing is, next fire season, we can't be at the level of complacency we were at before February 7, 2009.

The Road To Kinglake, Phase Two...

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Kinglake West, to film the Sustainable Building Workshop there.

It was my second visit to the Kinglake region in the past couple of months, the first done in daytime.

It's a better view in full light. You get to see the regrowth of grass, lush and green. By the same token, you also get a more detailed view of the extent of the destruction caused by February's bushfires.

It's when you get a couple of kilometres past Whittlesea that you begin to see the still-burnt trees, the homes still broken, bent, burnt or melted. Over to my right I could see one metal building still badly bent out of shape.

Admittedly, on this particular side of Kinglake, you get to see some areas that were untouched, or minorly-damaged, as opposed to the kilometres of burnt trees all the way from St. Andrews to Kinglake.

I finally reached the turnoff from the Whittlesea-Yea road to where I was going, stopping for five minutes to chat to the proprietor of the small milk bar/licensed post office that sits near the intersection. I later found out this small, temporary structure replaced the original shop which was destroyed back in February.

Because the workshop started after midday, I had sufficient time to take a quick trip to Kinglake Central, observing quietly everything I passed.

Pheasant Creek and the part of Kinglake West near it were relatively better than closer in to Kinglake Central. All along the drive one could see where dead trees had been moved from the road side and cut into lumber. Some properties I passed had caravans in them, a cold way to spend the winter while rebuilding. One property's gate was blackened and burnt and I had to wonder if anything was left further in that place.

Of course, there was the odd little Aussie flag flying from a tree stump or two, a determined statement about the Australian Spirit in adversity. And on the way back from that little jaunt, I also noted a hand-painted sign which read: "This is STILL our home."

On my previous trip, my family and I stopped at the Kinglake Diner for fish-and-chips and this time round, I stopped in for some directions. As I came out, I noted something I hadn't seen on the last, early-evening trip: next door to the diner and the other shop on the block, the trees were burnt. These shops were untouched, but they'd come incredibly close to disaster back in February.

After the workshop back at Kinglake West, I went out the back to look at the area behind and between the Hall and the CFA building. A sports reserve beckoned, clear and green. But over to my left, in the next property, a few half-blackened trees. I took a guess the CFA had worked hard to protect this particular patch and any people sheltering on that oval...but one could imagine they'd still had a fight on their hands doing it.

During breaks, I talked to some of the locals about some of the alternative building methods we were hearing about, but we also spoke about the effect of social media (Twitter et al) in an area where, at the time of Black Saturday, a substantial part of telecommunications was out of action or destroyed. I had often wondered if the bushfire-related tweets I and others had made back in February had gotten to the very people we were trying to help that day in this specific region. Everyone I talked to on this point agreed the current method of telecommunications has its limits when it can be adversely affected by natural disaster.

After the workshop, I took one last drive back into Kinglake before bidding it farewell for this trip.

Six months on, people are getting back into as much as they can, rebuilding where they can, adjusting to conditions. I feel a lot of them will feel a heck of a lot better once they've passed the first anniversary. But it's good to see they're still a determined bunch out there.

Yes, parts of that area are still blackened, parts of that area not yet fully-recovered from the scarring to the land. But that green starting to spring up is still a sign that regrowth is still a part of the cycle even after such a disaster.

Kinglake will get there. With our support, they'll get there.