Sunday 7 June 2009

The old house at Barwidgee Creek, lost in the recent Black Saturday bush fires

I've mentioned this place and the bushfires before here. Finally we've been able to come back and see for ourselves what happened. In a word, devastating. The last photo shows where the house stood. The house was quite large. Around 340 square metres. All the rubble has been cleared away. Carolyn, the current owner, told us over 200 tonnes of concrete had been carted away. The green shed, in the fourth photo, was behind the house and, bizarrely, survived the fire. The rainwater drain pipes melted in the heat though. The hill behind the house has been sterilised by the fire. It looks like a nuke has gone off. The white pot is the only surviving pot of the 8 or so that had dotted the veranda. Possibly the only intact item from the house after the fire. It was quite surreal standing in the middle of this devastation knowing that the house you grew up in should have been there.

We are incredibly sorry for the current owners. They escaped from the fire with the the clothes they were wearing. Everything else went with the house - photos, kids toys, everything. We can't imagine what they had and have to deal with and we can only offer them our best wishes. Only a kilometre or two up the road another local couple lost their lives in the same fire.

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