Yesterday klx140kid and I went up to our land at Wallan.
I wanted him to understand what bushfire really is, beyond some footage on the news, considering where we will soon live.
I didn't want to do anything insensitive and going near towns such as Wandong as a "grief tourist" is completely inappropriate in my opinion. So we just stuck to the Hume and had a drive.
Wow... a few kms past Wallan, where the fire went through is visible. It runs along the Hume on both sides for about 15km almost to the Flowerdale/Broadford exit. We turned back there and followed the path down. This was the beginning of the Kilmore East fire that eventually formed part of the Kinglake Complex.
It literally looks like a bomb went off. I have never seen so many dead animals. A big bull roo caught my eye and I thought if the toughest and fastest of the mob couldn't outrun it, what hope did anything have? I was pretty upset. That isn't usual for me. There's horses and cattle in burnt out paddocks and god only knows how they survived.
There are a number of burnt out homes..... but **** people are tough. Really tough. One burnt out house has a tent and a caravan set up and they're simply starting again.
Another burnt out shell had a ute parked in front of it and the clean up was in full swing. These people have lost homes, but they've lost friends and family as well and they are just so brave.
I know it sounds cliched and wanky, but I felt proud that these are our people, this is our country. That people can be so resilient in the face of this is so inspiring. The bush will regenerate. The people will rebuild and return. But the people, unlike the land, have scars from which they will never fully recover. But they will move forward.
Like most people, I have certainly gained a bit of perspective about my place in the world and the insignificance of what I once considered were my problems.