Off the keyboard of John of Wallan
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Published originally on the Doomstead Diner January 4, 2019
Discuss this article at the Wildfires Table inside the Diner
Black Saturday: 7th December 2009, Victoria Australia.
180 people died, 450,000 ha (1,100,000 acres) burnt,7,562 people displaced,Over 3,500 structures destroyed, including over 2,000 houses.
The statistics sound bad enough. They dont tell half the story.
The area:
I live in Wallan Victoria. This is the start of the “high country” 50km dirrectly North of the Melbourne CBD, with Pretty Sally Mountain (Tiny by any other continents standards), being the first major rise you come to. My 2 acre rural/ residential property is about half way up Pretty Sally.
To my North is the town of Kilmore, where one of the main fires started when some overheated power lines failed. East of Kimore is Whittlesea and Kinglake, where I regularly go to cut firewood eith in the local state forest or on a private property. From Kinglake to Marysville further East again is thinly populated mountainous bushland with samll towns and farms all along the outskirts of Melbourne. It had been a place where saw mills popped up in the late 19th century to feed growing melbourne, then migrant workers after WW2 built holiday cabins due to slightly cooler conditions and low prices. Plenty of hippies, loggers, farmers and retirees. Marysville is a tourist town with a small winter sky field nearby on Lake Mountain. Most of Melbourne’s water catchments are in this area due to relatively high rainfall and pristine bushland relatively close to the main population centres.
The lead up:
The weeks leading up to Black Saturday had been hot and dry. I was in one of my many “in between jobs” moments, and was driving a semi truck for a local recycling firm taking 40 foot containers to and from the Melbourne docks to pay the bills. Pretty cushy job in hindsight. Spent 8 hours of a 12 hour shift sitting in a plush Volvo cab waiting for containers to be loaded. All week I had been listening to the radio. All week we were told of the expected weather for Saturday to be worse than anything previously seen….. The week was bad enough, Every day over 40 degrees, and I think we had a 45 degree day which broke a record in the previous week.
I can remember looking at the ambient temperature reading on the dashboard of the truck while sitting on the blacktop at the docks in the line waiting to get unlaoded: 52 degrees! I jumped out of the truck to get the paperwork and it hit me like a hot iron. The radiant heat off the road actually burned the skin.
The BOM (Beaurea of Meterology) and the CFA (Country Fire Authority) had looked at the conditions and knew something really bad was coming. The FDI (Fire Danger Index) had literally gone off the scale. We were in uncharted territory. The usual warnings and preparations would be tottaly inadequate, as we all found out in hindsight.
Saturday was forecast for 100km Notherly winds, 45 degrees and very low humidity. The Area was tinder dry due to ongoing drought. In hindsight no one was prepared. Not by half.
The temperature on Saturday eventually hit 46 degrees and set a new record. No matter what you think, I can tell you that is fucking hot. Add 100km/h winds and thats a furnace. (115f and 60mp/h in the old scales).
Saturday:
Saturday started out hot and windy, as expected, and got worse as the morning went on. I worked from 6 in the morning and knocked off at lunchtime. I drove an old 1991 4 cylinder Holden Jackaroo 4WD (Isuzu trooper outside Australia. I still use it for firwood collection!), and was driving North along the Hume Highway, struggling to do 80km/h into the 100km/h hot headwind. About 20km from Wallan when I got a call from my wife: “There is a fire Wallan is being evacuated”.
I looked up and saw the relatively thin black plume of smoke from the Kilmore East fire in the distance and told her we are ok. Fire was to the NE and wind was dirrectly from the North. I though it would miss us, but suggested she call her uncle in Kinglake and warn them. More on this call later…
When I got home I started to get the hoses out and ready, fire extinguishers at each door and dressed me and my 2 lads head to toe in long sleeve cotton shirts and pants, boots and hats. I got them both on hoses and told them to walk up and down hosing the hedges around the house and each other, They made a bit of a game of it. In hindsight the lads were too young and we were ill prepared. Luck was with us that day. Other not so much.
It was so hot and the wind was so strong that literally a minute after hosing each other down we were dry. It was like standing in front of a hair drier on the hottest settings. Trees and plants we had watered the day before wilted in the heat despite having wet feet. They could not pump water up to the leaves fast enough. I grew up in the dry hot arid areas of Western NSW, so I was used to the heat. This was like nothing I remembered growing up.
The fire came 10km to the NE of our place. Then the wind changed to a Westerly a bit before 4pm from memory, and we watched as the fire went from being 1km wide fire front with 20km long flanks travelling South, pretty well following the Hume Highway to a fire front now 20km long travelling due East uphill into tinder dry thick bushland.
The local police Sergeant at Whittlesea later told us how he was trying to keep ahead of the fire front that day to warn and divert oncoming traffic. He was at Wallan East when the wind changed to a Westerly, and he drove his Ford Territory towards Wittlesea at 160 km/h (100mph) The fire beat him. The fire front was travelling much faster than the winds. The intense heat generated its own weather, with fire tornados and smoke cloud lightning reported.
We watched from my deck as the line of fire went up over the hills towards Kinglake and was gone within an hour. Everything in its path burnt almost instantly. Eucalyptus trees exploded as the heat boiled the oil out of the leaves and burned like a saturn 5 rocket engines with rolling fire balls travelling across the tree tops maybe 200m in front of the main fire front on the ground. This continual spotting way ahead of the fire front meant no fire break was big enough and fire fighters cound not attack the fire front as it soom engulfed them from all sides.
It was not a gentle rolling preductable fire. It was like a fan forced blacksmiths forge, but everywhere across the Eastern horizon. The landscape left behind was like a swept floor. No leaves or even ash. Just dirt and black tree trunks. The fire had burnt everything to fine ashes and the wind had blown it all away. Dense forest was now see through, with only blackened, leaf free trunks.
A mate of mine is a local volunteer CFA Captain. He said that day was the worst he had seen. They could not fight the fire front due to its speed and intensity. His words were; “If I put a crew in front of the fire, I am killing them.” When the wind change came he found himself in front of the fire. He and his crew took shelter in a local petrol station in Wandong of all places. He said the concrete car spaces around the bowsers was the only place that was not on fire! Once the fire front went past they went back to blacking out and mopping up.
The fire hit Kinglake West where I cut firewood at an uncles place a bit after 4:00pm. The uncle and aunt who we had warned earlier, completely ignored our warning, and did everything wrong. They somehow survived. Many of their neighbours did not. They were all home watching TV, not listening to reports or news or keeping an eye on things, despite a week of warning leading up to the day. They saw the fire and smoke, panicked and jumped in the car and drove through it. At the main road, after an arguament they turned left. They survived when a turf farmer 2km down the road waved them in to his property along with about a dozen other cars and had them in the middle of his Instant turf paddock with the sprinklers going while alll around the fires raged. If they had turned right they probably would have died like so many others did that day. Their house burned down and they lost everything. This house had originally been the old Italian migrant grandfathers hoiliday house he built in the 60’s his son had inherited. It was a besser block walls with tin roof. Pretty fire resistant you would think. It took less than 25 minutes to burn by the owners account. The fire front went through and flattened everything, and was gone. The next door property owned by the Itlian migrant’s Brother, 60m away in a bit of a gully down by a creek survived unharmed. No one was home there. Luck of the draw.
The speed and ferocity of the fire that day is hard to imagine. You can see footage of flames horizontal for 20 or 30 meters, but it is still hard to comprehend. I saw a fire travel up over the horizon in real time in a matter of minutes. It traveled from here to Kinglake quicker than I used to ride it on my old 750 Honda, and we used to run that road pretty damn quick in the days before speed cameras were everywhere. It literally swept the landscape clean. The temperatures melted steel structures which offered little protection. There were no containment lines. The fire just went in the wind dirrection and nothing could stop it. The fire front was so fast it literally blew over some properties and gullies which survived, while all around them the intense heat generated from the winds destroyed everything once it caught alight. We found the ride on lawn mower at Kinglake some weeks later. It was in the middle of a patch of grass. All that was left of the motor was the steel crank sitting straight up in the air. The alloy Briggs & Stratton engine had melted away completely, and the thin metal floor and wheels had oxidised to rust.
I stayed up to midnigt that night keeping watch and listened to the radio broadcasts. Next day I called my parents who live interstate, as I do most Sundays, and without any warning broke down and cried on the phone remembering what I had seen. I still choke up telling the story of that day.
120 people died in the main Kinglake/ Whitlease/ Kilmore East fire. Around 400 injuries were reported. A lot more were psychologiclly affected. The uncle never recovered and is a shaddow of his former self with major nervous complaints and other health issues which I attribute to that day. A few weeks after the fire I was traveling through town with his son and we turned up the neighbours driveway only to be confronted by the tell tale sign of blue police tape across the drive. The neighbours did not live there any more. Pretty confrontling. We did not say much for the rest of the drive home. The local pre-school at Kinglake lost quite a few children. (Pre-school is usually 3 to 5 year olds) The aunty used to assist there before the fires. The Uncle and Aunt were quite religious before the fires. Now I am not so sure. Pretty well everyone in the area suffers from PTSD in my opinion.
The tourist town of Marysville to the East was the worst hit I saw. It was just wiped off the map. We visited about 12 months after the fires when the clean up crews had already been through and were shocked to see the whole town was just an empty paddocks with a few transportable huts set up where the main street shops were. It looked like a new subdivision had just been put in. Roads, gutters and light posts and no buildings where once had been a shpping strip and residential area. It only had 1 road in and out. There was significant loss of life at Marysville as well as the property damage.
For several years afterwards people were still living in caravans or tents trying to rebuild or just pick up the pieces where they could. The uncle stayed 2 years in the next door house his uncle, (the other brother), had built while his house was rebuilt to comply with new and supposedly better fire regulations.
For at least 12 months I regularly saw cars driving around with melted bumpers or scorched paint. Many people moved out of the area. Many people were not found, or if they were found could not be easily identified.
I wish I could say there were some lessons learned from that day. If there was they were very small and certainly not widely adopted. The area has now been rebuilt with more homes than before, and many young families are moving into the area as Melbourne grows, and one of the worlds worst housing bubbles forces people into cheaper areas they can better afford.
I have become very vigilant every summer since that day. I keep an eye on weather forecasts a week in advance and every year I do some basic fire prevention preps around the house. Mow lawns, check pumps, sprinklers and hoses, put extinguishers at doors, clean gutters, etc. Its not enough. Never will be. Only way to guarantee survuival on a day like that is to be not in the area. Every fire season we have local fires, the worst came within 200m of the house a few years back and we had choppers flying overhead bombing the front. I think I posted some photos of this a few years back. I had the sprinklers on and was preparing to defend the property. That day was hot but nothing like the conditions on Black Saturday.
So many people blame others for the shit storm that day. I still have to bite my tongue to not get into arguaments. The uncle and his wife blame everyone for their loss: The police did not warn us. The fire brigade did not warn us or save our house, The government did not allow land clearing. The grrenies would not allow enough back burning operation. I heard it all. It was all baseless bulllshit.
The week leading up to the fires was media saturation on how bad Satuday was going to be. No fire fighter could stop that blaze, and half the state was on fire so no one is going to get a personal warnign call or visit. There is only one answer; You have to help yourselves, and if you cant dont be there.
At least twice since black Saturday I have rung the uncle and warned them of fire in the area. To my amazement both times we got the same response as Black Saturday: We are ok you are panicking for nothing. I will not be calling anyone from now on. I will be busy patroling outside and watching the CFA warnings site. I will no longer concern myself with trying to help those who will not help themselves.
The fires affected me. I am usually pretty level headed and calm in a crisis, and have dealt with stressful and confronting scenarios calmly such as giving first aid to injured people after an accident on several occaisions, or preparign for fires in the area, or putting out a car fire in the city while others panicked! (Fucking heap of shit Landrover. Should have let it burn!)… It usually hits me afterwards. My property was not dirrectly impacted by the fires that day, but I still choke up remembering it or telling a story about it. It also down right makes me angry when people blame others for what happened that day and dont take any personal responsibility.
After the fires the State Governemnt gave a lot of assistance packages to local areas as well as individuals. All those who lost houses got a cheque for $50K to assist rebuilding. This tax payer money was generously given away to make it seem like the Governemnt had done something…. A lot of people did not have proper insurance in the fire area, and the Government sold it as a way of helping them get back on their feet. I have a problem with this. I went without to ensure my property was insured. Others saved on insurance and got $50K. Others had insurance, but still got the $50K.
The fire services introduced a new leel of fire danger in the aftremath of Black Saturday: Catastrophic. It pretty well means if a fire gets away your fucked. Only safe option is to be not in the area. Only safe way to be not in the area is leave the day before. The fires burn so hot and travel so fast that leaving once a fire has started in the area is deemed to be more dangerous than sitting tight. There were a lot of fatalities from people fleeing in cars that day who either crashed due to poor visability or who got caught in the fire storm and the car overheated and they died from the radiant heat.
Interestingly there were fewer major burns injuries after the fires than expected. I remember reading a medical article which said that as a percentage of casualties, major burns was much less than usual for bushfires. The accepted theory is that the speed and ferocity of the fires meant that those caught in the open did not survive. It was just too hot. Those who managed to take shelter survived with usually minor burns.
The Future:
There are fires every year around here. This part of the planet is the bushfire capitol of Australia, if not the world! There will be another Black Saturday soon. A day where any fire is not controlable. Maybe this year, or maybe the next, or the one after that. Climate change is real. Heat waves are becoming more regular and rainfall paterns are changing. We are now getting some 1 in 100 year weather events, either extreme hot or cold, wet or dry every 10 years or so, and every year seesm to be the hottest on record.
Population growth in Australia is still going strong, mainly due to high net migration. It the only way our politicians can engineer ecconomic growth to ensure they get re-elected. Sydney is getting land locked, and prices are rediculous even compared to Melbourne’s rediculous prices. Melbourne is now the fastest growing city in Australia, and it is expected to overtake Sydney in population in a few years. More and more outer suburbs are popping up to cater for the growing population adding to very fast urban sprawl. Low interest rates is causing one of the worlds biggest housing bubbles here in Oz making housing afordablity very low. More and more people are moving out to the mountain areas to take advantage of cheaper housing. More and more areas where we should not be building are getting subdivided and family homes are being built. It is a recipe for disaster.
Insurance companies are starting to wise up about fire insurance in high risk areas. Many companies will not give policies in high risk areas, or have jacked up premiums to be unafordable. As a result the Government is trying to guarantee insurance for areas where no company want to insure against fire, either through incentives or regulation. Either way once again us tax payers will foot the bill for fire damage in a fire zone. If the area is too risky to insure, it is too risky to live in!
When the next fire goes through it will be a another disaster.