The 2003 Canberra bushfires

On 17th January my daughter L and I were lying on our backs on our steep driveway as the sun was setting. That part of the yard was in full shade but the concrete drive was still very warm. We were just chatting about things in general but noticed leaves swirling high in the air although everything where we were seemed quite windstill. Eventually some of the leaves dropped to where we were lying and much to our surprise we noticed that they were burnt. My husband came out to join us sitting on the driveway and he was also surprised at the state of the leaves that fell from the sky and we hypothesised about the fires that were at the edge of the ACT and how dangerous they could possibly become. I kept one of the burnt gum leaves. At the time it seemed so strange.

That night L had dinner at a friend's place in an elevated section of the suburb Isaacs that has a westerly view. She came home saying how spectacular the swirling red sunset was. Also she had to drive home really carefully as unusual numbers of kangaroos had come out of the bush and were on the roads and on peoples' lawns feeding on the grass.

Our other daughter was at a wedding reception. I had gone to the actual ceremony in Commonwealth Park earlier in the day. It was blazingly hot and the huge brown clouds of smoke to the west were really disconcerting.

My husband checked web sites and we watched the television and went to bed that night 'concerned but not alarmed' about the fires. J (younger daughter) went to A's after the wedding reception. All was well.

We woke on 18th January 2003 to a very dry, oppressively hot and windy day. L and I decided to go to the movies in Manuka to see the German film 'Mostly Martha'. We went in our own cars because she wanted to finish some work in the office afterwards and I had to do a bit of grocery shopping. The movie was great and then we went our separate ways.

I drove home via Hindmarsh Drive which has panoramic views of the Brindabella Mountains behind Canberra and was shocked at the voluminous amount of thick brown smoke. As soon as I arrived home I got my husband to come to the opposite side of the Tuggeranong valley from our place to look at the smoke which by then really looked dangerous. We took a whole lot of photos from an area which was completely burnt out a few hours later.

By this time it was about midday. J and A (boyfriend at the time and now husband) came home and we discussed the wedding they had attended and then how much smoke there was and how scary everything looked. Our neighbour came over and we also discussed the scary looking scenario. My husband checked the web site again and still it showed the fire site to be some distance away, however when we turned on the radio we were shocked to hear an emergency warning siren constantly blaring with the announcer giving evacuation advice.

Things happened very quickly after that. We realised as we were on the western side of Canberra where the fires were coming from, that we were in it's path. I quickly climbed onto the roof, plugged the downpipes and filled the gutters with water. By now it was beginning to get much darker as the clouds of smoke enveloped the sky. Whilst I was on the roof I could hear a car roaring closer at high speed. It was our daughter L who I had been trying to get in touch with without success. Was I ever glad to see her. Now the whole family was together.

L told us her story. She went into the office but the air conditioning failed so she decided to go to Woden Plaza to have a massage. Whilst she was there the large stores such as David Jones, Big W and the supermarkets were informed about the fire situation and were evacuated. The little Chinese massage place had no idea about what was happening and carried on obliviously. When the massage was finished L decided to check her phone which she had ignored so as not to be distracted from her massage and heard my brief panicked message, "please come home." She walked past a window, saw the blood red sky, rushed into the car park where her's was the only remaining vehicle and drove home as quickly as she could, probably the last car that managed to get down the Tuggeranong Parkway before that road was closed. Everything was already burning beside the road and all she could see ahead were billowing clouds of smoke and huge flames. No wonder she was going fast! She realised no traffic police would be trying to catch speeding drivers so really put her foot down.

Once L was home and the gutters filled and windows shut, my husband got us and the neighbours organised. We filled buckets, dressed in long sleeved shirts, jeans, socks and leather shoes. To cope with the thick air and stinging ash we also wore hats and sunglasses and tied big wet handkerchiefs over our noses so that we looked like a bunch of outlaws. We took rakes and wet mops up to the back where a fire trail runs behind the houses. Our chook yard was up the back so I soaked the thick straw that covered their enclosure. By now the water pressure was very low but as we have a swimming pool we felt we would at least have access to water if the hoses dried up.

A friend had turned up while we were rushing about. He had a visiting German academic with him who was stunned at all this activity but said he wanted to help when the fires arrived. He came up the back where we were all standing waiting for the fire front to arrive. T (my husband) warned him that animals would probably come rushing ahead of the fire, possibly even snakes, and that he should just stand still, leave them alone and they wouldn't be at all concerned with him. "I don't think I could stand still if a snake was coming," he said, but T insisted that that was what he must do to avoid being bitten.

There was a whole army of neighbours armed with their various fire fighting implements just waiting. T tried to get one of the people to take his dog away. "He'll be alright," the guy said but when the fire did arrive with kangaroos bounding in front, the dog barked and lunged and the poor kangaroos turned and jumped back into the flames where they were overcome. I don't know what happened to that man and his dog because I was too busy to pay him any attention after I sent him the initial thousand bad thoughts!

While we were standing waiting, we could hear the explosions to the north where the suburbs of Chapman and Duffy were being consumed. The air became thick and black, the ground began to vibrate, all around you could hear a sound like heavy drops of rain, however those were embers which would immediately set the grass in which they landed on fire. Flocks of birds were whirling along in front of the fire and then as the oxygen depleted and the temperature rose they would drop into the flames. We could do nothing to help those poor creatures.

Unless you have experienced it yourself it is hard to imagine the sound of a big fire. The sound is like a train in a tunnel, including the vibrations that you can feel in your feet.

We didn't have the pine plantations which caused the devastation by creating the fireballs, or many gum trees close by, but we did have very high dry grass behind the houses. The sky went black and then brilliant red as the flames attacked our area. Although very intense the fire front, driven by a strong wind, passed relatively quickly. We also had an army of well armed volunteers who pounced on any stray embers and put out the spot fires almost as soon as they started. One neighbour's fence caught on fire but was extinguished efficiently.

The German academic, who had stood still for ages fearing snakes, had obviously decided none were coming and fought valiantly alongside everyone else. In fact, he and our friend went to Rivett after the fire front had passed our place, where our friend knew that some colleagues were away on holiday. The verandah of their house was on fire and the two men ended up saving that house and the place next door.

L, who wasn't coping well with the smoke, had stayed inside the house trying to calm our two terrified dogs as well as organising drinks and any equipment that we needed. The rest of us were outside doing our best. One lot of neighbours were so frightened that they had jumped in the car and rushed away. T locked their front door which they had inadvertently left wide open.

We were exhausted by the time the fire front had passed. Grimy with bright red sore eyes we collapsed in the family room. One dog had peed on the carpet in her fear and then kept looking at the airconditioning duct and then us in an accusing manner. It was hot and she wanted us to turn the cooling on but not surprisingly the power was off.

After a while we went to check on our chickens. They were nowhere in sight, however when they heard our voices they emerged from where they had buried themselves under the wet straw. I was impressed. Chooks are pretty stupid but they obviously have a terrific survival instinct.

We didn't sleep much that night. We kept checking the area making sure that no further fires were flaring up. Also the constant bad news on the radio was terribly distressing. Friends from around the country were ringing to make sure we were alright.

In the days and weeks after the firestorm we heard from friends who had lost houses and all their belongings. We tried to help, as did most of the Canberra community, to replace 'things'. Individuals and businesses were amazingly generous and finally people saw the 'heart' of Canberra which we who live here have always known was here.

People were traumatised. On a hot, dry, windy day such as today, I'm on edge, but I know how lucky we were this day ten years ago. After the firefront had passed and the family was flopped in an exhausted heap I knew what was really important. Certainly not the 'things'. It is the people who are important. They cannot be replaced.