No other story

There can be no other story than to say how terrible the news from my home state of Victoria is in the face of the worst natural disaster in Australian history - the February bush fires.

I had seen the weather report for Saturday that Melbourne was expecting another day in the mid-40's (an extraordinary temperature, but a mark already a couple of times this summer). We proceeded with our plans without giving it a lot of thought - having a lovely day at Mapleton, and ending up with a McCallum family tradition of having an ice-cream at the Big Pineapple. Our first hint of trouble was on the news coming home, that both the Princes and South Gippsland Hwys were cut by fire. Two thoughts immediately struck - firstly that this means the areas of Sale and Lakes Entrance were completely cut off, and secondly that it would have to be a pretty big fire to cut both these roads which are 50 km or so apart. Upon getting home and finishing tea, we decided to ring my parents to see how they were getting on. And they had more news. It had got to 46.2 - an all time record in Melbourne, and that there were a lot of fires. Mum sent so far as saying that she had clear memories of Victoria's two worst fire days in 1939 and 1983 and throught these were worse than both. How devestatingly correct she turned out to be.

Then came our time of frustration. There was hardly a mention of Victorian fires on the 60 second news breaks of Saturday night on Queensland television. If they had time for natural disaster stories, they parochially covered the Queensland floods. So - come Sunday morning, it came as a huge shock when our pastor announced he would be praying for the families of the 35 victims killed in the flames. He did that - but no more. At home, we struggled for news. The TV stations pushed on with golf and surf life saving and cricket, with only the cricket having anything to say about the fires. Our best source of information was the news service on the mobile phone, through which we first heard about Marysville and Kinglake and the ever-rising toll. Finally - at around 4:30pm, Channel 7 changed programming and crossed to a news service focussing on the fires. Other stations caught on. By 6:00, there was no other story.

As of now, the disaster continues to unfold. The death toll rises regularly - they now say 173 but expect it to get worse. They've been saying "expect it to get worse" for days now. The fires are still burning. Fires this well established can barely be controlled, let alone extinguished, but anything other than heavy rain. And it has not rained heavily in Victoria this year so far. The story grows more terrible by the moment - there is no way to simply describe it. But - there are plenty of news services out there doing their best - I won't compete with them.

Personally the story hits hard, although we have not heard of any direct connections we have with people who have suffered major losses or death. To that extent - we know many have suffered far more. But for us... Marysville is a town I have enjoyed since being a boy, and had many weekends there. it was one place I introduced to Shelley where she immediately fell in love with it as much as I had. We have had a couple of lovely romantic weekends at guest houses in the town and loved our time there. It's... gone. Kinglake is an area I knew little about until I worked at BUV and was responsible for the property at Gum Creek. The property was a camp site - both formal and informal - for people over the years. Almost 400 hectares of natural bush and a few buildings scattered through. But it was run down and would cost too much to fix up. Ultimately I sold the property to a young guy keen to establish a wildlife sanctuary. Today, I know nothing of the fate of the property or the guy, but I suspect it is burnt out and the young bloke's dream at least is shattered. I rationalise this - imagine if I had allowed it to be converted back to a campsite and had a couple of hundred people tucked away in the bush around the property...

I am also desperately concerned about the churches and people all over Victoria that I had so much to do with up until two months ago. And to date I am not aware of major losses. One report said two Baptist churches had been burned, but I have not had that substantiated yet. Last time I spoke with the Insurance Manager he was not aware of any. All over the state, our churches are staging posts and places of refuge for the bushfire effort. We can only pray and hope this continues to go well.

And the bottom line? The fires are still burning. It's not over yet. We pray for relief. We pray for an end to it.

My former colleagues are busy making preparation to assist. They are running an appeal - see details on www.buv.com.au if you can help. May there be some light in this the darkest hour.