The Burning Shores

The fires on Kangaroo Island

Many years ago, much of my working life was taken up with fires – hazard reduction during winter and fire fighting during the fire season. My efforts then and later as a member of a local brigade were concentrated on the fire itself. My involvement with the human side of a fire disaster tended to be rather remote. This all changed in December when fires broke out on Kangaroo Island.

Result of fires

In all, around 20% of the Island has been burnt, just under 100,000 ha. Most of this has been the national parks. Flinders Chase, the Island’s signature park of around 40,000 ha, has almost all been burnt. As I am chaplain to the parks people, this means that people I care about are hurting. Environments, that so many have invested so much of their emotional energy in, have been devastated. Most of the infrastructure has been saved and the Government has promised funding to rebuild what was lost. But only time can lead to the regeneration of the bush and renewing of plant and animal populations. Only time will tell which animal and plant populations will be lost forever. The need for pastoral support will stretch into months or even years.

Not all of the burnt area was bush. Many thousands of hectares of farm land have also burnt. Two of our own families are among those directly affected. We toured some of this area with one of these people. We saw where fires have burnt right up to buildings which are still standing. We saw a house where exhausted people had fallen asleep to awake with the very stumps of the house alight. The house was saved. We saw crops with some still standing and other areas nothing but seed heads on the ground. We saw a hay storage area which had held hundreds of rolls of hay and now holds lines of white ash. We saw a windsock on a farm airstrip full of holes from embers and still flying bravely. We saw some of the hundreds of kilometres of fencing that was destroyed. And everyone we talk to says the same thing “We’re OK”.

They point to the hay left, to the grain on the ground that the stock can still eat, to the fences that can still hold the stock while they wait to be replaced. They talk of how quickly insurance companies have acted and how reasonable they have been. They talk of the help offered by friends, neighbours and are grateful for the help that came and continues to come from off island, both to fight the fires and to assist in re-establishment. Of course, the real problems are starting to emerge now as the crisis fades into the past and may well develop over the next year or so as the issues of lost income, lost hopes and lost dreams begin to bite. The warning signs are already showing.

Destroyed bushland

Destroyed hayfield

We have a Community Recovery Team of which I am a part. Part of the role of this team is to facilitate the re-establishment process through coordinated access to the resources available. Part is to provide a process of community debriefing where we can listen to people’s concerns, to stories of what went wrong and what went right. We are seeking a solution to differences that is a community solution so that if and when this happens again, we will be better prepared. We are starting from the positive position that for the whole community, it could have been much worse.

BCA responded immediately to the situation by making funds available to help as needed. Many people have been very generous in support both in offering funds and material support. We are grateful to them all, as we are thankful to God for the miraculous limitation of the fire effects. To this point, we have assisted where casual workers were unable to work due to the fires and we will be assisting in some re-establishment needs for an elderly lady. Her house was saved but her wash house is now a pile of ash and her garden little more than burnt ground. We have been offered fence posts for the cost of transport and this offer is circulating as needs are determined. And we are providing some financial assistance for the community debriefing process for which there is no other funding currently available.

Letter boxes Vivonne Bay

Yes this has devastated the Island. But it has given us the opportunity and even the need to draw together as a community. Now we have two needs. We need ongoing prayer support as we begin the healing process, prayers that anger may be converted into determination to find workable solutions, that chasms of difference may be bridged and that those now hurting, grieving and fearful of the future may find renewed hope and regenerated joy. Our second need is people: tourists to replace the many who have cancelled. Be a tourist on Kangaroo Island. We are open for business.

Mark Evans
Kangaroo Island 1/1/08

Fires come close to homes

Webmaster