Australian Fire Victims Start Rebuilding Process

Fire-damaged Kinglake’s residents begin the process of rebuilding their community
Australian Fire Victims Start Rebuilding Process
FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend’s and neighbour’s property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)
3/23/2009
Updated:
3/24/2009
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/AusFire1Jarrod_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/AusFire1Jarrod_medium.jpg" alt="FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend's and neighbour's property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)" title="FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend's and neighbour's property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)" width="300" class="size-medium wp-image-64792"/></a>
FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend's and neighbour's property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)
KINGLAKE, Australia—The town has only just been reopened to the public after weeks of police lockdown. The painful search for the remains of residents who did not escape the inferno has finally been closed. However, although the fires are out and the police tape is gone, the emotional damage is still very real.

The inferno, dubbed “Black Saturday” by the media, resulted in Australia’s highest ever loss of life from a bushfire—210 were killed. Kinglake was one of the towns worst hit by the fires with at least 38 people dead and over 500 homes destroyed.

The area has been closed to the public since February 7, allowing police to search for and locate human remains. On Tuesday, March 17, the roadblocks finally came down.

Not everybody was happy, with some residents reportedly yelling angrily at a film crew recording the event.

For Kinglake resident Sue Perry, the reopening of the town comes as a welcome relief.

“I’d love to be protected a bit longer, like a lot of people, but its definitely time...it means people from outside Kinglake who have offered help can actually come and help now.”

Ms. Perry told of the community’s emotional and practical recovery being put on hold because of the roadblocks and forensic investigations. Property owners have been unable to search the ruins for precious belongings.

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/AusFire2Jarrod_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/AusFire2Jarrod_medium.jpg" alt="FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend's and neighbour's property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)" title="FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend's and neighbour's property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)" width="300" class="size-medium wp-image-64793"/></a>
FIRE DAMAGE: Kinglake resident Sue Perry contemplates the destruction of her friend's and neighbour's property in the heart of the rural township. The residents of the fire-ravaged township of Kinglake are just beginning to recover from the terrible f (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)
“People haven’t been able to move anything from their blocks. They haven’t had a chance to go through the rubble, do their grieving and celebrate finds and stuff.”

Things have changed with the lifting of the roadblocks,” she said. “They feel elation at finding something whole and they’re grieving over the things that aren’t.”

Many residents are happy to have the town open again, but have called on the public to be considerate of the locals.

“We certainly need support from people, but they’ll need to be patient with us because we’re still pretty raw and we’re still pretty shell-shocked and still trying to get it all together,” publican Sharon McCulloch told Fairfax Media.

“It’s not very pretty up here; it’s fairly ugly and I don’t think, if people come up in the next month or so, that they’re going to want to come back for a few years yet and we actually need that long-term support.”

Recent weeks have brought rain and a cooling of the extreme temperatures seen throughout February. The bushfire season for this year is widely believed to be over.

“There’ll be a few that will come back and they’ll want to get cracking,” Ms. Perry says with a distant smile, when asked if she thinks the town will rebuild.

“There’s just enough left to make us feel like we can cope; to make us feel it can be alright.”

Meanwhile, a Royal Commission into just why the fires were so deadly has begun and the nearby town of Marysville, where 45 people died, remains closed to the public.