The keys… a Black Saturday reflection.

15 years ago, plus one day, these keys were given to me.

And I keep them as a reminder of a different time – pre-fires.

On that Sunday, I looked into the eyes of a displaced older man, a treasured volunteer who, amongst the chaos and the heat (it was 45 degrees + ), was not yet understanding of the loss of life, his community, and all that was familiar to him……who sang out “hi Sam” and pressed those keys into my hands.

We hugged for moments with a shared sense of relief that he had made it safely to Alexandra with his wife.

I never pointed out that I had finished up at the Marysville Visitor Information Centre (VIC) four weeks before.
There was no point. I was just grateful he was safe.

15 years ago, he was ushered out of his shift at the VIC on that Saturday just after 3/3.30 pm and told to evacuate to Alexandra.

Amongst the heat (it was a heatwave of 46 degrees +), wind, and treacherous road trip, which usually took 30 minutes and took considerable time dodging debris and huge amounts of traffic, he arrived safely.

15 years ago, when he was at the college on Sunday in Alexandra, he found me desperately trying to locate Marysville and Triangle residents. Amongst the chaos of Alexandra Secondary College being transformed into a relief centre with service providers, volunteer service clubs, local and state government employees, and reps unpacking boxes, setting up tables, and handing out water bottles.

Some local government team members, I might add, had lost their own homes, animals, and treasured family pets; some knew, and some were to find out in the coming days. They were all on duty, unpacking and supporting the residents.

Many “firies” in blackened gear arrived, needing showers and changes of clothing in between shifts. Many people with pets and mobile phones are seeking chargers.
Many are asking questions. Food is arriving by car and mini trucks.
Then being cooked/ heated, and prepped by those amazing community group ladies in the college hall.

It was busy, chaotic, and strange to see many “residents from the triangle in Alexandra.” Traumatized faces try hard to smile when recognising fellow community members.

All I did on that Sunday was hug and console shocked and devastated community members. Each with a story—each with the hope that they would return to their village, their properties, and everything would be as it was.

15 years ago, and before that for 8 years, these were the people I had worked for and with to promote how beautiful Marysville and Lake Mountain are.

Mystic Mountains Tourism

I was the industry-paid Tourism and Development officer and VIC coordinator. And I loved my role. I was privileged to work with so many volunteers as we made sure Marysville and the district were firmly on the tourism destination map.

We held events, attended events as a collective, ran a tourism website, hosted an Olympic torch event, the village hosted a movie with Sigrid Thornton, and guest speakers at business breakfasts such as Tommy Hafey, MPs, Premiers, and Ceo’s of Tourism Victoria. They too fell in love with the village known as Marysville and the area known as the Triangle, which includes Buxton and Narbethong.

It was a village of memories for hundreds of thousands of visitors, even millions. Dating back to 1920 when the first “tourist buses” drove the spur to reach this little village surrounded by tall mountain ash, the largest ferns, waterfalls, and walks. I remember the tourist advertising that showed the tourist bus sign in Melbourne and the pick-up spot with a Model T or similar ready to go with luggage on the back.

15 plus years ago, Mystic Mountains Tourism Inc. had been my every breath for years. I fell in love with the village, its residents, MMT Inc. members, Marysville’s history, the walks and waterfalls, and its tourism-based businesses.

The lot.

Looking back, collectively, we achieved so much with official visitor guides, maps, events, visiting journalist programs, workshops, business activities, VIC famil tours, and advertising collaborations that we were envious of other towns.

We held our own; there were vibrant, robust, and skills-based committees, and together we PUNCHED above our weight in so many areas: destination promotion, visitor services, collaboration efforts, and marketing.

Back 15 years ago, the facts and the numbers were going to be horrific after that dreaded day….

The Black Saturday bushfires claimed the lives of 173 people, of whom more than 100 were locals, with more than 400 injured. After burning for weeks, it was apparent that 450,000 plus hectares had burned and 3,500 buildings, including more than 2,000 houses, had been destroyed.

That fire ripped our shire apart. It was given the name Black Saturday.

In Marysville (and Kinglake Ranges), there were decimated streets, villages, houses, animals, vegetation, boardwalks, and waterfalls, and for many in the aftermath, the images captured by cameras, media, and our own eyes still resonate and haunt many of us today.

For me…snippets I remember.. ( I was able to photograph for local government once the coroners orders were lifted and then when I was asked to look at the VIC site.)

Melted slow combustion stoves pooled into a silver-looking liquid… solid once again.
The falls were not recognisable, houses and trees were simply ash, and entire streets were flattened.
The site of the VIC and the concrete block of the ATM are my only points of reference.
Finding my mushroom cup in the rubble next to the melted microwave, brought from home, identified for me where the kitchenette was.
Charred entry to the village signs
Burnt-out cars
Trees charred and barely standing with no leaves…
Incomplete fencing, wires hanging
Waving to people combing through rubble
Road signs on angles burned and curled from the heat.
Lake Mountain’s trees look like toothpicks.
Creeks full of sludge.
Jumping out of the local community/law officer’s car to give out hugs.
Tears, more hugs.
Overwhelming feelings of loss.
Feeling helpless and lost.
Seeing the huge fire maps at the MECC in Alexandra.
Sleepless nights, tossing and turning, remembering faces, desperation trying to remember last conversations, finer details.
Seeing people that were now gone in my memories, I noticed triggers.
Remembering snippets of locals, business owners, or volunteers in the VIC, at meetings, or at their places is now too gone..

15 years ago, the secondary effects on our communities were not going to become apparent until much later.
Loss of homes, places of business, incomes, local services, community gathering spaces, and social networks were gone.

The sense of place was shattered.

Not to mention locals, our community members who are simply now gone.

Complete devastation. Physically – mentally.

What remains 15 years later is, for so many of our locals, an unsettling uneasiness in summer, seeing fires via the media, and it’s worse on days of extreme heat.

The scars are still evident, but in many cases, scratching the surface, you will see hints of those with triggers of mental anguish, and there will be a faltering in a conversation, a distant memory surfaces, and eyes mist over.
Many directly and indirectly affected residents of our shire still silently suffer, and we all know mental health issues are widespread.
For the majority, they will remain undiagnosed, untreated, and mostly unspoken. As people have moved on with their lives as best as they can.

Many have gone on to achieve amazing things; their resilience inspires all of us.

15 years ago, mental health and wellness were still, in many instances, spoken in quiet conversations, not spoken about as today.
Hints for me are that mental health issues remain and are still prevalent… I have heard, seen, listened to, and read about stories in regards to the nightmares, anxiety, bouts of depression, and avoidance of emotions about that dreadful day and the days following, which suggests to me that there is still a vast population in Murrindindi that is still struggling.

Locals can be triggered by photos, catching up with past neighbours, and friends, seeing items that survived the fire, or items reminding us of people lost… well-meaning conversations can bring the day back into clarity, with snippets of fleeting memories swilling around us like the smoke that was relentless for days and days.

Some may even get into quiet times of reflection and have, for the shortest of times, a thousand-yard stare as they try to dissociate from the memories, places, and thoughts that can momentarily haunt them.

15 years later….

I have watched the village and the whole district come back to life. I have seen SO much change in the last 10 years: the greenery, new businesses, new buildings and signage, new people, and new ways of doing things.

Our world around Marysville in Murrindindi is vastly different now…

New groups, amalgamations, changes to lives, marriages, births, divorces, deaths, and residents moving away to nearby towns, interstate, and overseas.
Life has moved on. Again inspiring us all to be resilient, tough, and always moving forward.

Residents retiring from working life and traveling more, many have had complete tree changes, on the road more, or indefinitely.

COVID has also reinforced the idea that life is too short. Another reminder that life is fragile may or may not hasten their need to travel, to enjoy life to the fullest with friends and family, and to seek out new adventures.

All the while, the memories of that horrid day become distant, like another chapter from another life, like a camera only coming into focus when we reflect.

But many, like me today, will pause to remember the people, the lives lost, the community impact, and the buildings lost.

15 years ago, Marysville’s sense of place was disrupted, and the community gathering places were no more.
15 years later, newer, shiny versions stand proudly in place as a testament to how far the community has come and how resilient our Murrindindi communities are.

Today my eyes will leak as they do each anniversary for the lives lost, the village itself, and the visitor information centre as I knew it, as many will or may remember.
The keys that no longer open the glassed, mountain ash-framed entrance are now a reminder of a chapter of my life firmly in the past.

Somewhat faded memories…… but never forgotten.

If I could go back for 30 or so minutes into those pre-fire times, I’d be in the VIC, straightening brochures, giggling at the Gunni, and admiring the Owls housed in their locally crafted beautiful glass and mountain ash timber stands.

I’d once again appreciate the building, the hexagonal form, the large expanse of timber, the open beams, the entwined tourism and timber history, and be reminded of the tenacity, the local characters, the groups that made up the fabric of Marysville and the Triangle, and the community spirit that drove the journey and the construction of the information centre and tourism as a whole.

I remember with fondness…

Hundreds of volunteer hours and business donations were needed to get the brochure stands and holders on the walls, the government organisation static displays, the community bank ATM, and supported functional items in the centre.

The community and the strong volunteer ownership over the building. The visitor servicing aided in visitor dispersal around the attractions, retail areas, cafes, accommodation offerings, and natural attractions.

It was a busy VIC.

Over the snow season, it was busy from 7.30 a.m. onwards as the village numbers swelled with visitors from Melbourne wanting to play in the snow.

The massive counter, the comms book, vacancy lists, and memories of visitor servicing are capably given by able volunteers on duty completing their monthly 4-hour shifts. Conversations around the Council sponsored artwork from art shows in the region, adorning the walls and showcasing our region in a variety of mediums by local artists, all while stationed in beautiful locally crafted frames.

I would appreciate the visitor servicing resources needed, such as local maps, books, and DL brochures advertising the “new” Wirreanda Festival, the World’s Longest Lunch, attractions, the Marysville Walks Map fold-out brochure, waterfalls, and accommodation handouts. Leadbeater possum posters for sale along with VIC merchandise—all valuable income revenue streams for the VIC.

Hand-sewed pipe cleaner antlers on the mini Gunni’s for sale, fridge magnets, beanies with our four-season campaign logo, and those popular snow-covered village-captured postcards captured by a proud local.

Large photo books open on slanted mountain ash shelving, showcasing the accommodation offerings.

In the background from the kitchen, UGFM could be heard with songs and news of the day and the noise of the leased photocopier from Yarra Glen, churning out visitor handouts into its trays. Sometimes 30 at a time. Sometimes needing collating and stapling to be displayed out front in the welcoming area for visitors seeking directions or information.

Only interrupted by the phone ringing with a visitor seeking accommodation availability information or the dreaded snow enquiry “When will it snow?” or How tall is Stevenson Falls, and is it floodlit at night?

I would smile and affectionately remember the collective effort of local businesses, some 120 at the time, the 3000 registered accommodation beds, and the VIC volunteers, 60 in total, made up of community volunteers and business owners.

I would remember the 50K visitors to the VIC achieved in late 2008 for the year, with our new door counter backing up our claims of being a busy, vibrant, level 2 VTIC-accredited VIC and being proudly part of a thriving tourism destination.

I remember the night we had a Marysville-themed episode on Channel 7, with our amazing volunteers in the Vic answering thousands of calls from the call to action on the show. I was smiling at how we answered all those calls with a rotary system of calls being moved on to the next phone line for a volunteer to say welcome to the Marysville Lake Mountain visitor information centre.

I think there were 5 lines in….

I’d remember snow on my car in winter in the carpark, mini snowmen arriving in the front grassed area, the before and after mosaic work of the table outside, yellow and black Gunni road signs magically appearing through the village, and white chocolate raspberry bullets in my desk drawer if the volunteers had not found the restocking of said sweets from the lolly shop, enjoying the locally roasted coffee and a sneaky quiche and salad for lunch.

Casual catch-ups in the carpark before and after work, chatting all things tourism, well-attended rotating venue general members meetings, AGMs, and executive meetings on site after 5.30 pm.

And the reminder of the delight of not knowing what the day would bring.

A nice memory like a huge comforting hug.

The keys in my hands are now out of focus but are a solid reminder of that time known to the lead-up to Black Saturday 2009.

Local community members, please be kind to yourself today and others.

Here I am sending a huge hug to all in Murrindindi today.

Hugs help.

💛 Never forgotten, February 7 – 2009 💛

“If you or someone you know needs some extra support during this difficult time, there is help available.
The ‘Be Well in the Kinglake Ranges’ program offers free confidential counselling and phycological support for those impacted across our Shire.
Visit kinglakeranges.com.au/be-well-in-the-ranges for more information.
For crisis and mental health support services, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.”