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Black Saturday: A decade later and still the scars remain

Join us in reflecting on the Black Saturday tragedy in a 10th anniversary special edition on Thursday morning

In the three days leading up to Black Saturday, the world felt strange. Not only did the temperature in Melbourne hover around 43 degrees but the air was eerily still. It was like breathing in hot soup.

Suburbs baked. Community pools were full. Country paddocks were tinder boxes. People closed their curtains and sat in front of the cricket and air-conditioners.

On the eve of what would be Australia’s deadliest natural disaster, then-Victorian premier John Brumby warned that the 24 hours to come could be “the worst day in the history of the state”.

And so it was. Ten years ago on February 7, 2009, 173 people died in a series of catastrophic fires. More than 3500 homes, farms and businesses were lost. Families and communities were changed forever.

Waking on the Saturday, people in the country were on high alert. On the radio, there were repeated warnings from politicians and emergency services that the temperature would top 46 degrees.

The Forest Fire Index was tipped to reach unprecedented ‘Code Red’ levels of over 200.

The scientific forecasts became terrible reality in mid-morning when the humidity dropped and a swirling wind kicked up. Storm-force gusts ripped down ageing power lines in Kilmore East and Murrindindi.

It sparked a fire front of historic proportions even as fires in another 11 districts roared into life.

Tonimbuk fire

In the teeth of the dragon: Crews fight the fire at Tonimbuk. Photo: AAP

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, which held 155 days of hearings including testimony from experts and 100 lay witnesses, revealed the Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment were sent to an unprecedented 316 fires in a single day.

“This was one of Australia’s worst natural disasters. It will be many years before its effects dim,” concluded the royal commission, headed by Justice Bernard Teague.

Two separate class actions, the Kilmore East-Kinglake class action and the Murrindindi-Marysville class action were launched after the royal commission by law firm Maurice Blackburn.

Across both class actions there were 13,983 claims comprising 2330 personal injury and dependency claims and 11,653 economic loss and property damage claims.

Kangaroo February 9

A lone kangaroo in a burnt forest on February 9, 2009. Photo: AAP

After a 16-month trial that finished in June 2014, the thousands of plaintiffs and defendants including an electricity company, the CFA and the State of Victoria agreed to settle out of court for $494 million.

A second court-approved settlement of $300 million was made in May 2015 for the Murrindindi-Marysville class action.

“It’s an incredible feeling to have worked very hard for a long time on a claim for people who had suffered incredible losses and otherwise would not have been able to access financial compensation for those losses,” lawyer Kimi Nishimura, who worked on the claims for five years, tells The New Daily.

Kevin and Judy Purtzel

Judy and Kevin Purtzel at their destroyed Marysville home on February 9, 2009. Photo: AAP

The silver lining of the disaster

  • Ten years after bearing the brunt of Black Saturday, Kinglake has smart new houses, kindergartens and a village shopping strip with fine dining options. But there are significant pockets of people on Melbourne’s outskirts with post-traumatic stress disorder from Black Saturday. Local mother Lesley Bebbington says the area’s young people, who were children at the time of the disaster, have done remarkably well: “I am just proud they survived, that they got through it. You see them now – we have plumbers, vets, nurses, artists, horticulturalists, doing well.”
  • Steve Pierrehumbert and Sally White huddled together in an underground wine cellar in their Chum Creek home. They survived the inferno but the anniversary rattles them every year. It took them nearly 10 years to rebuild, navigating government red tape and builders’ quotes. But while they say their lives are different, their relationship is strong and their new home has a wine cellar.
  • British migrants Edd and Amanda Williams and their three children lost their reputedly indefensible two-storey Steels Creek home. They decided not to leave the area and, using repurposed bricks, built a house partially underground. They won’t celebrate the anniversary but will remember the kindness and generosity of “humanity”.
  • Driving towards the Marysville fire on their day off, Victoria Police senior constables Andrew Walker, Peter Collyer and Ian Hamill saw about 200 people huddled on the edges of the town’s Gallipoli Park oval. “We said, ‘Oh my God, look at this’,” Walker said. “(They were) parked under the trees and the trees were starting to go up.” The officers guided a convoy of vehicles to Buxton using the only clear route out of town. With another officer from the region, Ken Dwight, they received Victoria Police Valour Awards for their efforts that day.

Photos of Marysville show its slow but sure recovery:

Marysville 2009

Dead trees outside Marysville on February 9, 2009. Photo: AAP

Marysville 2014

Five years on: Near Marysville on January 30, 2014. Photo: AAP

Marysville 2019

The same Marysville spot just before the 10th anniversary of Black Saturday. Photo: AAP

Clinical psychologist Rob Gordon, who worked with Black Saturday victims, said the incident produced a much higher than usual incidence of post traumatic stress disorder.

He advocates talking out anxiety and staying connected to communities to have a greater chance of recovery.

Among the 67 recommendations handed down by the commission in 2010 were a comprehensive approach to evacuations, increased controlled burns and organisational change within emergency services.

“It would be a mistake to treat Black Saturday as a ‘one-off’ event,” the report said.

-with AAP

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