Gippsland: After the Fire
• Photo by Joshua Collings
Words by Tim Leeson
Photos by Joshua Collings and Ben Gilbert
This story was originally published in Issue 4
This season’s bushfires were unprecedented in their scale and intensity. We're facing an increasing bushfire risk year after year – and perhaps we should be looking to rural communities for leadership when it comes to preparing and recovering from the blaze. Tim Leeson examines what’s next for the Victorian region of East Gippsland in this piece from Issue 4.
Bushfire season came too early this year.
So early that Alan Hall, mayor of Wellington Shire in Victoria’s east, can’t recall bushfires as rapid and extensive as the region has faced this summer. Nor does he remember ever witnessing “fire seasons in both hemispheres overlapping”.
In eastern Gippsland, like so much of the eastern Australian seaboard, communities are gazing into a charred landscape, assessing the damage and getting on with life after the fires. But what does that look like?
East Gippsland has been in drought since 2016. In fact, many would question whether the region ever recovered from the ‘millennium drought’ that affected southern Australian from the mid-90s until 2010. Last year’s spring – Australia’s driest on record – exacerbated the situation and primed the deathly dry region for a fierce fire season.
Rena Gabarov, a wildlife carer from Goongearah, says the land has been so dry that even off-road vehicles are redundant. “I’ve driven my 2WD [car] across dry paddocks for the past two-and-a-half years – without getting bogged!”
In the 10 years prior, driving a 2WD year round without getting stuck would be unthinkable. Those living close to the land take note of these changes.
There’s a common catchcry: “Australia has experienced fires for millennia”. Sure, Gippsland has endured many bushfires in the past, and several were similarly ferocious.
But what is it like to face a bushfire?
A 2017 study by the Australian Institute of Disaster Resilience (AIDR), 'Beyond the 2009 Gippsland bushfires: Acknowledgment and young rural adults’ recovery', found the majority of 24 to 34 year olds sampled felt the fires were “the most defining moment of their lives”. Five out of 20 young adults in the study reported having medically diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and many other participants reported poor physical health in the aftermath of the catastrophic event. Promisingly, AIDR’s continued work is revealing the importance of storytelling and community-driven programs in assisting recovery and building community resilience.
Since she was a toddler, Phoebe Rich has celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve with her family in Mallacoota, a town huddled next to the NSW border. It’s her “second home”. Now 18, she wasn’t expecting to spend her first New Year’s as a legal adult sheltered in a boat on the Wallagaraugh River for 30 hours.
As flames enclosed the popular summertime town, holiday makers were forced to seek refuge on the foreshore, the pier and the water beyond.
But even after military evacuation by plane, Phoebe was quick to encourage tourists to return to the town.
“The worst thing would be to change how we look at these places. People need not change their perception of the place. [The community] needs us to go back there.”
When I co-founded the community newspaper Gippslandia in 2016, our first issue covered the rebuild of Shayne and Megan Cheney's home, lost in the 2009 fires. Ten years later, Megan’s heartfelt advice for helping bushfire-impacted families is circulating widely. It includes gems like: “Offer to fill out application forms for the families”; and, “Cook continuously. For 12 months. Just drop the food and go… The family needs space.”
After each massive fire we’ve learnt something. After the 1939 Black Friday fires, planned burning and load reduction came to the fore. Ash Wednesday in 1983 triggered reviews on power infrastructure and emergency communication systems, which led to improved wind forecasting techniques and building codes. There was also a government buy-back scheme for housing lots in extreme high-risk fire areas – an idea that’s been raised again this year. The Black Saturday fires of 2009 prompted new building regulations for Victorian bushfire-prone areas, and a review of the ‘Prepare, Stay and Defend or Leave Early’ policy.
Again, a stream of ideas are being proposed for how the region can better approach bushfire season. These include: improving data collection to predict fires more accurately in the future; decentralising electricity and water systems in rural communities; designing more resilient buildings that incorporate defendable space guidelines; and facilitating difficult community discussions around acceptable losses in future fires.
• Cudgewa bushfires, photo by Ben Gilbert
Fuel reduction management, which includes the controlled burning and thinning of trees, is a frequent – and contentious – discussion topic in Gippsland, where the views of multi-generational farmers and timber workers are seemingly at odds with those of conservationists. Rena says that while this conflict may be heightened online, the conversations happening in public are much more subdued.
Significantly, the national discourse on fuel reduction management has renewed dialogue around returning fire management to the land’s Traditional Owners. In mid-2019, the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owners Corporations (FVTOC) launched its Cultural Fire Strategy in collaboration with Elders, community groups, Parks Victoria, the Country Fire Authority and the State Government. Aspiring for intergenerational change, the Victorian Traditional Owners believe that cultural burning – which is the right fire at the right time, managed in the right way and for the right cultural reasons – will facilitate healing and caring of Country.
The Gunaikurnai, Traditional Owners of over approximately 1.3 million hectares in Gippsland, are at the forefront of promoting such an integrated approach. Their Whole of Country Plan highlights the importance of implementing traditional land management to heal both the land and its First Peoples. In Bung Yarnda – a self-governing First Nations community in the Gippsland region – fire prevention and emergency response is handled by Australia’s first all-Indigenous, all-female Country Fire Authority brigade.
"... the right fire at the right time, managed in the right way and for the right cultural reasons"
• Photo by Joshua Collings
"We need to immediately address the processes that are intensifying the flames."
Our changing climate is swiftly transforming Gippsland – as it is the globe.
It’s not that the region is unaware. As the Climate-Ready Victoria documents on the East Gippsland Shire website outline, sea surface temperatures have risen faster there than elsewhere on the Australian coastline, and the rate of warming over land has increased too. Since 1950, temperatures have increased by 0.8-1.0°C in the far east, with a rise of 1.0-1.2°C over the majority of Gippsland, and even higher temperature increases in the alpine zones to the north. Annual rainfall has dropped by at least 100mm across Gippsland in the same time frame. You can see where this is heading – the region is projected to experience even harsher fire weather in the future.
To alleviate the worsening bushfire risks posed by climate change, substantial transformations are needed. The climate emergency makes it difficult to return to ‘normal life’ – but the proposed bushfire interventions don’t address climate change. Gippsland, however, has the potential to become a beacon for climate action in Australia. Alan believes that several new projects present significant opportunities for the region, including a $1.2 million renewable energy park and Star of the South, Australia’s first proposed offshore windfarm.
“Remember, electricity infrastructure starts in the Latrobe Valley and, right now, we have two major renewable projects on our doorstep. We also have the feasibility being undertaken for [a] carbon capture and storage project. Together, these projects position us to be a key player in the low carbon economy.”
Alan also points to the region’s role in reducing waste, thanks to Gippsland Water’s treatment and composting facility at Dutson Downs. Each month, the facility converts thousands of tonnes of food, green and business waste from landfill into compost.
“Gippsland is already a player in the circular economy and has the ability to become a sector leader through innovation – this too could be a game-changer.”
Australia is fortunate that considerable research is consistently forthcoming on bushfire interventions, but this year’s fires demonstrate to us all that they are no longer enough. To reduce the annually escalating bushfire risk, we need to immediately address the processes that are intensifying the flames.
This year’s bushfire season came too early and many in our communities are experiencing its devastating impacts too young. We must address climate change while we have the chance.