'Black summer' bushfires in Cann River showed the different ways we respond to crisis

ABC Radio National By Alice Walker Saturday 18 July 2020

It seems an age ago for many of us and like yesterday for others, but before COVID-19 had its name, there was a different disaster threatening the nation. Enormous bushfires tore through the country, burning more than 10 million hectares and killing 33 people.

The season hadn't yet ended when attention turned to the unfolding coronavirus crisis, which brought to the surface the various ways we respond to threat, such as anger, anxiety, depression, denial, panic. Faced with the same information, we react differently — and we could see that playing out in the summer bushfires.

In Victoria's East Gippsland, one of the hardest hit regions, the fires were so big that some created their own weather, and the usual modelling systems could not keep up. Right in the heart of the region, at the junction of the Princes and Monaro Highways, the small town of Cann River found itself marooned in a sea of burning bushland. Almost 70 per cent of the land in nearby Croajingolong National Park was impacted; in Alfred and Lind National Parks, it was 100 per cent.

On December 29, 2019, the State Control Centre took the unprecedented step of sending text messages to 72,000 people in East Gippsland, urging them to leave the region.

Not everyone did. I stayed, and so did these three Cann River residents, each for their own reasons. Click here to read the full article