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Jan. 1st, 2010 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccLast Sunday we headed up to Kinglake. It was quite busy, being a warm, hazy day, a public holiday and generally a nice day for a drive. Initially we'd intended to have lunch up there, but being in the between Christmas and New Year period most places were closed. Of the two that were open, the cafe had a sign up saying 'closed' at 1.30pm - we thought it might have been a mistake, given there were people eating inside at every table, so we went in. Nope, they were shutting. As we left more people came in with the same idea. What kind of cafe closes at 1.30pm?! Possibly one that has run out of food I guess...
The other shop open was the bakery, which had run out of pies, sausage rolls and pasties by the time we wandered up there and only had sweet things left. So we didn't end up eating up there.
The drive up was... impressive. There are literally entire hills of black trees marking exactly where the fire went through and how intense it was. Naturally the most panoramic vistas of dead trees occur on the parts of the road where it is most dangerous to stop. So we didn't.
Kinglake itself is in the process of being rebuilt - there were caravans and half-finished houses and the occasional shipping container. And some entirely new estates that definitely weren't there the last time I went up in about 2006ish. I think they surprised me more than anything. A lot of roads are still closed due to "unstable vegetation" - looking at the trees I can see why.
There was an enormous pile of logs on the approach to Kinglake that had obviously been milled from areas the fire went through.
Anyway, some photos. Not great - I am a crap photographer and it wasn't a great day for photos, being very hazy. But still.
The Whittlesea-Yea Rd. Obviously they've replaced the sign since the fires. You can see the regrowth on some of the trees. It amazes me how it grows out from the trunk like that, when you'd think everything in the tree was dead. Not quite. The green is new grass mostly from the recent rain.
13km to safety... only you have to pass through fire first.
Slightly more close up of one of the charred tree trunks.
I'm not sure it comes through in the photo, but it's the sheer number of trees and the scale of the fire that still amazes me. I mean, every single tree is blackened, and is in the process of regrowth. That is one big fire.
OK, the sign made me laugh. "You want a reason - try looking around." Heh.
I'm not sure whether there's two species of tree there, but some trees had no regrowth at all.
There are entire hills of trees with no regrowth.
Yeah, they replaced the bus stop sign too.
I was trying to get the scale of the hills behind, which are also all burned out. But this photo also reminds me that the regrowth frequently reminded me of cactus, with fluffy stem and spiky tops.
You can't normally see through to the farmland from here, it's too bushy.
More hills behind with spiky tree trunks.
I would like to go up again later and see what other changes in the growth there are. I'm not taking photos of people's houses (way too intrusive), but there was a burned out conifer tree with tinsel around it up there I found very sweet, and quite a large number of Australian flags hanging off blackened trees. None of which I photographed of course!
On the way back we detoured via Humevale and the golf course there. The roads there are also shut to non-residents and again, you can see where the fire swept across the hills and started the run up to Kinglake.
I can't believe it's nearly a year. I don't think either of us could have gone up there if it had been a hot day. Talking to Dean's mum today about the fire she mentioned that Dean's father hasn't been able to bring himself to go up there. D. hasn't gone back to her former job and doesn't shop in Whittlesea because it's too upsetting - too many people who would ask how she's going, which varies from day to day and possibly hour to hour. This next couple of months as the weather gets hotter and the anniversary approaches are going to be touchy for a lot of people I think. Even yesterday, which was hot and windy, was triggering memories and edginess for people, who were "just checking the CFA website" or "just turning the radio to 774". You know. Just in case.
The other shop open was the bakery, which had run out of pies, sausage rolls and pasties by the time we wandered up there and only had sweet things left. So we didn't end up eating up there.
The drive up was... impressive. There are literally entire hills of black trees marking exactly where the fire went through and how intense it was. Naturally the most panoramic vistas of dead trees occur on the parts of the road where it is most dangerous to stop. So we didn't.
Kinglake itself is in the process of being rebuilt - there were caravans and half-finished houses and the occasional shipping container. And some entirely new estates that definitely weren't there the last time I went up in about 2006ish. I think they surprised me more than anything. A lot of roads are still closed due to "unstable vegetation" - looking at the trees I can see why.
There was an enormous pile of logs on the approach to Kinglake that had obviously been milled from areas the fire went through.
Anyway, some photos. Not great - I am a crap photographer and it wasn't a great day for photos, being very hazy. But still.
The Whittlesea-Yea Rd. Obviously they've replaced the sign since the fires. You can see the regrowth on some of the trees. It amazes me how it grows out from the trunk like that, when you'd think everything in the tree was dead. Not quite. The green is new grass mostly from the recent rain.
13km to safety... only you have to pass through fire first.
Slightly more close up of one of the charred tree trunks.
I'm not sure it comes through in the photo, but it's the sheer number of trees and the scale of the fire that still amazes me. I mean, every single tree is blackened, and is in the process of regrowth. That is one big fire.
OK, the sign made me laugh. "You want a reason - try looking around." Heh.
I'm not sure whether there's two species of tree there, but some trees had no regrowth at all.
There are entire hills of trees with no regrowth.
Yeah, they replaced the bus stop sign too.
I was trying to get the scale of the hills behind, which are also all burned out. But this photo also reminds me that the regrowth frequently reminded me of cactus, with fluffy stem and spiky tops.
You can't normally see through to the farmland from here, it's too bushy.
More hills behind with spiky tree trunks.
I would like to go up again later and see what other changes in the growth there are. I'm not taking photos of people's houses (way too intrusive), but there was a burned out conifer tree with tinsel around it up there I found very sweet, and quite a large number of Australian flags hanging off blackened trees. None of which I photographed of course!
On the way back we detoured via Humevale and the golf course there. The roads there are also shut to non-residents and again, you can see where the fire swept across the hills and started the run up to Kinglake.
I can't believe it's nearly a year. I don't think either of us could have gone up there if it had been a hot day. Talking to Dean's mum today about the fire she mentioned that Dean's father hasn't been able to bring himself to go up there. D. hasn't gone back to her former job and doesn't shop in Whittlesea because it's too upsetting - too many people who would ask how she's going, which varies from day to day and possibly hour to hour. This next couple of months as the weather gets hotter and the anniversary approaches are going to be touchy for a lot of people I think. Even yesterday, which was hot and windy, was triggering memories and edginess for people, who were "just checking the CFA website" or "just turning the radio to 774". You know. Just in case.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 08:48 pm (UTC)You do think about it every Summer since, and more than that sometimes too because everything is so dry all year round. You welcome the rains in Winter and Spring, but you know when it rains more grass will grow to be dried out later.
For me, there's just a lingering awareness more than a fear that we're not safe just because we live in a city or because we have fire brigades. To that degree it has been good for us to recognise we have to take responsibility of our own lives if it happens again, and think about what we would do. Saying that, I am not sure we are really anymore equipped to know what to do or where to go. If it wasn't for the Melbourne fires we probably would have slipped into even more complacency.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 02:31 am (UTC)That's certainly part of the problem - humans are good at short term forgetting, which is both a good and a bad trait to have. I'm not sure that we're any more equipped to handle a major fire than we were 12 months ago, despite the increased paranoia. I guess it's good that people are more aware but seriously, I doubt most people have set up a fire plan unless they're actually in bushland. We certainly haven't - but we could quite easily lose the house (most likely from ember attack) under similar conditions.
On the other hand we are buying a ladder and water tanks with Christmas money and getting up to clear out the gutters!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 01:44 am (UTC)Our small experience was that when the fires were raging on the outskirts of town there was absolutely no water pressure in our hoses, so staying to defend our house was not an option... despite the fact that we would have very little idea how to! We did things like block the gutters and fill them with water, and run a bath with water - that we thought we could use if a spot fire began, but really we were clueless. The only thing that helped us stay sane and we were counting on to let us know when to get out of there was the radio.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 05:25 pm (UTC)On the rare occasions I've seen the results of fire first hand, I think it scares me more than almost anything else.
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Date: 2010-01-03 01:45 am (UTC)