Kangaroos Island bushfires: Josh Graham and his sister Danielle Short have lost four houses
They spent the last two weeks of 2019 fighting the Flinders Chase fire. But when the weather turned ugly on January 3, Danielle Short and her brother Josh Graham lost four houses in a matter of hours.
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One family. Four houses burnt to the ground.
That’s the scenario facing Josh Graham and his sister Danielle Short in the wake of the devastating fire which ripped through Kangaroo Island on January 3.
Danielle and her husband Sam and Josh and his partner Lilly had spent the previous two weeks fighting the initial blaze which had started further west in Flinders Chase National Park on December 20.
All day, every day, through Christmas and New Year the couples were on their respective farm fire fighting units, battling to save their land, stock and houses.
When their homes survived the initial onslaught, they hoped against hope that they had beaten the worst of it.
But when the weather turned ugly again in early January, Danielle and Sam’s family home on North Coast Road, north of Gosse, and Josh and Lilly’s home a few kilometres to the northeast, on Johncock Road, stood no chance. Neither did two other houses owned by Josh and Lilly.
The couples had both made the decision to prioritise their sheep – their livelihoods – over bricks and mortar.
But dealing with the devastation of losing their homes and all they contained would have to wait. The fires continued flaring dangerously for nearly two more weeks, meaning more countless hours patrolling with the fire units.
Like many of the farmers and firefighters trying to contain the inferno, they were getting by on less than two hours sleep a night.
“Sam and I have just been a team together, pretty much – he points, I squirt,” Danielle says with a hearty laugh.
The couple and their boys Jackson, 12, and Lochlan, 10, have moved in with Sam’s folks in nearby Western River but the boys barely saw their parents in the two weeks following Christmas.
“Sam and I were out on the fireground for the whole 20 days or so,” Danielle said.
“We weren’t eating food... and getting about one and a half hour’s sleep each morning before the sun came up.
“It was pretty horrible. Yeah, so we hadn’t really seen the boys at all. But on Christmas morning we got to spend two hours with them. So that was nice.”
Most of the kids’ Christmas presents were lost in the inferno, but they managed to salvage the boys’ motorbikes thanks to a leaking rainwater tank.
Danielle also saved some clothes, photos, documents and important documents, but knows it’s a long road ahead as they rebuild from the blaze.
They managed to protect most of their 8000 sheep but lost countless kilometres of fencing in the disaster Danielle has dubbed the Red Hot Black Southern Mole.
At the height of the battle, Sam fell into an ash pit, suffered a significant burn to his achilles and required an ambulance trip into Kingscote. Danielle met the ambulance on the road and returned to continue fighting the spot fires.
Sam returned to the farm that night but the ambulance returned every three days to check the wound.
Both couples are effusive in their praise of the generosity of everyone from neighbours to strangers who are lining up to help them get back on their feet.
Teams of reservists from the Australian Army’s Operation Bushfire Assist have spent days helping landowners of the district clearing trees from roads and driveways, and have joined forces with BlazeAid volunteers rolling up burnt fencing wire.
A man Josh and Lilly had never met before towed a caravan from Robe and gave it to the couple. He told them to keep the van as long as they needed, and pass it on to whoever else might need it down the track.
Josh estimates he has little more than 300 hectares of pasture left on 3000 hectares of land. They have lost nearly 2500 sheep, three houses – including their own – a shearing shed, other sheds, and machinery.
“We’ve had so many incredible people around the whole time,” Josh said.
“Some friends didn’t leave our side for two weeks, fighting fires. They were leaving their families to help us out. That support has been unreal.
“Friends and family from the mainland have all come over, so we haven’t been by ourselves at all. We’ve been pretty blown away by the generosity.”
Sometimes they get overwhelmed with the enormity of the task ahead, and Josh and Lilly aren’t sure they will rebuild in the exact same location.
“I feel like it’s too sad here,” Lilly said as she surveyed the wrecked remains of her home. “And it can get a bit dusty. We might just put it out in the next paddock. I haven’t really even thought about it.
“If I start feeling down though, I just start thinking: ‘We’re alive’.
“That’s all you can really do to get some kind of light in it all.”