Kangaroo Island locals on edge for fire threat

A year after the terrifying Kangaroo Island fires, locals are nervously waiting for the next big one.

Parndana CFS captain Terry May with fellow volunteer Jack Mumford. Picture: Simon Cross

More than 100 farm firefighting units were registered at the small Kangaroo Island town of Parndana in December – double the number expected – as anxious locals “sit on a hair trigger” after last summer’s inferno.

The island’s CFS group officer Terry May said six fires had already broken out in the region this season, burning through about 200 hectares of scrub and farmland.

“Everyone is sitting on a hair trigger at the moment,” he said. “As soon as they see a puff of smoke, they’re really on edge.”

They are also ready to fight. A fire at American River in early December that started in grassland north of Flea Castle Road attracted 15-20 units within an hour.

Last month, more than 100 local farmers registered their firefighting units – vehicles equipped with a water tank and other tools to fight bushfires. The local CFS had expected about 50 to register.

The island’s contingent of 350 CFS volunteers has stayed roughly the same – there are some new recruits, but others called it a day after last year’s fires, which burned through 210,000ha and destroyed 89 homes.

“We’ve had a few blokes after last year that threw their yellows in the bin – the size (of last year’s inferno) was just too much for them,” Mr May said.

He said despite the huge amount of land consumed by the blazes, the island’s western end could still experience big grass fires this year, and the eastern end, which escaped serious damage, faced the same threat as other years.

CFS member and Kangaroo Island Fresh Garlic owner Shane Leahy, who lost his home, said there was plenty of support for volunteers shell-shocked after last season.

“There’s endless counselling, endless support, but people have got to want that support,” he said.

“There’s certain people that will walk away and probably never get on a truck again. They saw things out there they’d never want to see again but the fact is they’ll probably see those things whether they’re on a CFS truck or not.

“What I saw … was like a nuclear holocaust – 1000kg cows completely flipped upside down, legs in the air, eagles petrified stuck in trees, kangaroos trying to get over a fence that were petrified.”

Volunteer Jack Mumford helped fight the fires while his own family’s farmland was burning.

“We lost 4000 sheep and about 800 cows,” he said.

He said he had never considered leaving the crew because its work was just too important.

Islanders’ stories tell of support

A project to share islanders’ stories has helped Sabrina Davis to raise about $55,000 towards protective gear for farm fire fighters – and get to know her community at the same time.

Mrs Davis – who moved 100km to Kingscote this year with her two children after fire destroyed her family’s farmhouse in Gosse – turned to the internet to help locals tell their own tales.

Sabrina Davis in her backyard in Gosse, Kangaroo Island. Picture: Supplied

Her Humans of Kangaroo Island website and Facebook pages have profiled locals and helped them connect in the wake of the island tragedy.

“I was hoping that the stories would help people at least feel like they’re still hearing how people are going, people kept telling me that they’d been waiting for the next story … and some people even got job offers out of it because they were talking about their previous experience.” she said.

After talking to her husband Ben about the need to replace farmers’ burned PPE, she started raising funds through her online pages for 100 kits, with the aim of garnering $15,000 in donations.

Mrs Davis was able to buy 150 kits, along with radios and pumps, and has enough fundraising money left over to order 50-80 kits next year.

“I’m just glad to know that the equipment will be helping keep everyone safe,” Mrs Davis said.

Her family had to rebuild its flock this year after losing sheep in the blaze.

Mrs Davis said the cancellation of winter sport during the pandemic brought another major challenge – particularly for those isolated on farms.

“My husband does a huge amount of hours on the farm often by himself. When you can’t even go off and have a drink while you’re watching sport with a few friends that’s pretty depressing,” she said.

Mrs Davis said her parents, based in Germany, normally visited twice a year, and this year, she was planning to visit them after her house was destroyed.

But travel restrictions put a stop to that too – along with her mother’s plans to come over for Christmas.

“It was really tough for my mum to watch all of this – they had to watch from afar,” Mrs Davis said. “I just really wanted to go around and give everyone a hug.”

She says the road to recovery is a long one.

“This farm has been in my husband’s family for over 70 years and you can’t rebuild that in a year but you always put pressure on yourself to try and do that.”