David Penberthy: We owe everything to volunteer firefighters
With the fire season now well and truly upon us, let’s hope all Australian towns can walk away telling the same incredible story as Edithburgh in South Australia, writes David Penberthy.
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This time two weeks ago, the people of Edithburgh were getting ready to meet for their regular Friday night drinks at the Troubridge Hotel.
The beer tasted a little more satisfying than usual that night because 36 hours prior, the town had dodged one hell of a bullet, as the out-of-control Yorketown fire bore down on their little village and threatened to wipe the place off the map.
In a country that has become all too adept at commiserating after tragedies, it is important that we also celebrate victories in the face of nature’s fury.
And that’s exactly what the people of Edithburgh did that night, gathering at the local pub to raise a glass to their good fortune and swap iPhone pictures of their extraordinary brush with death.
These photographs, all taken by locals, tell the story of how close the town came to catastrophe, and the sharing has helped residents process the scale of what they faced.
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A tractor ablaze, a field of dead sheep claimed by the fire, a seagull painted bright pink by fire retardant, the fire stopping centimetres shy of the last fence on the outskirts of town – these are the images the people of Edithburgh captured as the volunteer fireys fought to save their town.
“It was a very difficult 36 hours,” general store owner Lesley Tilbrook told me. “We were on tenterhooks on the Wednesday but we thought the wind was going to look after us but at midnight, they put a ‘watch and act’ in place. Then it really swung around at 2am. The local police were driving through the caravan park with their lights and sirens on, telling everyone to get out. I didn’t get to bed at all. We went down to the pool to take shelter and hope for the best.”
At 7am that Thursday, South Australia’s Country Fire Service was reporting that the out-of-control Yorketown bushfire had surged southeast across Yorke Peninsula and burned down the Edithburgh Town Hall, a stone building at 30 Blanche St built in 1876, smack bang in the centre of town.
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If the fire had made it that far in, the town was surely gone – at least that’s what many of Edithburgh’s 450-odd residents figured as they huddled nervously at the town jetty and ocean pool after being evacuated by the CFS before dawn.
But just 36 hours later, the same residents were wandering past that same hall to gather at the Troubridge Hotel. There were losses – 11 homes were destroyed on farms out of town.
But from where things stood at 7am on Thursday, the town had gone from apocalyptic to euphoric in record time. Not a single house inside the town had been lost, and no-one died.
Hospitality worker Kerry Hodges and her ex-footballer husband Scott live in Adelaide but have a shack in Edithburgh. They followed the fire closely on Thursday and made the two-and-a-half hour drive over to Yorke Peninsula on Friday to survey and photograph the damage and erect a “thank you” sign outside their house, commending the CFS for their heroics.
“It was a pretty amazing feeling that Friday night, but a mixed bag, people were joyful at having survived but also thinking about the ones who had lost their property,” Kerry told me.
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“Everyone was hugging and celebrating and there were a few tears, too. It was great the way everyone pulled together, especially for those who had lost their homes.
“We always have a meat tray at the Troubridge Hotel with the money going to the social club but on Friday all the money raised went to the CFS. People were handing back their winnings including one lady who won $200 but said the fireys should keep it all.”
Kerry says the sharing of not just stories but photographs was a big part of the town coming to terms with what it had just experienced.
She and her husband Scott – the legendary full forward who won eight premierships with Port Adelaide – spent much of the Friday driving around the peninsula taking pictures of the damage.
“We were coming into town and Scott saw this burnt out truck, he’s a truck driver himself now and it just gives you a sense of the intensity of it to see this big vehicle just totally destroyed,” she said.
One of the stars of the night at the Troubridge that Friday was beloved local Julie “Nuggett” Tatchell, who is famous for leading the local kids on a jump off the jetty every year at Easter.
She spent all of Thursday making more than 100 sandwiches for the CFS volunteers.
Lesley Tilbrook says the town is now focused on its next fundraising drive for the CFS – a T20 rematch of this year’s Aussie rules grand final between Edithburgh’s Southern Eagles and the Stansbury and Minlaton Crows.
“It will be a real grudge match and a lot of fun but it’s an important cause because we can’t thank those guys enough for what they did,” she says.
We should all hope that with the fire season now upon us, when our towns inevitably come under threat, they can all end up telling the same story as Edithburgh, which is still in one piece thanks to the bravery and resilience of the state’s volunteers.