Black Saturday: Kinglake community strong 10 years after tragedy

Ten years on from the tragic Black Saturday bushfires survivors in Kinglake and Whittlesea say they will never forget that terrible day. But they are also focused on the future.

Rising from the ashes is a cliche too often thrown around.

But 10 years on from the catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires, survivors in Kinglake, Whittlesea and other parts of Victoria have done just that.

On Thursday the nation will join survivors in pausing to reflect on the fires which so cruelly took the lives of 173 people and tore through people’s homes and lives, but people will also reflect on the strength of towns rebuilt, community bonds strengthened and lessons learnt.

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Walking down Kinglake’s main street you will find a town determined not to forget, but to look forward.

For Kinglake’s Flying Tarts Bakery manager Alvin Charles the past 10 years have been about “learning to move on”.

Mr Charles said the bakery reopened less than a week after the fires and for the past 10 years the community had continued to flock to the bakery for coffee, pastries and a sense of understanding only shared by Black Saturday survivors.

“I think people appreciate what we have up here more now,” Mr Charles said.

“Nowadays they appreciate life more.

“There is that sense of realisation that you could be gone tomorrow.”

Kinglake baker Alvin Charles says people in Kinglake appreciate life more since the tragedy. Picture: Stuart Milligan

New houses and grass have replaced caravans and singed earth, the graveyard of incinerated cars is gone, wildlife is returning to Toourrong Reserve and families are back walking the Jehosaphat Gully Track in the Kinglake National Park.

The reopened Jehosaphat Gully Walking Track in the Kinglake National Park.

Children who were babies during the fires and have grown in communities irrevocably changed are benefiting from an internationally recognised bushfire education program based on lessons learnt from the fires, and every Wednesday people still break bread at Kinglake and Whittlesea churches.

But ten years ago as people tried to make sense of what had just happened psychologists explained that individuals who take the longest to contemplate how their lives are going to be post-catastrophe recover the best.

Noel Bennett and Ron Forden look at the remains of the Kinglake West general store in the immediate aftermath of Black Saturday.

University of Melbourne Beyond Bushfires researcher Prof Lisa Gibbs said a six-year study into community resilience and recovery following Black Saturday revealed “delayed impacts on individual mental health”.

“Up to five years after we were seeing probably twice the presentations of mental health problems of what you would expect to see in communities,” he said.

Symptoms were consistent with cases of depression, post traumatic stress disorder and psychological stress, Prof Gibbs said.

The research also revealed the natural environment had been crucial to the recovery of many, Prof Gibbs said.

Whittlesea Mayor Lawrie Cox said communities had learned much in the past 10 years.

“These fires really changed the way we respond to and prepare for emergencies,” Cr Cox said.

“We were also pleased that our efforts to help the affected communities resulted in empowering and resourcing them to be in control of their own futures.”

Memorial services will be held at Whittlesea Community Garden at 6.45pm on Thursday and Toorourrong Reservoir at 9am to 10am on Saturday.

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