Black Saturday trauma affecting kids 10 years after bushfire tragedy

A decade after Black Saturday fires ripped through large parts of Victoria leaving devastation in their wake, teenagers of affected families are beginning to show signs of trauma.

Children are experiencing issues 10 years after Black Saturday.

A decade after Black Saturday fires ripped through large parts of Victoria leaving devastation in their wake, teenagers of affected families are beginning to show signs of trauma.

In the 10 years since the February 2009 fires roared through towns across the state including in the Yarra Valley, Nillumbik and Murrindindi, experts are reporting delayed trauma in young people who were toddlers at the time.

Yarra Glen psychologist and Black Saturday survivor Sarah Padbury, who also provides support to schools in the outer east, said in the past three years she’s seen high school children, who were very young at the time of the tragedy, needing help.

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In Nillumbik, the Strathewen community started a fire ready program for its primary school students after children began to show signs of stress and anxiety in the years following the tragedy.

Ms Padbury said many teenagers who were old enough to start self reflecting were coming to realise the significance of what happened.

“Now they’re older they understand the gravity of the situation,” she said.

Yarra Glen psychologist and Black Saturday survivor Sarah Padbury.

She said some were realising there were children at their school who did die in the fires.

Ms Padbury said trauma affects how the brain develops and how children process emotions.

“Unfortunately we’ve seen parents who haven’t coped well.

There have been significant divorce rates in the years following Black Saturday. It’s hard to process the trauma and children are affected by that,” she said.

Strathewen Primary School principal Jane Haywood received an Australia Day award for creating a bush fire awareness program for her students. Picture: Josie Hayden

Strathewen Primary School principal Jane Hayward and Arthurs Creek and Strathewen CFA volunteer Lisal O’Brien have been running a bushfire education program for 10 and 11 year olds in their community for four years.

Strathewen Arthurs Creek Bushfire Education Partnership has been educating and preparing Grade 5 and 6 students to know about bushfires including fire behaviour, understanding how fire travels, how to work out a fire danger rating and what a high fire danger day would look like.

Strathewen Primary School was levelled after the bushfire wiped out the township on Black Saturday. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Ms Hayward said the pair started running the vital program because of the heightened anxiety in children following Black Saturday.

“In my classroom and other fire affected schools there was evidence of heightened anxiety, disrupted learning, unease when the wind would pick up and at smoke in the air,” she said. “We needed to teach our kids to love where they live again and feel safe.”

Ms O’Brien said even children who were born after the fires could be affected as they’ve come into a traumatised community.

“The program teaches these kids to know the elements they need to calculate their own fire danger rating,” Ms O’Brien said. “We want them to know for themselves.”

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