Relief abounds as Mallacoota evacuees reach dry land
Families embraced and tears were shed as the first wave of Mallacoota evacuees reached safety at last, with a small Mornington Peninsula town transformed into a sanctuary for the exhausted victims of Victoria’s bushfire crisis.
VIC News
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Hundreds of fire-ravaged Mallacoota residents and holiday-makers have officially arrived in Melbourne.
After 24 hours onboard the HMAS Choules and buses from Hastings, arrivals started filing into the Melbourne Convention Centre’s disaster relief centre just after 6.10pm.
Many were carrying small items of luggage and water bottles provided by the service people onboard the vessel.
The emotions of many filtered between relieved, sadness and weariness as they were escorted out of the relief centre to nearby accomodation.
Emergency services, banks and insurance companies were also set up inside the centre for the arrivals.
Arrivals at the relief centre, Andrew and Kim Welsby were thankful for the “incredible” service onboard the navy ship.
“We want to say thanks to everyone on HMAS Choules,” Mr Welsby said.
“They were incredible, from loading us on to looking after us,” Mrs Welsby said.
However, they expressed their concern for those back in the fire ravaged community.
“We are really worried about people back in Mallacoota,” Mrs Welsby said.
Arrivals at the relief centre, Andrew and Kim Welsby told the Herald Sun were thankful for the “incredible” service onboard the navy ship.
In the Mornington Peninsula town of Somerville, a “stock standard Australian recreation centre” became an unlikely sanctuary for other exhausted Mallacoota fire victims on Saturday morning.
Shire mayor Sam Hearn said the makeshift relief centre had been set up to offer tired and possibly traumatised fire evacuees all the services they needed before returning to their homes.
There was even space made outside the centre for the 150 pets — including dogs, cats, rabbits and even a parrot — which had accompanied their owners on ships to safety.
Most evacuees walked quickly and quietly from buses to the relief centre and then later to waiting cars.
Some, however, were overcome with emotion and embraced family members and friends upon greeting.
Mr Hearn said the town of Somerville was playing its small part in what was a deepening national crisis.
“At times like this these people are actually our neighbours, our Australian family, our sisters and brothers who have been through a pretty traumatic situation,” Mr Hearn said.
Among the first evacuees to arrive at the shelter on Saturday morning, after a 20-hour journey from Mallacoota on board the MV Sycamore, were teenagers Emily Wellington, Tahnee Meehan and Darcy Brown, all aged 16.
In good spirits despite the loss of Darcy’s newly built Mallacoota home in the devastating fires, and all suffering from smoke-induced asthma, the girls said they were relieved when the ship arrived in Hastings, before they were bussed to Somerville.
The passage itself had been “relaxing”, they said.
Emily and Tahnee, both from Melbourne, were on holidays in Mallacoota when the fires started.
They became firm friends with Mallacoota residents over the course of their terrifying ordeal.
“It was 9am in the morning and pitch black — it was like it was 12 at night, very frightening,” Emily said. “We walked from the foreshore to the community hall and that walk was very terrifying. It felt like it was a ghost town. No one was anywhere. It felt a lot longer than what it was and I was very scared.
“It was very, very very frightening. I’m so happy to be home and see my family and I’m so thankful for all the services down there (in Mallacoota).”
Darcy said she felt relieved to be out of the smoke but was devastated her home had been burnt down and she would miss her family, who had decided to stay behind in Mallacoota.
“We moved in (to the house) only a month before the fires started,” she said.
“So it was pretty devastating to lose that, but we are all safe.”
Speaking at the Somerville relief centre, federal health minister and Member for Flinders, Greg Hunt, thanked everyone involved in the evacuation effort, which saw about 60 people shipped to Western Port near Hastings in the morning on MV Sycamore and 1000 in the afternoon on the HMAS Choules.
Red Cross spokeswoman Susan Cullinan, who is based at the Somerville relief centre, said there were six Red Cross volunteers on board the HMAS Choules, who had “spent the best part of the last 20 hours just talking to people” and providing mental health first aid.
The volunteers reported evacuees were largely in good spirits and morale on the ship was good.
“But it will be the days and weeks and months ahead where their problems may arrive,” she said.
They also had reported the children had been “given free rein” of the ship by the Navy and were “having a great time by all accounts”, with Navy personnel demonstrating “enormous compassion and kindness, Ms Cullinan said.
“I think it’s the fresh air and change of scenery which has really lifted the kids’ spirits,” she said.
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While the first evacuees were bused to Somerville, 20 per cent of people on the HMAS Choules were taken to the Melbourne Convention Centre.
“Many of the people from Mallacoota have had a very difficult and, in many cases, traumatic time,” Mr Hunt said.
“What we’ve seen here is people coming together and working in the most constructive way and it’s deeply appreciated by the evacuees.”