‘I hope it gets better’: Tiny French down digs deep for Australian bushfire relief

It might be more than 15,000kms away, but a commune in northern France that Australia liberated in World War I is digging deep to help rebuild communities ravaged by bushfires.

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Australia was there in France’s time of need.

Now the town liberated by Australian forces in World War I has reciprocated the gallant gesture, digging deep for bushfire relief.

The mayor of Villers-Bretonneux, which hosts the main memorial to Australian soldiers killed on the Western Front, launched a fundraiser after seeing reports of the fires that swept across swathes of Australia.

“The idea came from my heart,” Mayor Patrick Simon told News Corp in his town hall, where a pair of decorative kangaroos adorn the entrance.

“Everyone here was talking about the fires, and we were all appalled.”

Villers-Bretonneux, the French town liberated by Australian forces in World War I has reciprocated the gallant gesture, digging deep for bushfire relief. Picture: Marie Genel

Patrick Simon, Mayor of Villers-Bretonneux, said the bushfire fundraising idea “came from [his] heart”. Picture: Marie Genel

The town of 4500 people was recaptured from the Germans in a key battle in April 1918, in which 1200 ANZACs were killed.

After the war, Victorians raised money to rebuild the local school, renamed Victoria School, and to reconstruct parts of the town.

When News Corp visited that primary school, where the words “Do not forget Australia” are emblazoned on the playground wall, children were busy drawing pictures of the bushfires in Australia.

Timeo Didier, 9, and Tilian Delamaide, 7, who both attend Victoria School, which was rebuilt after World War 1 through money raised by Victorians. Picture: Marie Genel

“Sorry for you but I hope it gets better,” is the message that Timeo, 9, said he would write on the back of his drawing, which featured a helicopter dropping water on blazing trees. Picture: Marie Genel

School principal, Ludovic Holleville said the children’s drawings would be housed in the Franco-Australian Museum, for the thousands of Australian visitors to the museum to see. Picture: Marie Genel

“Sorry for you but I hope it gets better,” is the message that Timeo, 9, said he would write on the back of his drawing, which featured a helicopter dropping water on blazing trees.

School principal, Ludovic Holleville said the children’s drawings would be housed in the Franco-Australian Museum, for the thousands of Australian visitors to the museum to see.

The class is also composing a song about the terrible fires, with a local musician to sing: “Do not forget Australia, Let’s move Australia.”

More than 600 people from the town and beyond had donated just under $A32,500 to the online fundraiser.

The Villers-Bretonneux fundraiser is just one of several launched in France.

An Australian flag flies out the front of a house in the town of Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Marie Genel

The entrance to the Franco-Australian Museum. Picture: Marie Genel

Beauval Zoo, one of France’s most popular animal parks, has raised more than $A226,000 and the French branch of the World Wildlife Fund a further $A178,000.

Mayor Simon said that the money would be donated to help rebuild Cobargo in New South Wales, which had its main street devastated by deadly fires on New Year’s Eve.

He said there was no political message being sent by the choice of Cobargo as the recipient of the funds, even though it is twinned with the Victoria town of Robinvale.

He said he had been advised by the Australian embassy in Paris to pick Cobargo, because

a soldier from that town was buried in the Villers-Bretonneux military cemetery and another was listed among the 10,773 names of Australian WW1 soldiers with no known graves.