Bushfire survivors welcome in the New Year on bittersweet occasion

Two years on from the Black Summer bushfires that tore through NSW’s south coast, residents have enjoyed a brighter New Year’s Eve.

Dan Williamson and his partner Mel Pickering enjoy a quiet New Year’s Eve on their property at Yowrie on the NSW south coast. Picture: Ben Marden

Two years ago Dan Williamson and Mel Pickering sat on their veranda and watched the bush smoulder around them, drinking a beer, after a sleepless night ­defending their home from bushfires.

The couple are among the thousands of residents on the NSW south coast who are pausing to mark the bittersweet anniversary of the day the fires tore through the region, and to celebrate how the community pulled together to recover.

On New Year’s Eve the pair, who live in Yowrie near Cobargo, about 380km south of Sydney, ­had a quiet celebration at home to say cheers to closing another year like no other.

“A year on from the fires we still had a lot of work to do at home and a lot ahead of us,” Williamson said.

Isabelle Caldeira, Dariane Tenorio, Esteban Martinez and Barbara Silva ready for fireworks at Blues Point, Sydney. Picture: John Feder

“Already this year we’ve progressed a lot more and we’re feeling more on top of things. The bush is growing back around us, the community has moved on a lot more than a year ago.”

The clock had just struck midnight on December 31, 2019, when the first sign of the blaze appeared on the horizon before it went on to destroy thousands of homes during the course of Black Summer.  

“It was on us by 2am, we had the hoses on, and we were up until sunrise fighting the fire,” Williamson said.

“There were just the two of us on different sides pushing it back from the house.

“Then a wind change came in from the west. That is when I kind of knew it was coming; when a fire hits and it’s coming from the west it draws air into it. I still get goosebumps just talking about it.

“We could see big fire balls up in the sky and I called out, ‘it’s time’. All I remember was the noise; I was yelling to find Mel who was 20m away and I could barely hear her.”

The pair sheltered in their house, the smoke still stinging their eyes through wet blankets, and when they emerged their whole world was on fire.

Savanah Fisher and Thomas Miller in Rye, on the Mornington Peninsula. Picture: Mark Stewart

“When the front had passed everything was still burning, and that was the point where we knew we had made it and the main danger had passed,” he said.

“It was starting to get light and it was about 7.30am, so we sat back and cracked open a beer.

“We were pretty high from the energy and the adrenaline and our minds were racing; we were kind of happy, it was a good sort of feeling – that we had done it.”

Though the memories are still raw for the tight-knit community – many of whom are still rebuilding – Pickering said the fires had not been the talk of the town in the same way it had been last year.

“There was a little talk today but it was not like the first year,” she said. “People have healed more, I don’t know if like myself people felt there was that turning point last year.”

Mogo resident Lorena Granados, who runs a leather goods business in town, lost her shop and her home that day and has been unable to navigate the ­bureaucratic red tape to secure the funds to rebuild.

The crowd gathers early at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair overlooking Sydney Harbour. Picture: Getty Images

She spent much of the last day of the year manning her shop, which she still runs out of a temporary structure on the town’s main road, before going down to nearby Corrigans Beach to watch the fireworks.

“Everything is still temporary and that sense of being displaced has not gone away,” she said.

“Everything is a short-term ­solution. I’m sick of short-term solutions, and I feel like we’re going around in circles and coming back to the same place.”

Publican David Allen, who stayed in town to defend The ­Cobargo Hotel, was gearing up for a busy weekend as tourists flock to the region, to escape high Covid-infection rates in Sydney and Melbourne.

He said this year was gearing up to the best in three years, after the sudden closure of the Victorian border on Christmas Eve blighted the last season, as the south coast enjoys the tourist it has missed out on for two years in a row.