Bushfire victims still awaiting to rebuild after three years
Fire-ravaged NSW communities remain in ruins more than three-years after the Black Summer fires as the pandemic, floods and war in Ukraine diverted national attention from rebuilding efforts.
Multiple homes and workplaces destroyed by the Black Summer bushfires remain in ruins three years later, with many locals saying they will stay and defend their homes in the coming hot season rather than face the trauma of rebuilding again.
Unease over the looming fire season is spreading across the NSW south coast as hot and windy conditions are forecast and communities still struggle to get back on their feet after the 2019-2020 devastation.
Locals blame red tape, soaring construction costs and shortages of materials and workers as they grapple with the trauma and are forced to compete against each other for funding.
Piles of rubble and dying grass lie where artist Sally Wilson’s studio was destroyed, with a couple of cafes, stores and a yoga studio.
Ms Wilson had opened her shop only about 18 months before the blaze but she now works in a business innovation hub funded by the Business Council of Australia and managed by the Cobargo-Quaama Business Recovery Group.
Ms Wilson said clashing ideas, council delays and new regulations and the pandemic were behind the delays.
“Just trying to figure out the new normal, even I think probably for the council and the builders,” she said. “And Covid, throw that in.”
Ms Wilson is just one of many people who were affected by the destruction in Cobargo, the beating heart of the Bega Valley about 380km south of Sydney, on New Year’s Eve 2019 captured national attention as bushfires raged across Queensland, Victoria and NSW.
Cobargo is surrounded by trees killed when the firestorm hit, while young black wattle and eucalyptus trees line roads that were cut off by the fires.
Bega Valley Shire, which includes tourism meccas Eden and Merimbula, alone lost four people, 467 homes and about 1000 sheds and outbuildings.
Distrust and cynicism is thriving, seeded by scammers who have exploited the desperation of bushfire victims and perceptions of unfairness over the distribution of money and support.
About 10km from Cobargo is Wandella, where 63-year-old Robert Salway and his 29-year-old son Patrick were killed on New Year’s Eve while defending their property.
Wandella residents Graeme and Robyn Freedman made the tough decision to abandon their property that morning and returned to find their home incinerated.
About 3½ years they’re still living in a shed on their property and said council processing delay as well as contractor and supply shortages had stymied their attempts to rebuild their home.
Mr Freedman said if fires hit Wandella again he would rather stay and defend the home than endure another rebuilding process.
“Everybody thinks their charity donations are going to go to people on the ground. Its bullshit,” he said. “It just doesn’t. There is nobody who actually comes out to help.”
The rebuilding effort has also been stymied by scammers and dodgy contractors. NSW Fair Trading has received 89 complaints over bushfire damage scams between June 1 in 2019 and late last month, including 14 relating to incomplete work, 20 for defective work and 14 for unsatisfactory quality.
The Black Summer bushfires killed 26 people, razed 5.5 million hectares and destroyed 2448 homes across Australia.
Former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance, who represented the south coast seat of Bega for the Liberal Party, said the trauma wrought by the fires remained in communities.
“There is a very serious situation with flashbacks as we head into another fire season,” he said. “It’s really important that these regional areas where there isn’t the breadth of services that exist in the metropolitan areas are better supported. I know people who will never be the same.”
NSW is facing increased risk of bushfires across large swaths of the central and northern parts of the state in places such as Tamworth and Orange, according to the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council.
Authorities are not anticipating a repeat of Black Summer but 11 of 32 local government areas, including the Bega and Eurobodalla shires, on Friday started fire-danger periods a month earlier than normal. NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Rob Rogers said firefighters had already responded to 2031 bushfires since August 1 compared to 638 for the same period last year.
Shona Taranto, who lost her Cobargo naturopathy clinic, has played a key role in community-led efforts to rebuild the village as chair of the Cobargo-Quaama Business Recovery Group.
She said consecutive disasters, including the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, had shifted national attention away from communities.
“The caravan’s moved on,” she said. “So much has happened and evolved [and] the bushfires were definitely not in the limelight.
“There’s been a lot of advocacy to bring back attention to the facts not only for infrastructure projects and businesses re-establishing but also for mental health.”
Ms Taranto said the council had just approved development applications to rebuild both sides of the village’s main strip.
