Bushfires: Chopper rescue as smoke lifts

Over 300 people including families and children were evacuated from Mallacoota in Chinook army helicopters on Sunday.

Families and children board a Chinook army helicopter bound for East Sale RAAF Base. Picture: David Caird

More than 300 people were evacuated from Mallacoota in Chinook army helicopters on Sunday, bringing an end to a horror week stranded in Victoria’s bushfire-ravaged far east.

The evacuation began at 10am, with people ferried in buses from Mallacoota Hall to the airfield, ­following the shelving of plans for a second evacuation by sea after smoke lifted, enabling aircraft to fly.

Families with young children had been stuck in the town as they were not allowed aboard HMAS Choules on Friday because of ­safety concerns. That mission transported 1100 people to Hastings, south of Melbourne, on Saturday, while a further 58 arrived aboard MV Sycamore.

A distressed mother convinces her child to wear hearing protection before being airlifted out of Mallacoota in a Chinook army helicopter. Picture: David Caird

The latest evacuees were flown in groups of 25 to the East Sale RAAF base, where 42 people from the under-threat town of Omeo in Victoria’s high country were also evacuated by army helicopters.

The evacuation coincided with rain and cool temperatures making their way through the fire grounds.

On the other side of the Great Dividing Range, Merriang woman Cara Hinton and her partner, ­Anthony Bell, both 48, were evacuated from their property northwest of Mount Buffalo. The incident prompted memories of Ms Hinton losing her childhood home at Mount Macedon in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, and her business and property at Rosewhite in the deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.

The pair and Ms Hinton’s daughter, Hayley Hinton, are staying at the Wangaratta saleyards with 10 horses and 10 dogs.

The Abbeyard fire burning in the Buffalo valley on Sunday prompted emergency warnings, with many local towns, including Myrtleford, evacuated.

Ms Hinton said she was “pretty worried” about losing her house. “I’ve been through two previous bushfires: Black Saturday we lost our business at Rosewhite, and our property, and also I’m an Ash Wednesday kid who got everything burnt out at Mount Mace­don,” she said.

“Houses and stuff, while you don’t want to lose them, they’re ­replaceable. People aren’t, and horses aren’t.”

Nyall and Laura Langmead were flown out of Mallacoota, where they had been holidaying, with their children Mack, 3, and Evie, 1, just after 11.30am on Sunday. They spent a night on a medical ship earlier in the week as the thick smoke had aggravated Mack’s asthma.

Mrs Langmead said getting out had been tumultuous, with several stops and starts.

There are about 400 ­people ­remaining at Mallacoota, which has a permanent population of 1063, and the town remains inaccessible by road.