Bushfires: Light rain heartens the stranded

Amid the horror of the past few days on the NSW south coast, finally, some hope.

Tamara Hallinan with daughter Iluka, 8, at Eden Wharf. Picture: Sean Davey

Amid the horror of the past few days on the NSW south coast, ­finally some hope.

Just hours after locals in the seaside town of Eden feared the mega-blaze roaring from the southwest might destroy their village, it began to rain.

Earlier on Sunday, police and fire authorities had told everyone to leave Eden because the out-of-control fire appeared to be heading its way after razing homes the night before in the nearby towns of Wonboyn and Kiah.

Witnesses said Eden’s biggest employer, the woodchip mill, also burnt on Saturday night, with police and local boat captains rescuing people from its wharf.

90-year-old Eden resident Irene Delamere is helped off a tug boat at Eden Wharf where she spent the night after authorities urged everyone to evacuate town. Picture: Sean Davey

By Sunday afternoon, the town — usually bursting with holidaymakers at this time of year — was almost completely deserted.

Those locals who had opted to stay mostly sought refuge near the wharf, readying to board fishing boats should the dire predictions come true.

But just after 4pm on Sunday a light shower began, the temperature dropped to 18C, and the ­approaching firefront was downgraded from “emergency” to “watch and act”.

It was enough for 90-year-old Irene Delamere to leave the safety of her family member’s tugboat on the wharf and go home.

Ms Delamere was also on the boat the night before, with stories of old times the only thing to ease her fear of the fires.

“We sat and we had a good talk about old times. When I was young the good times I had,” Ms Delamere said.

Sydney woman Greta Stojanovic created a makeshift evacuation centre at her parents’ Wharfside Cafe.

Ms Stojanovic, 35, used Facebook to invite stranded people to the cafe on Saturday and served hundreds of people coffee, food and a “shot of whisky of their choice”.

She asked only for a donation that will be given to the RFS.

She said she had made about 500 coffees at the weekend.

“I am the only one from the cafe and I sort of kicked into gear and thought, these people are going to be hungry and need coffee,” Ms Stojanovic said.

At 4pm on Sunday there were more than 150 fires burning in NSW, 60 of them out of control, with eight at watch-and-act level.

Late on Saturday night a fresh bushfire emergency broke out in the Southern Highlands with a massive blaze spawning a new front threatening towns and regional properties.

Dozens of homes were destroyed at Bundanoon, Wingello and other small towns after the huge Currowan fire, which decimated coastal communities between Nowra and Batemans Bay, jumped the Shoalhaven River.

Additional reporting: Emily Ritchie