Bushfires: Tintaldra’s new angels provide ‘a bit of hope’

It usually takes decades to be counted as a local in the Victorian town of Tintaldra.

‘They were just bending over backwards to help everybody’: firefighters tuck in at the Tintaldra Hotel, where the new owners provided food and shelter. Picture: Facebook

It usually takes decades to be counted as a local in the Victorian town of Tintaldra.

As Michael Wild, who grew up in the region and calls Tintaldra home, put it: “We’ve got a saying — you’re not a local until you’ve got relatives in the cemetery.”

Darren Jones, a retired police officer from Sydney, and his wife bought the town’s historic pub — one of the oldest on the Murray — only three months ago, and began fully operating it only on Boxing Day.

After fires devastated homes and farms all through the region, the pub’s new owners — who ­include Mark Sewell from Melbourne and his wife, Michelle Tan — have become known as the ­“angels” of the little town of 60 people.

Tintaldra was hit hard by the Corryong fire on Saturday.

One firefighter was flown to a hospital 150km away in Wangaratta with burns to his face, and homes were destroyed on the outskirts of the town.

But every day since Saturday, the new owners of the 150-year-old pub have given out free food, drink and a place to sleep to families without homes, farmers without cattle and firefighters drained of all energy and emotion.

“We’ve had a couple of farmers in here, a couple of local boys, that are struggling,” Mr Jones said. “I’ve had an old boy come in a ­couple of times, that just cries every time he walks through the front door.

“I could sort of feel for how he must be feeling but you’ve got no idea, really, of what he’s going through. You’ve got to provide a place for him.”

Mr Jones told of what unfolded on Saturda­y afternoon when a family arrived in a panic after losing­ their home in the blaze. A puppy the children had received for Christmas was still there.

“It’ll bring a tear to anyone’s eye,” the 25-year police veteran said. “That shit gets to you — doesn’t matter how old or how tough you are.”

The puppy, Sparky, belonged to the children of Mr Wild.

New pub owners Michelle Tan and husband Mark Sewell, volunteer Bryan Little and co-owner Darren Jones.

He, wife Carolina Wild and her brother Andreas, along with children Summer, 2, and Logan, 4, had been watching the fire from their home on the outskirts of town on Saturday morning.

Suddenly, in the early afternoon, the wind changed.

The fire swept towards them and the Country Fire Authority arrived­, urging them to leave.

“We got in the car, and when we got out and passed the firemen I go, ‘Oh, the dog’,” Ms Wild said.

Staring at the flames already flashing across the road, Mr Wild said: “We can’t go back, not with the kids. It’s finished.”

The house was gone within minutes.

They spent the night at the pub, the children spending hours playing with Mr Jones’s phone while Mr Wild and his brother-in-law helped stop the flames from entering the town.

It was at the pub that they ­received food and a place to stay. Toys and books were brought in for the children — and $500 was given to them by another local to help them buy clothes, Mr Jones said. The next day, they went back to their charred home.

Michael and Carolina Wild, with Summer, 2, Logan, 4, and their recovering Christmas puppy, Sparky.

“All the trees are burnt,” Mr Wild said. “The house is like a bomb went off, everything was black. The smoke, you could only see 50m then.

“And this little bloody dog just appeared around the corner, limping on his little burnt feet with his little burnt nose and looking up at us … we were all just: ‘Oh my god!’ ”

They rushed back into town and took Sparky to the pub.

“He had burnt whiskers and burnt feet, so we got him back here and put his feet in some cold water,” Mr Jones said. “We got some burn gel and wrapped him up, and he’s all right.”

It was a moment that deeply affecte­d the former cop.

“It’s just what people need at this time,” he said. “Instead of just seeing ­tragedy after tragedy, they need to be reminded that there’s a bit of hope out there.”

Ms Wild called the pub owners and the locals that came to them on Saturday “our angels”.

But her husband said the help they gave the whole community was amazing.

“All the local farmers around were coming there of the evening,” he said. “Everyone was centred around the pub, so they definitely got to know everybody there, and they were just bending over backwards to help everybody.

“They were rolling out the food and later on when (the roads) opened up a bit, the relief centre people were putting things there and they were co-ordinating things there. The fireys slept on the verandah that night and they were cooking them up food.”

Asked if the pub owners could now be classed as locals, Mr Wild paused before saying: “I daresay, yeah.”