Right royal pick-me-up for Kangaroo Island bushfire victims

Exactly eight months ago, Kangaroo Island farmers Tom and Stephanie Wurst were bracing for the firestorm from hell.

Kangaroo Island bushfire survivors Tom and Stephanie Wurst with children Georgia, Jack and toddler Charlotte on their family farm. Picture: Sean McGowan

Exactly eight months ago, Kangaroo Island farmers Tom and Stephanie Wurst were bracing for the firestorm from hell. It would claim their home, their sheds, their vineyard, all of their farm equipment and infrastructure and kill half their livestock — 500 cows and 1100 ewes.

The January 3 blaze roared east out of Flinders Chase National Park and burnt out almost half of the 155km-long island, coming to a halt near Stokes Bay after gutting the Wurst’s 750ha property.

On the other side of the world, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had spent a wintry New Year’s at Sandringham but had been watching with alarm as Australia was ravaged by some of the worst bushfires our nation had ever seen.

Last Friday, Prince William and Kate Middleton met the Wursts and other fire-affected Kangaroo Island residents in a special Zoom meeting initiated by the royals, during which they asked about the causes of the fire and what more could be done to help the ­recovery on this remote island in a far-flung corner of the Commonwealth.

“They were so lovely,” Stephanie Wurst told The Weekend Australian. “They were very genuine in their concern and they had already read a lot about what we went through. I was a bit nervous at first but they were so down-to-earth and genuine and they really wanted to hear our story. It really was an honour and a privilege talking to them.

“They said they had been following the coverage over summer and would have come to KI by now but couldn’t because of the coronavirus, so they organised this meeting instead.”

William released a statement on Friday about the call, praising the community spirit in Australia.

“Aussies are very good at looking out for each other and it’s fantastic to see that you’re all pulling together,” he said.

The Wursts were left homeless by the blaze but moved in with Mr Wurst’s parents, who live in another house on the farm property, which ironically was saved as a result of a December bushfire started by lightning that had created a firebreak around the dwelling.

Their meeting with the royals comes amid continuing concern on Kangaroo Island over land clearing, which some islanders ­believe exacerbated the blaze and made it difficult to control.

Ms Wurst made a submission to this week’s Senate hearing into the impact of the fires on fauna on the island, in which she urged a greater balance between the protection of native vegetation and the need to avoid mass blazes that destroy entire national parks and kill millions of animals.

She said she was not advocating an open slather approach to land clearing, especially as one of the drawcards for living on her property is that it straddles the Lathami Conservation Park, one of the few habitats of the endangered and elusive Glossy Black Cockatoo which only eats the seed pods of the island’s she-oaks.

“People have this view of farmers from 40 or 50 years ago but it is all about working with nature,” she said.

“The thing is though that if we don’t manage it better, which means managing the fuel load through more cold burns, we end up like we did where an entire ­national park gets burned out and all the animals go with it.”

South Australian Environment Minister David Spiers this week announced more funds for controlled burns but defended the Native Vegetation Act, saying instead that an information campaign was needed to explain to landowners how they can actually clear more land than they may realise under the current arrangements without breaking any laws.