Dunalley’s scars run deep – two years on from devastating bushfire

FROM the outside, everything appears to be normal again. But for many families caught in the devastating bushfires at Dunalley – two years ago today – things will never be the same.

2013 Bush Fires (Bush Fires) In this Jan. 4, 2013, photo provided by the Holmes family, Tammy Holmes and her grandchildren take refuge under a jetty as a wildfire rages nearby in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, Australia. The family credits God with their survival from the fire that destroyed around 90 homes in Dunalley. Record temperatures across southern Australia cooled Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, reducing the danger from scores of raging wildfires but likely bringing only a brief reprieve from the summer?s extreme heat and fire risk. (AP Photo/Holmes Family, Tim Holmes) EDITORIAL USE ONLY Picture: Supplied

FROM the outside, everything appears to be normal again.

But for the Griffiths family, who lost their Dunalley home in the January 2013 bushfires, things will never be the same.

Scott Griffiths told the Sunday Tasmanian the family’s new house was starting to look the part, the kids were doing well at work and at school, and his wife Deborah had found a good job.

However, he said the emotional scars from their bushfire ordeal — two years ago today — continued to run deep.

For many years he had worked as a postman in suburban Hobart and he’d always had well-paying jobs, but not since the fire.

And the memory of fleeing by car as a terrifying black, red and purple wall of fire rolled into view — then returning to the smouldering ruin that had been his home — still makes him emotional.

“The other day there was a little fire at Copping. It was really weird, the smell of the burning eucalypt — it just brought everything back,’’ he said.

Scott Griffiths walks through the remains of his home in Dunalley in early 2013. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

Mr Griffiths said there were some positives as well — some things that the family could be proud of.

“We are more loving and more caring, I suppose. A bit tighter,’’ he said.

DUNALLEY WANTS US ALL TO GET ON BOARD

Mr Griffiths, a former amateur boxer, has opened a boxing gym in a shed at the front of his property. It already has 70 local members.

And at this year’s Australian Amateur Boxing League titles in Hobart one of his charges won a silver medal, and another took bronze.

“That’s going really well, that’s keeping me driven and confident,’’ he said. “It’s about giving something back to the community.’’

Mr Griffiths has also started fitness classes for people of all ages, which has the makings of a business venture.

He said by using his insurance payout to buy a modest kit home and doing a lot of the work himself he had also succeeded in wiping out the family’s mortgage — a significant load off their mind.

“I never wanted to live in a big mansion,’’ he said.

“The garden is starting to grow. The place is feeling more like our home, not a hotel,’’ he said.

The bushfire tore through Dunalley, destroying 193 dwellings and 186 other buildings. Picture: TOBY ZERNA

Fire conditions were rated catastrophic on January 4, 2013, when a firestorm tore through Dunalley and the South East, Lake Repulse in the Derwent Valley, and an area south of Bicheno.

While the Forest Fire Danger Index was lower than in 1967, when 62 people died in the Hobart bushfires, there were a couple of factors that were worse. The temperature in Hobart, of 41.8C, was 2.8 degrees higher than 1967, and in 2013 the winds blew strongly from noon to 7pm compared with just an hour in 1967.

SEE THE GALLERY: TASMANIA BUSHFIRE DISASTER

The 2013 fire started at Forcett and flared up on January 3. By the morning of January 4 it covered 1000ha with a perimeter of 20km.

The fire reached Dunalley about 3.25pm with embers causing spot fires throughout the town.

It jumped the canal and continued down the Tasman Peninsula to Murdunna.

Photos of this family sheltering under a jetty were beamed around the world. Picture: TIM HOLMES/AP

By the time it was contained and the smoke had cleared, 193 dwellings and 186 other buildings were destroyed including the Dunalley school and police station.

Up to 4000 people were forced to take shelter at Nubeena.

Despite fears that a loss of life looked inevitable, remarkably no one died, but the scale of the damage was shocking.

Dunalley resident Jim Baptist told how the red cedar structure that had been his home for six years had been destroyed in the January 4 blaze.

But he was relieved to save his cars, and the house rebuild had been quick — less than nine months — and had gone “incredibly smoothly”.

“I’ve lost all of my photos, memorabilia and everything. I still go to pick something up then realise, ‘Oh that’s gone, burnt’,’’ he said.

“But I’m not fretting. I can manage without all of those things when it comes down to it.’’

Jim Baptist, 69, who has rebuilt in Dunalley, has really enjoyed getting the garden going. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

Mr Baptist said having a say in the layout of the new home meant he felt a greater affinity with this house.

“When it was first finished it was like a desert, really. I’ve really enjoyed getting the garden going,’’ he said.

“Building the front fence. It was a great way to meet and get to know a few more people.’’

Nearly $9 million raised in the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal has been distributed in the two years since the blaze.

Chair of the Red Cross Distribution Committee Pat Leary said about $330,000 remained.

“We are not going to distribute it just for the sake of it but will wait for a something worthwhile to develop,’’ she said.

The funds were distributed in Sorell, Tasman and Central Highlands council areas.