Vacationing in a Fire Zone

Rain, blessed rain for the south coast of Australia!

Yesterday morning and all last night it rained quite hard here in Melbourne and elsewhere on the south coast. Thanks for sharing that BC. We had to layer up again for the first time since we arrived in Australia. However, it may not be of significant help to the terrible fire situation here. Temperatures will rise again as Australia is only 1/3 through its summer.

Cumulative fire stats for all of Australia (NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and Queensland) that I saw in yesterday’s The Age paper are:

19 dead, 28 unaccounted for
298+ fires burning
6,242,000 hectares burned
1568 homes lost
Untold wildlife and domestic animal injury and loss
And indescribable trauma to so many.

Friday, some of those who have been sheltering in place in beachside Mallacoota, south of us, were finally evacuated by Australian navy ships, leaving their vehicles and belongings behind. More will continue to be evacuated by ships and helicopters from there and other areas.. The roads out of some communities, one being the main coastal Princes Highway are closed and the fire situation in Victoria & NSW has horrifyingly worsened this weekend due to escalating temperatures and high winds.

We are ok and have been in Melbourne since Friday. Apart from significant smokey conditions part of the time we were in Wollongong and in Melbourne, the fires have meant that there are many parts of NSW and Victoria where we cannot go and Jim, Joanne and I had to fly to Melbourne rather than drive. It is very troubling to be here on vacation right now knowing there is so much tragedy occurring not that far away. The fire closest to Wollongong is near where our niece Carly lives in Nowra with her 3 1/2 year old twins. That fire is very worrisome and she has been spending time at Joanne’s house in Wollongong but did go home yesterday. If fires merge as has just happened with what is now known as the Morton fire, who knows what will happen. We have donated to the Rural Fire Service but there is not much else one can do except monitor everything.

We have been closely following the excellent ABC news coverage (Australian Broadcasting Co. - no commercials). ABC News has a good app if you are interested. Mandatory evacuation has been put in place in areas to try & prevent people from staying to defend their homes as some have done with tragic consequences. These fires are not behaving like bush fires of the past apparently.

Friends of Joanne’s who we also know live near Lake Conjola, and have reported that their house was saved by firefighters but other structures on their property are gone including a metal container containing tools and things they gathered up from the house to protect. They thought it would withstand the fire but the wood floor caught fire and that was that. No one knows if spared property will be destroyed in the next few days. It is heartbreaking to see the interviews with people who are just stunned at the sudden destruction of their homes and their communities.

We are learning a lot about Australian geography and politics as a result of the coverage. The PM, referred to as ScoMo, and his Liberal party (in name only, put into power by the powerful coal industry) and just elected in May is not coming off well. Besides thinking it was ok to leave on holiday to Hawaii in the midst of this and being shamed into returning, he was shown visiting a devastated area the other day and when people refused to shake hands with him, he forcibly grabbed their other hands. He was yelled at and called an “effing idiot”. His and his party’s support for the coal and LNG industry & denial of human-caused climate change that has resulted in severe drought and the resulting conflagration is being derided by many, in addition to the under-funding of resources needed to prepare for and fight these fires. His government has just released campaign-style ads trumpeting what they have done in relation to their response to the fires. The military is apparently not trained in fire fighting & is mainly occupied trying to keep asylum seekers off Australian shores, the connection between forced migration and climate change not being recognized. It is a brutal reminder of what could be ahead for our part of the planet as heads remain firmly in the sand. The devastation is truly awful. Interestingly Justin Trudeau seems well-regarded here and there is apparently even a meme “What would Justin do?” What indeed? We can only hope he is paying close attention to this. Justin, could you perhaps rethink the bloody pipeline??

The air was bad in Wollongong the last few days we were there and the downtown area of Melbourne was bad when we arrived (though not nearly as smokey as Sidney and Canberra where the air was 21 times the hazard level), with a eerie red sun behind the smoke haze. There was a wind change Thursday before we left Wollongong however, when we met up with Joanne’s friends down at the harbour for a walk and drinks and the blue skies and blue water revealed the drama of our surroundings. Wollongong Harbour has two old and beautiful lighthouses. There was a wedding at the base of one while we were there and a very large & gorgeous sailboat came in and anchored. Really stunning.

On New Years Day, we had lunch at the Golf Club on the waterfront with some of the family. We were invited to Jason (Joanne’s youngest) and his fiancé, Jess’s house for a yummy dinner the night before we left Wollongong. Jason is finishing his Ph.D while also working at the University of Wollongong & Jess is a kindergarten teacher. We really enjoyed their visit to Galiano in 2018 and it’s been great to see them again. We love our Aussie family and seem to have so much in common. Do wish we all lived closer!

Friday, we caught the train to Sydney & flew 1 1/2 hours to Melbourne.

We have had a really lovely apartment in a quiet, Jewish neighbourhood in Melbourne called Rippon Lea, part of St. Kilda. We have the whole top floor of a 3 story beautifully renovated 1922 building with a wrap-around roof terrace filled with plants plus an outdoor bathtub/shower overlooking the quaint Main Street of little shops, cafes and restaurants. Could not be more perfect! Great to be just out of the city and the train station is a block away.

Reputedly, the best restaurant in Melbourne, Attica is just down the street. No menu posted but hugely expensive apparently and requires reservations months in advance.

It was 27C Saturday morning in Melbourne (after 38C the day we arrived) so we had a nice half hour walk to the main city beach, St. Kilda’s Beach for a swim and then had a great stroll along the waterfront.

We could still see how smokey it was in the city.

Then it suddenly got windy and temps dropped down to 19C. Weird weather. This was the wind they were very worried about for the fires elsewhere, along with much higher temperatures than in Melbourne.

We had a delightful dinner one night in a beautiful waterfront condo in Port Melbourne with good friends of Joanne’s. They overlook the port and the ferry to Tasmania was leaving while we were there. More than traipsing around to tourist sites, being able to visit with people who live here is the real pleasure and an opportunity to learn so much.

This morning, we visited Rippon Lea Estate, a National Trust site just around the corner, a beautiful house and 14 acres of garden established in the late 1800’s, the last of the great privately owned 19thC suburban estates to survive largely intact. As it was raining hard, we went on a tour of the house first and then wandered the garden when things dried up. The plants all looked so happy to have moisture.

Joanne and I wandered our immediate neighbourhood in the afternoon. I am really loving the architecture in Australia, especially the older, small bungalows with distinctive features that we are seeing here.

We had a great last evening in Melbourne in our little neighbourhood - at the local wine bar and a great restaurant, all just steps away from our apartment.

Joanne flew back to Wollongong this morning and we fly to Tasmania this afternoon. We will be in Hobart, the main town for 4 days, and on the island until January 20th. It is very large - twice the size of Van Island but beautiful and rural. There are fires there too but it seems a better bet than elsewhere. I hope so anyway but it is a moving target here. An unforgettable time in Australia for us, on so many dimensions.