No matter where in the world you live you would have heard about the horrific bush fires that engulfed much of the southern Australian state of Victoria a couple of weeks ago.
What you would not have heard was that ironically, at the same time as over 200 died in those terrible bush fires, up in the Far North of Australia, in Far North Queensland where I live, we were having flooding rains. Flooding rains that could have put out all of those fires. But instead, our roads were blocked, the sick and elderly were being lifted out by chopper, and the supermarkets were running out of food because deliveries could not get through.
I have lived, on a number of different occasions, in both Queensland and also Victoria. And despite our rain and flooding, it is far better than the total devestation caused by bush fires.
As a 5 years old I grew up on a farm on the Southern Highlands south of Sydney. And on one occasion our property was surrounded by bush fires. My Dad, and sister and brother went out to help the bush fire brigade fight the fires that kept springing up all over the place. My Mum stayed to look after me in the house. And I can remember, as if it was yesterday, the little 5 year-old girl, who was me, standing with my nose pressed up against my bedroom window, with my Mum behind me, just staring out at the fire fighters and the fire running along the ridge. Needless to say I’ve been frightened of bush fires ever since.
I’ve wanted to write this post for 2 weeks now. Ever since the fires claimed all those lives, and literally completely removed entire towns from the map. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Yet whilst I didn’t write this, I also couldn’t bring myself to write any other blogs either. This was something that I had to do.
We Australians will always remember the tragic lives that were lost, and the incredible courage of those who were on the front lines fighting those fires. And our hearts go out to them all.
The scientists say that the freakish weather conditions that contributed to the Victorian fires was due to climate change.
Surely, there still aren’t people around who aren’t interested in living a more sustainable life.
On the following post, I’ll put up some of the most beautiful photos which resulted from the fires.
