Judith Troeth (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to comment on the terrible tragedy that has hit Victoria, my home state, in the last few days. I would like people to imagine themselves in Victoria on Saturday, when it had reached 40 degrees by noon. At 3 pm I went outside my house and realised that the sun was hotter on my skin than I had ever known it. The wind was swirling in strong gusts. If it swirled in suburban Melbourne, I can only begin to think what it was like in country areas.

To me, it brought back memories of Ash Wednesday in 1983, when I lived in south-west Victoria near the South Australian border. I was teaching in Portland and the school was shut when the temperature reached 41 degrees. I travelled the Henty Highway to Haywood. The west wind was so strong that it moved the vehicle continually from the left-hand side of the road to the right-hand side. I collected my two youngest sons from primary school and took them home to the farm and we sat inside with the pets and waited. We were between the Warrnambool fires and the Mount Gambier fires. The air was smoky and the sun was a huge yellow orb in the west.

Fortunately, both of those fires were contained but not after terrible loss of human life—a tragic loss of 47 lives in Victoria and more in South Australia, where they took an equally terrible toll. Those fires came at the end of a very long drought period. All the vegetation on our farm was timber dry. The combination of great heat, strong winds and fuel to feed the fire proved lethal. That day is remembered as Ash Wednesday. Such a combination was also present last Saturday, 7 February. And the combination proved lethal as well, but with a much higher death rate, which, at last count, stands at 181 people.

We should remember that as Victorians we live in one of the world’s most hazardous bushfire zones and since the early days of European settlement Victoria has suffered regular and devastating fires. In February 1851—no doubt at the end of a long dry spell—Victoria endured Black Thursday. As detailed by Geoffrey Blainey in the Melbourne Herald Sun yesterday, bushfires were recorded regularly after the turn of the century—in 1919, 1926, 1932, 1939 and 1944. More than 70 Victorians died on Black Friday in 1939.

This summer has been no different, with a long period of extreme dry weather and searing temperatures. But the difference in 2008 was that the areas of Kinglake and Marysville, to name two of the towns that have been so badly affected, are more closely settled, with larger populations because of people seeking to escape the pressures of urban life in Melbourne. Both areas are also densely forested.

Perhaps I should mention the particular charms of Marysville, which has always held a certain magic for Victorians. It was established as a stopping point on the way to the Woods Point goldfields, with the post office established in 1865. With a permanent population of 519 people, the primary industry by far is tourism. There were numerous cafes, art galleries, restaurants and craft shops. Both the Cumberland and Maryland guesthouses, which were recently converted to modern day spas—were well known to generations of Victorians and favourite honeymoon destinations. The town was a base for the skiing industry, with the population doubling or tripling during winter as tourists visited Lake Mountain. Other natural attractions included bushwalks and Stevenson’s Falls, one of Victoria’s highest waterfalls. It is a scenic and peaceful place—or was—very close to Melbourne.

Many of the residents interviewed in the last few days have said that they will rebuild, and I do not doubt their passion and determination to do that. But one must ask: what will become of these towns with no economic driver to sustain them and with the process of rebuilding to take a very long time? Our hearts go out to the residents of Marysville, Kinglake and all the other towns so devastated by the fires. To have one’s life turned upside down by the loss of family, home and livelihood is something that is difficult to comprehend for outsiders. We can only try to offer help at every level to ease the pain while people rebuild their lives and their homes.

I also wish to acknowledge and applaud the heroic acts of all the agencies involved in the firefighting and the rehabilitation, such as the CFA volunteer firefighters in those brigades, paramedics, doctors, nurses and all those citizens who fought so hard for so long to try to save people, homes and animals and who tried to conquer the forces of wind and fire which raged against them. Australians are renowned for mateship in times of disaster and this was such a time. To survivors and workers: we are all thinking of you and the will is there to assist you to rebuild in every sense of the word.