Postcript to our Road Trip - The Bushfires

It reached 45 celsius the next day!

No doubt by now many of you will have read or seen news resports of the horrific fires that have swept through Victoria. This is Australia’s worst disaster. The confirmed death toll this morning was 173, but that will rise a lot more. Over 750 homes have been destroyed, 5000 people have been evacuated and vast swathes of land have been destroyed. It has been heartbreaking to watch the news and hear of parents who have lost their children, and children who have lost their parents. The ones who count themselves lucky are those who escaped with their family and just the clothes on their backs.

Many of the areas that Roger and I visited have been badly affected. The Rochford Winery, where we saw Leonard Cohen, is on the Maroondah Highway near Healsville, which has been under serious threat since yesterday. The Tidal River campsite we stayed on in Wilson’s Promontory was evacuated yesterday as a rapidly building fire was affecting the Promontory. We had passed very close to the town of Marysville which was all but wiped out.

The Australians are an amazingly resilient people and offers of help poured in immediately. Funds have been set up to help those so badly affected. Lisa’s firm, Amcor, have offered to match any money raised by the staff. A newspaper group has offered $1,000,000.

On Australia Day I listened to the radio where people were asked what made them proud to be Australian. I think the reactions of people to this unprecedented disaster would make any one proud to be Australian – apart from those murderers (the Prime Minister’s words) who started the fires.