Black Saturday.

You’d have to have been living under a rock to be unaware of the devastating wildfires that have burnt through (what seems like) half the state in the last three weeks.

Black Saturday brought with it record heat and winds, and an appalling death toll. It’s been heartbreaking to watch the news and I’ve been especially affected by stories like this one, and its follow-up. I think a lot of people, when faced with stories of thousands who lost homes and a death toll currently at 211 forgot about the devastating effect fires like this have on wildlife. I even got off my (usually complacent) arse and made a decent donation to Wildlife Victoria.

It’s true that fire is a normal part of the natural cycle here in Australia, and certainly the Aboriginal custodians of the land have been using fire for hunting and to maintain the bush for thousands of years. What’s unusual in this case is the ferocity of the fires and the size of the devastation. There’ll be plenty of discussion to come about whose fault it is that this happened. Some of the fires were deliberately lit too, which makes it so much worse – that someone could do that, knowing that we had that day what amounted to a 300% fire risk day (yes, on a scale of 1-100, the risk was estimated at 300).

The hospital I work at is the main burns centre for the state (ironic I left Royal Perth to get a job in a hospital with an almost identical case mix of patients and also the main trauma centre for the state, completely by accident). So of course, as it was after the Bali bombings, we’ve had an influx of critically ill patients, who require lots of blood tests and blood products. If you are in Australia and eligible to donate (and haven’t already), now’s the time your blood is really needed – after the initial influx of donors has died down. Because burns patients can go through (the equivalent of) 200 units or blood per day for months.

Darren and I actually drove down really early to Red Hill Market early that day, with the strong intent of buying more of those incredible sausages we got in early December, and maybe hitting the beach afterward. Which is exactly what we did.

Of course, Darren took the usual unflattering pictures of me.

But it was GLORIOUS. We really enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy coming out of the water and suddenly weighing my full weight again (when is that diet going to start anyway?). We left when the hot wind arrived from the North. As we were driving back we stopped for an ice cream, but really we just scurried home to turn on the a/c and flop. And then later, watch the horror of the tragedy unfolding on the news. And it hasn’t stopped. The fires are still burning, I can’t imagine if there’s going to be any of the beautiful temperate forests left after they burn themselves out.

I can’t end this post without mentioning Marysville, which was completely destroyed. This was a town Darren and I had passed through on our way to the snowfields last year, and talked about whether we could move there. The air had agreed with me so much and it was so beautiful and historic, that we thought it might be a nice place to contemplate for a tree-change/commute belt life. Not anymore. :(