Black Saturday stories
The Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia on 7 February 2009 killed 174 people. These four stories include two by Stephen Andrew, who survived that day.
Power And The Passion by Midnight Oil (A Black Saturday story)
Andrea Gillum Melbourne Cricket Ground, Saturday, March 14, 2009 We streamed into the MCG that day as strangers from our own streets and towns. We left there, sodden and knackered, but together.
Down Down by Status Quo. A Black Saturday story by Stephen Andrew.
Stephen Andrew St Andrews, Victoria, March 2009 Windows open, I ramp up the volume and feel an intensity in the band’s playing that suddenly seems new to me. This opening of my senses is one of the unexpected gifts of the bushfires.
No Longer There by The Cat Empire (A Black Saturday story)
Sam Lawry Kinglake, winter, 2008 And then we were in Kinglake. It was beautiful. The roads followed the hills, through the trees. It was such an achingly typical Australian bush landscape.
Passover by Joy Division. A Black Saturday story by Stephen Andrew.
Stephen Andrew St Andrews, Victoria, 2 April 2009 Inside the music I am offered something like the grace I am going to need if I am to rise again tomorrow and face the fire-blackened landscape of my town.