Shirl did sort me out and I swapped my licence plates with a screwdriver I remembered to bring, because I was an organised adult now.
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.
Stephen Andrew St Andrews, Victoria, March 2009Windows 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.
Sam Lawry Kinglake, winter, 2008And 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.
Stephen Andrew St Andrews, Victoria, 2 April 2009Inside 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.