Remembering the Black Saturday Bushfires

I have a difficult confession to make. Until recently, I had never read two books about the Black Saturday bushfires – books written by locals I know and deeply respect. For years, I simply couldn’t. My own harrowing experience of that devastating inferno on 7 February 2009, made it too painful to relive through someone else’s words.

But a few weeks ago, I realized that enough time had passed. I was finally ready to return to that day – this time through the eyes of authors Adrian Hyland, Jim Usher and Mac Gudgeon.

I started with Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland. The book follows Roger Wood, the local policeman, as he navigates the unimaginable horror of that day. Adrian captures the small, tender details that make his story so engaging: Roger talking with his children about the possibility of evacuating, his young son clutching wriggling guinea pigs – everyday life on the brink of disaster. And then, we follow him up the mountain, into Kinglake, where the firestorm eventually hits with terrifying force.

What struck me most was Adrian’s ability to write a gripping story that moves us from scenes of everyday normalcy to shocking, sudden catastrophe. As the inferno approaches and intensifies, we witness Roger’s extraordinary courage and heroism – his split-second decisions that saved so many lives – and the invaluable leadership of countless others. Woven throughout the narrative are also insights from experts and well-renown authorities that help us understand what happened, and serve to contextualise Kinglake within the broader Black Saturday disaster.

This book is beautifully written, and many times I marvelled at the effective simplicity of the language, the way Adrian said so much with so little. For example, these two sentences wrap up one chapter: “These families survive. Many around them don’t.” (page 138) If you haven’t read this incredible book, I highly recommend picking up a copy from Eltham Bookshop.

I loved Footsteps in the Ash too. This book is a brilliant, gut-wrenching collection of stories from people in St Andrews and Strathewen. Jim Usher and Mac Gudgeon provided the opportunity for survivors and firefighters to tell – and share – their firsthand experiences of Black Saturday. The result is a wonderful chaotic mix of tales, full of miraculous escapes and survival against the odds. The book also features striking photographs that perfectly illustrate the terrible devastation that happened and the awe-inspiring resilience of the local people. It’s an emotionally confronting book to read, and is a glorious testament to people’s courage and resilience in the face of a natural disaster. While Footsteps in the Ash is no longer available at Eltham Bookshop, it remains a cherished part of local history, with copies accessible at the Yarra Plenty Regional Library – or I’d be happy to lend you mine.

Black Saturday changed us all forever. It took me six years to put my own experience into words. In 2015, I wrote a short piece called Sitting Beside Bushfire Survivors. It’s a story told with pain, love, and deep respect for survivors. If you’d like to read it, you can find it here: https://bushtelegraphxpress.com/sitting-beside-bushfire-survivors/.

Today, on the sixteenth anniversary of Black Saturday, I want to acknowledge Adrian Hyland, Jim Usher and Mac Gudgeon – not just as authors, but as remarkable people. They accomplished something I never could: they found the strength to step back from their own personal grief and losses to give us these extraordinary books. For that, I thank them. Their books will ensure that what our communities went through on Black Saturday, will always be remembered.