I'm sorry about the length - but I believe that this MUST remain in one piece, in memory of everything that has been lost.
Please take the time to read in full - I know it's long, but the story must be shared. (All names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved)
45 minutes of doing stuff – no speech – some sobbing is heard
Gate is heard to be opened.
Sound of water running.
Sound of a 4x4 approaching the property.
Albert - “I saw you coming” “How are you?” “How’s your stock?” “I know your house is okay” “But how’s your stock?”
Bert - “How you going Albert?” “It was a pretty wild sort of time wasn’t it?”
Albert - Inaudible
Bert - “No problems, we survived pretty well, I was well prepared. I….. I was ready from the week before it got here………
Albert - Yeah
Bert - ………I got the dozers out and cleared bare my place.”
Albert - “How did you get in to here?”
Bert - “The police aren’t there today” Up til now, nobody can get in.
Albert - “That’s ridiculous”
Bert - “Bloody hard” “Colleen went to Healesville 3 days ago, and can’t get back. But The Spurs on fire now.
Albert - Yeah
Bert - Yeah
Albert - “I went to……we went out yesterday, go out and come back, have you got a bit of paper and I know you won’t let me, it’s a bloody trick to get us out. I had to read the bloody riot act to……..
Bert - to get back in again
Albert - ………get back in again.
Bert - Well Colleen got a pass from the cops…….
Albert - Yeah
Bert - …. near our place, took all the details and wrote it down, she gave to the other cops on the way out and couldn’t come back in.”
Albert - Well, now this stuff, ……… this cop where Debra came through, you had any dealings with him?
Bert - he’s a bastard.
Albert - He promised to get it this through to us 2 days ago and never……….
Bert - and never seen nor heard of it. I’ve had runs in with him.
Albert - Everybody has.
Inaudible
Albert - Calling it a crime scene, so I went round a shot a dozen people as the fire came through. That’s what they’re saying.
Bert - Yeah
Inaudible
Bert - We are suffering, more than the poor buggers that got burnt out.
Albert - Yeah but……. Yeah but……..If you listen……….If you listen to the wireless, all you can hear is Kinglake, Kinglake.
Bert - Yeah well, They’re just starting to talk about Marysville now.
Albert - and the …..other thing is that.. the… the….. you know…… all…….. the interesting…….the interesting thing though I reckon, is that… all those who….. stayed, basically saved their house. Are you with me? ……. No, Sorry I’m putting that they wrong way.
Bert - Yeah, I don’t think they did, some people that stayed are gone………. They’re gone, they’re dead.
Albert - Yes
Albert - Yes, they had……..no……
Bert - ……… no preparation.
Albert - ………no preparation…………and……………and………..
Bert - Yes
Albert - Yes
The sound of unpacking from the back of vehicle is heard
Ethel - The kids have really thought of everything.
Bert - Pardon?
Ethel - The kids have really thought…….
Inaudible
Bert - They tossed everything in to make sure
Albert - now………I’ll put the……….. you like a cuppa?
Bert - Yeah……. I’ll be in that thank-you
Inaudible
Albert - first up I’ll sort that out……
Albert - So you’ve been baching on your own?
Bert - Yeah for the last 3 days. Yeah
Albert - How are you off for food? At least……………. Big pantry
Inaudible
Albert - Yeah well, you know after the fire ……. The other problem, why the town ran out of water?
Bert - well there were that many burst water mains for starters
Albert - no, it wasn’t burst water mains, sorry
Bert - I didn’t know you’d run out of water
Albert - there was only one burst water main and that was broken actually
Bert- Up near The Crossways.
Albert - Yeah. I’ll come and show you what the problem was. After the fire went through, nobody…….I went round…………..I went round and turned some of them off the next day. The bloody fire services were still running at Maidmary and Maryshouse.
Bert - Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Inaudible
Albert - Oh Right…………..Thank-you…………….
Inaudible
Albert - Yeah, ……..the modern…. stop cocks, they…….with a bit of heat on them, they…….they just blew out. Now…………. D……….I went around and I did about 30. Can you imagine 30 of those?
Bert - Yeah…………. yeah
Albert - And there were a lot more than that.
Bert - Yeah
Inaudible
Bert - I was expecting a bad one, but never dreamed of anything like this. You even got a wireless…….
Albert - Yeah…………
Bert - There are a set of batteries there somewhere.
Albert - oh yeah….. I don’t know how she managed…………..
Bert - You want a hand to take it. It’s not that heavy. It’s quite light actually.
Albert - I’ll take it up
Albert - I don’t know…………It’s probably easier for you to carry one, than the two………..but………..
The sound of stuff being picked up and moved. Gate crashing open. Sounds of people walking.
Albert - The only water I used here……. That’s all we used.
Bert - Yeah
Albert - That’s all I used. I saw……. but……
Bert - yeah
Albert - I thought we were going to lose the window…….that was where the wood heap was. Just beyond that wall. A HUGE wood heap. (on the neighbours property, on the fenceline)
Bert - what…….Over there?............ Jeez
Albert - I think it was the double glazing that saved us.
Bert - Yeah…….. we’ve got double glazing, but there was no….nothing near our house. The lawns were all watered,
Albert - Yeah………..but the double-glazing
Bert - Yeah, yeah….a lot……….A lot of houses their windows just melted.
Albert - Yeah
Bert - and that’s……..
Albert - Yup
Sounds of stuff being carried water/fuel?
Albert - E……?
Ethel - Yes?
Albert - I’ll start the jenny up.
Inaudible
Albert - Bert reckons the road’s open now.
Bert - I don’t know if it’s officially open
Albert - Yeah
Bert - Fred just came out and said that……..
Albert - how’s his house?
Bert - He survived, he has a good sprinkler system ….off a dam, so he’s pretty……
Albert - Right
Bert - ……… right I think
Sound of generator starting
Inaudible
Albert - I’m glad I …………when I bought that …………….
Inaudible
Bert - Yeah
Albert - I’ll show you what …….. I agree with you about……….
Inaudible
Albert - That burnt right up to the fence there. Stopped there, those shrubs down here………
Inaudible
Albert - I’ve been giving them a dose of water…….
Inaudible
Albert - ……..Just around there, went out to there, just that little bit in a straight line
Bert - It didn’t take much water to stop …….to stop the grass burning with most of the rubbish was gone.
Albert – Yeah
Bert - A bucket of water puts a lot of fire out.
Albert - A sprinkler system goes a lot better……..won’t say a lot better………but….goes a lot further
Bert - Graham & Heidi went to …… went to ummmm…… china
Inaudible
Bert - You need to get it somehow
Inaudible
Bert - Graham and Heidi went last Wednesday to China and uh……….
Inaudible
Albert - Yup
Inaudible
Sound of generator as they approach it again
Albert - look at the end of the ………..
Inaudible
Bert - No, I know that
Inaudible
Albert - to give you some idea, about a fortnight ago, I was going to buy some plastic buckets, but they were too dear, so I bought the stainless steel one……..galvanised one.
Inaudible
Laughter………
Inaudible
Albert - You don’t know what ………
Bert - You didn’t know how much you had and how much you didn’t have
Albert - Laughter
Bert - I went crook at Colleen because ……I was up at 4 o’clock. Ummm…….I couldn’t sleep and I wanted to get out and see if I could help and I see these lights come down Mt Gordon, there’s a HUGE tree across the road in front of our place and I knew they couldn’t get through. But I thought if someone coming at that hour of the morning…..
Ethel - they must need……
Bert - ……..they must need a doctor or something, I wasn’t even properly dressed at 4 o’clock in the morning. so I get in my kit…….. I’ll get the tractor in a minute, just hang on. She said “Don’t bloody worry about that” “you know me”
Ethel - Laughter
Bert - In the dark I didn’t know who it was.
Ethel - Couldn’t see who it was
Bert - anyway, we managed to get past the sign and tree. I said to her you are bloody mad.
Inaudible
Ethel - that’s what I………I mean her brother
Inaudible
Albert - What do you want? Tea of coffee
Bert - Tea, please. A weak tea, please
Albert - You’re a dairy farmer, you’ll have it black
Bert - No,
Albert - Most dairy farmers…………
Bert - yeah, I know that, yeah I know that
Inaudible
Ethel - Then we were worried she wouldn’t get back again, you know……….
Albert - so I said………
Inaudible
Albert - we turned a few of those…………we didn’t have any water
Bert - Yeah
Albert - we went round and turned Maryshouse fire service off and Maidmary’s fire service off and drove a few of those stakes in, we got water to here
Bert - There’s water pouring out at the Catholic Church, that’s running flat out
Ethel - Oh is there? ……. Well we’d better go and……….
Albert - well they were running………as you came in, they’re running?
Bert - Yeah, just now
Ethel - We’d better go round and turn it off too
Bert - I thought to myself, I’ll see if I can nip it up …….. you know……….. on the way back.
Inaudible
Ethel - Yeah, that’s right
Bert - That’s right
You can hear a radio running in the background
Bert - I was talking to Colleen about 2 seconds last night
Ethel - Yeah, that’s right
Albert - We got through …………. Oh and we couldn’t get rid of Irwin off the phone and then………. Next call we went to make……. Nothing. No service. ……..
Bert - yeah, exactly
Albert - We’ve got our shower Ethel. You might like to stand out where you’ve got to stand but………
Laughter
Ethel - They’ll be nobody around to see you love.
Laughter
Bert - we, ahhhhh….we’ve got gravity feed water from our workshop and tanks up there and gravity feeds the house. I’m right for water and I’m right for hot water because I’m using heater……… we’ve got the ahhhh…….
Inaudible
Bert - …….. in the lounge
Ethel - Oh, okay
Albert - you’ve got……………
Bert - Hydronic water
Albert - You haven’t got any chemical in it?
Bert - No, nope. It’s separate anyway
Inaudible
Sneezing
Inaudible
Sneezing
Albert - we put in a very big hot water service. We’ve got a big radio here. 18yo kid put a little special socket into the TV
Bert - yeah yeah, I see that the telcom boys are trying to get the power going at the moment by the looks of it.
Inaudible
Bert - Looks like a portable generator and……..
Ethel - we’ve had people, finally got hold of at the end of the hill and they burst into tears. Jill’s in a terrible state when we rang her, Kennedy wasn’t much better. And Larry wasn’t much better. They’ve rung the Red Cross and the Red Cross have no record of whether they are alive or dead.
Bert - Yeah yeah
Albert - Then I heard on the wireless,………. We……people……Marysville people are in Alexandra, please re-register, there’s been a glitch in their records. We had………Maurice Townsend came around, I don’t know if he was the SES or DS&E. Neville Nelson came around.
Bert - Yeah
Albert - and the police came around
Inaudible
Bert - all the paperwork…….. yeah………. They’ve been out to check us out and……
Albert - but then those people ring up and no record of us……..
Ethel –whether we are alive or dead
Pause
Albert - now, would you want something to eat Bert?
Bert - I’m not physically worried……… I am…..I can…..
Inaudible
Albert - It will be a sandwich
Ethel - Yeah, it’ll be a sandwich
Bert - that’ll be fine
Inaudible
Bert - I’ve got to get…….
Inaudible
Albert - We had ……the other night, we had Ian and……what’s his name, not O but Peter
Ethel - Oh yeah………….Ian………….. Oh yeah. Bert wouldn’t know him I don’t think
Albert - He built on Thomas’s old vacant land
Bert - Oh yeah………. When Rachael and Steven left…. They were about the last people I knew in the town
Inaudible
Bert - We don’t go to the pool anymore you just lose …….
Albert - well, we…….. Debra ……. had a contact somehow with the……woman, and she bought Violets’ old house. You know the two storey brick one, you can………They’re staying. They’re names Warren or something. She said, go down and see them, I went down, never seen her, I said and how long have you been here? Oh 4 years.
Bert - oh yeah (laughter)
Ethel - Actually, her husband is out of town……
Albert - ….but they wouldn’t let him back in
Ethel - let him in. She’s here, they wouldn’t let him back in. so……..
Bert - Colleen went down to………..
Inaudible
Bert - She got a pass from the police up here and thought she could get back.
Ethel - we tried to stock up yesterday…….
Bert - Yeah
Ethel - but, they told us we could, you know……go over to Alex and we could……..
Bert - ………you can’t come back in, if you’ve go out
Inaudible
Albert - ……… they’ll let you out, but won’t let you back in
Inaudible
Ethel - I said to Albert, I’ve got two dogs, the village dog………
Albert - Do you want a dog?
Ethel - It drives………….It barks, it drives you mad.
Albert - Hear that?
Bert - Yeah yeah
Ethel - All day, all night, absolutely drives you nuts.
Bert - Yeah Yeah, I hate a yappy dog
Inaudible
Ethel - Last 2 nights has been up in the shed. Can’t hear him
Bert - Yeah that’s what you have to do. I suppose…… I suppose the poor thing’s traumatised too, just like the rest of us
Ethel - Thinking about it, he probably sleeps on their bed
Bert - Yeah Yeah
Albert - Watched that………explode…….watched that that new weather board down there, that wall, painted, it……. Just ………burst into flames,
Bert - yeah yeah
Albert - This house over here, I must admit……….it’s clear all the way around it, that’s a plastic house, the weatherboards are plastic, the decking is plastic……
Bert - Yeah Yeah
Albert - The balustrade is plastic, the windows are plastic, and it’s perfect.
Bert - It’s unreal……It’s unreal……..isn’t it?
Albert - and yet up here ………..
Bert - The fire goes through and says I’ll have here and ……no don’t want you…..
Ethel - that’s right
Bert –……. I’ll have the next one. Ginger Meg’s house is still sitting up there.
Ethel - would you believe that little old rubbishy house …….
Bert - Yeah Yeah
Albert - The little old one in…….. next door to Albert Conner’s in Smith Street, you know?
Bert - Yeah Yeah
Ethel - Lovely little dump………ummmm
Albert - That little old one…….
Bert – Ginger’s house………..
Ethel - ………the old blue house……… yeah
Bert – Ginger's house …………Ummm……an old weatherboard, and it’s got… ummm…..artificial brick on the ……….
Albert - yeah yeah
Bert –……. On the outside. You’d think it would be……..you’d think it would go up.
Inaudible
Albert - Bitumen……….. artificial bricks had a bit of bitumen in them
Bert - Yeah yeah……….Stick ‘em on……..Yeah
Albert - but, no……. but they were made out of bit of bitumen, but some of them were…….
Inaudible
Bert - Yeah Yeah
Albert - But this Steph………..Which Carter is it? One of Stephanie Carter…..
Ethel - daughters
Inaudible
Albert - Brand new house, they were going to sign for it next week.
Bert - yeah Yeah
Albert - but……….
Ethel - but they hadn’t signed for it, that is the good news,
Albert - but……..
Ethel - They hadn’t signed for it – which is the good news
Albert - well, is it the goods news or the bad news? If it’s good news, they’d have insured it, they’d be right. Now……..If the builder had built it properly, does he have the financial resources to build it ……….to build it again?
Bert - yeah
Albert - and if he hasn’t, they’re left with……. With……..
Ethel - rubbish
Albert - rubbish to clear up
Bert - yeah
Albert - which they……….
Bert - they’ll have to think about that with the legal side
Inaudible
Albert - The Benny guy……
Bert - I don’t know…..Um – he just sold his house, they’ve signed up for it. Ummmmmm…..The deal went through…… goes through on the 4th or something. So he’s got to either replace the house or hopefully because they might….. you know……
Albert - No No……
Bert - …….. back off on the deal ……..
Albert - Yeah well…………
Bert - ……….. and can sue them if he doesn’t replace the house.
Albert - Well, the thing I was always told, that if you buy a house, insurance it straight away as soon as you pay the deposit…….
Bert - before you pay the …………..
Albert - I know one smart estate agent, who bought a house, the settlement was next day and he…… and he thought I’ll oh well the guys got insurance…..
Inaudible
Albert - …….. and it burnt down…….. The other guy hadn’t insured it, that’s a real…..
Bert - Yeah yeah
Albert - the other guy
Bert - that’s just as bad, Dairy farm, ummm, our insurance guy,……. Who…… was married to what’s her name……….ummm. One of the …… ummmm… I think
Inaudible
Bert - in the end, the put their kid……. their son to run it
Inaudible
Bert - …….Bought the property and would be back Monday to insure it
Inaudible
Albert - Yeah well I was…. My insurance guy…….. he sends me a fax, when we buy something
Bert - that’s what they do these days.
Albert - The date is the time on the back of the fax sheet.
Bert - Yeah Yeah
Inaudible
Albert - ......Out again
Inaudible
Ethel – Debra ………….
Albert - Rang Fran Bailey for us and jumped up and down, and the way she dealt with the water board, she said she rang on the Sunday and just tell him that……
Inaudible
Albert - Just tell him that……….
Inaudible
Albert - In 5 minutes he rang her. Yesterday morning they were across here and that’s what got……..
Inaudible
Albert - ……….back on. We turned off that many valves………
Inaudible
Bert - Right now…….
Inaudible
Albert - Are you right now?
Inaudible
Bert - Diesel running now…………….
Inaudible
Albert - What about……….
Inaudible
Bert - that’s why Colleen went to Healesville to get more……….
Inaudible
Bert - No, we’re right now. We’ve got the diesel generator running now.
Inaudible
Bert - Thanks Ethel
Inaudible
Albert - I haven’t got any diesel to give you
Bert - No we’ve got plenty of diesel now
Albert - The Crossways…….
Bert - Yeah. What? He’s dead?
Ethel - No he stayed. He hid under the bridge when it got really…….. then he dived out and started to put the spot fires out.
Albert - Some of those that got burnt……. (sobbing is heard)
Inaudible
Albert - 2 of them are dead, they’re dead (sobbing)
* Then the conversation moves onto those that lost their lives and all parties compare notes, tales, whose cars are still on the property, who is confirmed dead, who is still missing, who hasn’t been seen and for decency I have not continued with the transcription
The recording ends in a little under 2 minutes, it’s quite disjointed as the batteries start to fail.
No comments:
Post a Comment