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Saturday 18 January 2003 will live in Canberra's history.  This was the day that 4 people were tragically killed, nearly 500 residential homes were lost,  numerous more homes were damaged, many small businesses destroyed, and over 70% of the ACT (mainly national park and pine plantations) was destroyed, when a massive firestorm struck suburban Canberra.   At last count, the damage bill was expected to top 250 million dollars.  The toll to native wildlife was immeasurable.  Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve alone, lost 95% of their animals.  In the days after, people remained nervous, as fires continued to burn in the surrounding areas of Canberra.  With temperatures in the high 30s and even into the 40s, the threat still remained.

Lightening strikes on the 8 January in the Namadgi and Brindabella National Parks had started several fires.   Due to the inaccessibility of the terrain, the fires continued to burn, but stayed within containment lines until the Friday night.  On the Friday night, burnt leaves and ash were dropping in the outer suburbs.  The hills in  the Brindabellas had a red glow around them.  It was apparent that with the predicted weather conditions, things could get bad on Saturday.  Little did we know just how bad.  On Saturday the three fires would join, to create a massive front, against which firefighters would stand no chance.

On Saturday morning, I awoke to the news that a fire had burnt to within 5 kilometres of Tharwa.  That was getting too close, as Tharwa is about 5 kilometres from where I live.  Looking out my window, the hills behind Gordon were ringed with back burning. The smoke at the time was no more than we had had for the last two weeks.  I walked up to Tharwa Drive, only to find two bushfire vehicles parked in Pockett Avenue and Tharwa Drive was already blocked (at 5.30am).

As the morning wore on, the smoke got thicker and thicker, more and more burnt and smoldering leaves and ash was falling around us. That morning I got on the computer and burnt all of my important files onto a disk in case of evacuation.  I had to go shopping for Dad's birthday present, so I made a quick dash into town, and out again.  By the time that I got back (only gone about an hour), the smoke was stifling.  Debris was now falling in Tuggeranong, and visibility was non-existent.  On my way home I stopped at Tuggeranong to buy new hose fittings (just in case, as the old ones were leaking).  I pulled into Bunnings just on noon.

From here on in, everything is a blur.  The smoke got worse and worse.  The sky turned red, then by about 2pm it was pitch black and stayed that way until about 4pm.  Everyone in the street started hosing their houses down.   I put my sprinklers on to at least moisten all the mulch around my house.  Radio updates provided a list of suburbs who should be on alert, and ready to evacuate if necessary, my suburb being one of them.  At some point I packed the car in case of evacuation, took down the curtains, moved furniture, and filled tubs and sinks with water, as advised by the radio. The pitch black turned to an eerie golden colour.  It was about this time (4.30pm) that I realised that I had better fill up with petrol in case I had to evacuate, as the fuel light had come on as I was driving home earlier in the day.  There was more traffic on the roads than there is normally during peak time on a week day.  I don't know how much of the traffic was people out sightseeing and how much was people evacuating/going home to protect their property.  Luckily there was a service station open in Tuggeranong, it was surprising how many other people had the same idea. 

From radio updates, we knew what was happening in the Weston Creek area, that houses were being destroyed, that Duffy Service Station had gone up, and that the fire had crossed Point Hut Crossing and had come into Gordon. We didn't really know how far away it was from us, but it seemed as if we were surrounded.  No matter what direction you looked, all you could see was red.  Lightening was flashing around us.  We didn't know if it was lightening or not, that seemed too bizarre, that in the middle of this hell, there could be lightening.  We tried to assign other causes of the flashes of light, but apparently it was lightening.

Throughout the afternoon, I had numerous phone calls from concerned relatives and friends, offering me somewhere to evacuate to.  Unfortunately, South Canberra was basically cut off.  There was no way out.  The major roads (Tuggeranong Parkway, Monaro Highway, Athlon Drive and Erindale Drive) were all closed.  Even if I did leave, there was nowhere I could go.  Evacuation centres were originally set up at Gininderra College and Phillip College, but there was no way through to those even from the South.  Eventually an evacuation centre was opened at Erindale College.

Later on (probably about 6'ish), flames started to come over the hill behind Gordon.  Once again, everyone started hosing their houses, this time in earnest.  There was a sense of desperation and panic.  Some decided that the time had come to evacuate.   Whereas before people would stop what they were doing to go into the street to talk to their neighbour, now it was deadly serious.  Not having a ladder, I was unable to get onto the roof to hose it down.  I stood in front of my house, with the hose held as high as I could get it, tears streaming down my eyes, trying to get as much water as possible onto the roof in case of embers.  I hosed down the fences, and kept wetting down the mulch.  As the neighbours on either side of me were both away, I did what I could to wet their roofs as well.  All the time, all I could think was "When do I evacuate?".  There was never any question of me staying if the fire got too close, with my intense fire phobia, I knew that I would be incapable of saving my house if it came to that.  I just didn't know how long to wait before I went.

AND THEN THE WIND DROPPED. 

The fire continued to burn, but it basically just stayed in the one place, until it finally burnt itself out.  When I finally went to bed after midnight, it was still glowing.  About 10.30, they announced on the radio that some streets in Gordon, Banks and Conder were about to be evacuated.  There was no indication of which ones.  For the hundredth time I went through the house to see if there was anything else I should take with me if I was evacuated.  Should I pack the china I'd received for my 21st?  Or  some of my books?  I had already packed an overnight bag with half a dozen change of clothes, all my photos and photo albums, the tickets to the John Farnham and Seekers concerts, and all of my family history research and programs.  In hindsight, I didn't pack any of my jewelry, no toiletries and no sleepwear.  So much for trying to be organised.  I rang several numbers, trying to find out what parts of my suburb were being evacuated, but with no luck.  All I was told was that if my street was to be evacuated, an SES worker would knock on my door.  No-one knew how long this would take.  As I had been awake since 5 that morning, and after all of the stress of the day, I was feeling tired, but I didn't dare go to bed in case someone knocked on the door.  By about 1.00 I decided that we probably weren't going to be evacuated now, so I finally went to bed.  Just in case, however, I left a lamp on in the lounge room, so that if someone did knock on the door, they would know that there was someone home.

The McLeod Report has now been released (4 August 2003).  It has made 61 recommendations, which will apparently be met.  It found that: had the fires been fought aggressively when they first started, the fires would not have reached Canberra, and that insufficient information was made available to members of the public.   What we are still waiting to find out is WHY?  Why weren't we told of the possible threat?  Why weren't we given an opportunity to take any necessary precautions?  Arrangements were put in place for evacuation centres to be set up on the Thursday, 2 days before the fires hit.  The threat that the fire might reach the suburban fringe was obviously very real at that stage.  And yet we weren't told.  Hopefully, this will be answered in the inquest to be held in 2004.

18 January 2004.

It is now 1 year on.  Canberra is healing, the people are healing, the landscape is healing.  In some ways it is hard to believe that it a year has passed, at times it seems like only yesterday, and yet so much has happened in that time that it sometimes feels like it must be more than a year. 

Of the nearly 500 homes  destroyed, less than half have been rebuilt, for varying reasons.  Some have decided to make a fresh start elsewhere, others are still deciding what to do. 

The memories and terror of that day are still with me.  The vision that stays with me is the red glow that surrounded us.  Life goes on.  We will never forget that day.  But hopefully lessons have been learnt, and such destruction and terror will never happen again.