2009FEB211247
Aftermath
Name: Peter Renshaw
Location: Kinglake West
Date: 2009FEB17
Description:
This is the view of the property. No vegetation. It's quiet except for the wind. It's hot and theres bucket loads of work to do.
Bathtub. This is a pretty common site on most properties. The old baths go outside to collect water and act as storage. This is a special bath though. When I was a kid I sat in this bath while fires raged around my home and home town. It's now survived 2 fires.
The journey
Previously at the lumber yard picking up the portable water containers. I got these from a long time mate at no cost who works at CEVA. Loading the containers with the forklift. As you can see we had access to a lot of extra resources at very short notice.
We had the truck loaded with 3000 litre capacity to store water. There is no power, no pump. The tank has been breached. The only fresh water is 5 kilometers away. Power has been supplied within 48hours through a simple petrol (not diesel, they'd all sold out) generator.
This is a shot in Whittlesea approaching the second Police line. To get in you need a special pass. They are pass out tags attached to a person who lives there. We have a spare - dont ask how! We passed the Police line and proceeded to the fire zone.
Turn off at Yea/Kinglake road. First view. This is the Kinglake West telephone exchange. It's new. The old one has burnt down. Connected to it is a generator running 24/7. Gone is Tommys Hut to the right. A fixture in Kinglake West since 1862.
==================
Black Saturday +day14
update latest news
Three signs of life
Phoning Dad yesterday he mentioned some of the things that survived the immediate fire. A flower bloomed. Asking me "what kind" I answered a lily. We have a number of open tanks in the paddock and it turns out the biggest one a 10K litre stainless tank not only survived intact but the plant life in it as well. Under a ceramic pot plant a frog was found and when covered in water it revived itself. It was a land frog and though it wouldn't mind it in the pond with duck-weed it will most likely jump out and hide under the tank for cover.
Thinking there might be other frogs or other things surviving he checked a few more pots that contained now incinerated Maples. The first he kicked over was full of very large bullants. Then promptly p*ssed all over them. Don't like these ants. Found another frog under a pot and added it to the tank.
Quite a few larger native animals are around. Rabbits, some large "Greys" Kangaroos a few of the darker Wallabys. Not much birdlife except overhead. In the morning he's feeding the local Wombats with carrots "'cause they hate spuds".
Wombats and fencing go together like swiss cheese and holes. You put a fence up and a Wombat bull-dozers through the side of it. You re-fence it, the beggers dig under it. Place some wood in the hole - dig around. But I have a new found respect for Wombats. Previously I've liked them but never appreciated their fire evasion skills till now. Quite a few locals owe their lives to these burrowing mammals. I know of one family who's mother stuffed the kids down a hole then herself and survived. Another the person crouched in the hole which happened to face away from the fire, same story survived.
Power and technical advice
The real bottle neck at the moment is technical advice. The electrical requirements for the house, pumps and water switching coupled with the fact the electrical box went down with the shed means only current electrical. When I called I mentioned a name and a number to call for the Whittlesea Volunteers who want to give up their time and skills to help. Problems with water, clearing, fencing, electrical ... they have them all. The power requires some waterproof boxes, fuses and meters none of which Uncle "J" can now do as he has retired.
0840 "K" delivers the shutz
It was with good news that "K" rang yesterday. He'd secured the Shutz after the owner had reneged on a verbal deal plus cash payment. He said he'd be at the yard at 0845. Rush to get to the place. It's about 30-40 minutes from home and had to go with the stupid traffic of "city folk" who drive at way below speed limit in semi-rural areas. Get there and he's just arrived. I haven't seen "K" since 1991. Before that I'd been to High School, Primary school, played sport, learned to swim. I'm still pretty sure he's p*ssed-off at the fact I dobbed
him in doing the "survival" level swimming at Primary School. But that didn't stop him getting a Bronze Medallion and being an active Surf Life Saver at one of Victoria's roughest surf beaches, Ocean Grove. So it was good to see him again. "K" had to rush off almost as soon as he arrived. At this time I had to get my jacket out as it had started to pour rain. Who would have thought.
0930 "J" loading the shutz
"K" delivered the Shutz. It's about 45Kg to lift and quite light for it's size. One problem. No keys for the yard. Don't want to wait till someone comes up. What do I do? Call sister to get the keys. Think, improvise, adapt. Go get some chains & tarp to secure it from the Bunnings down the road. Only after I secure it does "J" come
in with the truck. Load it up, got to KLW.
Eltham to Kinglake West
After the kit was loaded "J" and myself jumped in the truck with Jackie, "the Wonder dog" and went from Eltham through Diamond Creek (where I used to live), Yarrambat, Doreen, Yan Yean and to Whittlesea. Fueled up on food and proceeded via the Kinglake/Yea Rd to Dads. You can see the results here. Not much to look at except burnt trees, houses. Felled trees, powerlines new line markings. New road signs are appearing as workers pull the old ones down. You can gauge the heat of the fire by the ash on the ground and the amount of burn the trees have sustained. Going along the Kinglake/Yea Rd the amount of housing down left and right is high. Houses down the bottom of the hill, houses purched on hilltops, gullys. This particular road is not one you could expect to get through given the firestorm. It's also +day14 or two weeks since the fire went through.
1130 On the ground
Starting with the immediate house which I helped Dad build in 2000. The house has cleared areas all around and is fenced in with a ring of Rhododendrons. These plants have two desirable properties a) they don't burn and b) suck up a lot of moisture. The fence burnt at the base but not at the top. To the immediate behind the house on the West was a large wedge of fire-proof plants which appears to have created a wedge for the house. You can see where the fire moved around the house. Trees immediately behind the house are burnt 30m high. All the leaves are gone. This was one hot fire. Not hot enough to burn the trees down but hot enough to incinerate the tree 30m above the ground.
The laserlite on the roofline melted but did not burn. The colourbond steel roofline is intact. A lot of the plastic external guttering is OK on the East but not the West. The West of the house sustained damage as the flames blasted against the house. The re-enforced glass window cracked but didn't break. I noticed the two gas cylinders also at the West, didn't explode.
Around the property was not so lucky. Two machinery sheds with tractors, heavy machinery like lathes, drills, rotary hoes gone. Trailer gone. Secured shipping container with 40 years of tools gone. Motor bike melted, first bike I had, gone. Morris Minor I had in the shed, gone. By this time we had to go home. "J" had deliveries to do and I had to get home. This was a load, travel, unload, spot of lunch and leave. Getting access to the property is still a problem. I can't just go up there and help. Not allowed.
Looters
What's not burnt is at the mercy of looters? Well first there's the dogs, one big, the other small. Anything of value is either chained to trees or steel & concrete. I wanted to put "marksman" signs up with "hun-targets" but was told best not tip them off.
Observations
Stacks of trees to come down. There is a lot of cutting down here. All the trees that can hit the house have to be downed and cut. Then the roots have to be dug out. Damn I wish the tractors had survived. I wonder if the Trewalla survived. With a Trewalla I can still pull out tree stumps with a car.
The bath you see here is the same one I sat in with my brother in the Diamond Creek fires when I was a kid. A bit worn, but still there. A survivor, like my Old man.
next >>>
2009FEB211247
Aftermath
Name: Peter Renshaw
Location: Kinglake West
Date: 2009FEB17
Description:
This is the view of the property. No vegetation. It's quiet except for the wind. It's hot and theres bucket loads of work to do.
Bathtub. This is a pretty common site on most properties. The old baths go outside to collect water and act as storage. This is a special bath though. When I was a kid I sat in this bath while fires raged around my home and home town. It's now survived 2 fires.
The journey
Previously at the lumber yard picking up the portable water containers. I got these from a long time mate at no cost who works at CEVA. Loading the containers with the forklift. As you can see we had access to a lot of extra resources at very short notice.
We had the truck loaded with 3000 litre capacity to store water. There is no power, no pump. The tank has been breached. The only fresh water is 5 kilometers away. Power has been supplied within 48hours through a simple petrol (not diesel, they'd all sold out) generator.
This is a shot in Whittlesea approaching the second Police line. To get in you need a special pass. They are pass out tags attached to a person who lives there. We have a spare - dont ask how! We passed the Police line and proceeded to the fire zone.
Turn off at Yea/Kinglake road. First view. This is the Kinglake West telephone exchange. It's new. The old one has burnt down. Connected to it is a generator running 24/7. Gone is Tommys Hut to the right. A fixture in Kinglake West since 1862.
==================
Black Saturday +day14
update latest news
Three signs of life
Phoning Dad yesterday he mentioned some of the things that survived the immediate fire. A flower bloomed. Asking me "what kind" I answered a lily. We have a number of open tanks in the paddock and it turns out the biggest one a 10K litre stainless tank not only survived intact but the plant life in it as well. Under a ceramic pot plant a frog was found and when covered in water it revived itself. It was a land frog and though it wouldn't mind it in the pond with duck-weed it will most likely jump out and hide under the tank for cover.
Thinking there might be other frogs or other things surviving he checked a few more pots that contained now incinerated Maples. The first he kicked over was full of very large bullants. Then promptly p*ssed all over them. Don't like these ants. Found another frog under a pot and added it to the tank.
Quite a few larger native animals are around. Rabbits, some large "Greys" Kangaroos a few of the darker Wallabys. Not much birdlife except overhead. In the morning he's feeding the local Wombats with carrots "'cause they hate spuds".
Wombats and fencing go together like swiss cheese and holes. You put a fence up and a Wombat bull-dozers through the side of it. You re-fence it, the beggers dig under it. Place some wood in the hole - dig around. But I have a new found respect for Wombats. Previously I've liked them but never appreciated their fire evasion skills till now. Quite a few locals owe their lives to these burrowing mammals. I know of one family who's mother stuffed the kids down a hole then herself and survived. Another the person crouched in the hole which happened to face away from the fire, same story survived.
Power and technical advice
The real bottle neck at the moment is technical advice. The electrical requirements for the house, pumps and water switching coupled with the fact the electrical box went down with the shed means only current electrical. When I called I mentioned a name and a number to call for the Whittlesea Volunteers who want to give up their time and skills to help. Problems with water, clearing, fencing, electrical ... they have them all. The power requires some waterproof boxes, fuses and meters none of which Uncle "J" can now do as he has retired.
0840 "K" delivers the shutz
It was with good news that "K" rang yesterday. He'd secured the Shutz after the owner had reneged on a verbal deal plus cash payment. He said he'd be at the yard at 0845. Rush to get to the place. It's about 30-40 minutes from home and had to go with the stupid traffic of "city folk" who drive at way below speed limit in semi-rural areas. Get there and he's just arrived. I haven't seen "K" since 1991. Before that I'd been to High School, Primary school, played sport, learned to swim. I'm still pretty sure he's p*ssed-off at the fact I dobbed
him in doing the "survival" level swimming at Primary School. But that didn't stop him getting a Bronze Medallion and being an active Surf Life Saver at one of Victoria's roughest surf beaches, Ocean Grove. So it was good to see him again. "K" had to rush off almost as soon as he arrived. At this time I had to get my jacket out as it had started to pour rain. Who would have thought.
0930 "J" loading the shutz
"K" delivered the Shutz. It's about 45Kg to lift and quite light for it's size. One problem. No keys for the yard. Don't want to wait till someone comes up. What do I do? Call sister to get the keys. Think, improvise, adapt. Go get some chains & tarp to secure it from the Bunnings down the road. Only after I secure it does "J" come
in with the truck. Load it up, got to KLW.
Eltham to Kinglake West
After the kit was loaded "J" and myself jumped in the truck with Jackie, "the Wonder dog" and went from Eltham through Diamond Creek (where I used to live), Yarrambat, Doreen, Yan Yean and to Whittlesea. Fueled up on food and proceeded via the Kinglake/Yea Rd to Dads. You can see the results here. Not much to look at except burnt trees, houses. Felled trees, powerlines new line markings. New road signs are appearing as workers pull the old ones down. You can gauge the heat of the fire by the ash on the ground and the amount of burn the trees have sustained. Going along the Kinglake/Yea Rd the amount of housing down left and right is high. Houses down the bottom of the hill, houses purched on hilltops, gullys. This particular road is not one you could expect to get through given the firestorm. It's also +day14 or two weeks since the fire went through.
1130 On the ground
Starting with the immediate house which I helped Dad build in 2000. The house has cleared areas all around and is fenced in with a ring of Rhododendrons. These plants have two desirable properties a) they don't burn and b) suck up a lot of moisture. The fence burnt at the base but not at the top. To the immediate behind the house on the West was a large wedge of fire-proof plants which appears to have created a wedge for the house. You can see where the fire moved around the house. Trees immediately behind the house are burnt 30m high. All the leaves are gone. This was one hot fire. Not hot enough to burn the trees down but hot enough to incinerate the tree 30m above the ground.
The laserlite on the roofline melted but did not burn. The colourbond steel roofline is intact. A lot of the plastic external guttering is OK on the East but not the West. The West of the house sustained damage as the flames blasted against the house. The re-enforced glass window cracked but didn't break. I noticed the two gas cylinders also at the West, didn't explode.
Around the property was not so lucky. Two machinery sheds with tractors, heavy machinery like lathes, drills, rotary hoes gone. Trailer gone. Secured shipping container with 40 years of tools gone. Motor bike melted, first bike I had, gone. Morris Minor I had in the shed, gone. By this time we had to go home. "J" had deliveries to do and I had to get home. This was a load, travel, unload, spot of lunch and leave. Getting access to the property is still a problem. I can't just go up there and help. Not allowed.
Looters
What's not burnt is at the mercy of looters? Well first there's the dogs, one big, the other small. Anything of value is either chained to trees or steel & concrete. I wanted to put "marksman" signs up with "hun-targets" but was told best not tip them off.
Observations
Stacks of trees to come down. There is a lot of cutting down here. All the trees that can hit the house have to be downed and cut. Then the roots have to be dug out. Damn I wish the tractors had survived. I wonder if the Trewalla survived. With a Trewalla I can still pull out tree stumps with a car.
The bath you see here is the same one I sat in with my brother in the Diamond Creek fires when I was a kid. A bit worn, but still there. A survivor, like my Old man.
next >>>