With the setting sun, an eerie shadow crept across a vast fire ground where our ACT fire deployment team worked to help our interstate neighbours in their time of need.
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A smoke laden sky tinted the bloodshot evening light. The air hung thick with the stench of burnt homes, burnt possessions and burnt memories.
Standing as silent sentinels, the white marble tombstones of Nerriga cemetery stood against a blackened and charred landscape. They had borne witness to a ferocious and all-consuming firestorm.
The wind lifted. A vortex of ash suddenly rose. Twirling and pirouetting across the scorched graveyard.
The snow-capped winter playground of Kosciuszko National Park was to suffer a similar fate. The wrath of an overwhelming conflagration has now rolled across these once majestic mountains, altering, perhaps forever, a fragile, sensitive subalpine landscape.
The birthplace of skiing in Australia, the famous gold fields of Kiandra, has been levelled. Destroyed by the ferocity of the flame. Wolgal, Pattersons and Sawyers Hill huts lie in ruins. The grand old Kiandra Courthouse demolished by an inferno.
As an historic precinct, the once open grassy alpine woodlands of Kiandra are sullied. Tainted by fire.
Further up the hill, a much-loved mountain resort speaks of an inferno difficult to comprehend. Having learnt the fine art of tobogganing on its gentle slopes, Selwyn Ski Resort no longer resembles my childhood memories.
Ski resorts, where winter snow blankets these mountains, simply shouldn't burn a few months later. Yet it did.
It was a surreal sight.
As we deployed to various fire grounds, these were just a glimpse of the experiences we were to bear witness to.
For a brief time, the quaint hamlet of Talbingo was our home away from home. We were greeted by a community reeling from their own traumatic experiences. While saved from the ferocity of the flames, the effect of what they witnessed, what they heard, what they felt has been etched upon their souls.
But, like green shoots of recovery, each new day brought tenacity. The resilience of the human spirit shone through. The community of Talbingo rallied. They supported us, as we supported them. To witness such generosity was a humbling experience.
As our fire deployment came to end, there was a simple message: Talbingo is open for business. A great meal is to be had at the Golf Club. Coffee and other life essentials are available at the supermarket. Accommodation options abound.
To support those local communities now touched by the flame, why not consider a road trip to beautiful Tumut, Talbingo and beyond?
- Brett McNamara is with ACT Parks & Conservation Service.
