Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Like many regional Victorian MPs in this place, I spent last weekend at events with my local community, recognising and remembering Black Saturday 10 years on. I want to start by saying that many across central Victoria do really acknowledge that we were quite lucky on this day: we did not suffer anywhere near as much devastation as other areas in regional Victoria. Across Victoria, 170 people lost their lives. Tragically, one person in Bendigo also lost his life that day. I want to reflect upon his family's journey since that day. Livestock were killed, thousands of homes were destroyed, entire communities were devastated and more than 400,000 hectares were burnt. It was our darkest day in the state of Victoria. It was a day that, even 10 years on, many communities, many people and many families cannot talk about. Whilst we remember that on that day 173 people died, many others have since have lost their lives, many who could not emotionally, physically or mentally recover from the scars and the injuries that they incurred on that day.

Like many, I remember where I was on that day, 7 February 2009. We knew in advance that we would be on red alert that day, that it would be a day of extreme heat. I was working back then for United Voice in Melbourne. I was working very early in the morning—I had the night shift/morning shift—and I can remember walking out of Crown casino just after 9.30 in the morning and going, 'This is far too hot for this time of the morning.' I didn't drive back up the Calder that day. I went to stay at a friend's place because there were already warnings at that time: don't come back to the regions. Like many, I saw it unfold on the TV, watching so many of our volunteers, our emergency services, our CFA, our professional firefighters, our SES and just ordinary community members doing what they could to hold back the fire. The recovery effort post the fires is also something that I'll never forget, along with the way in which communities did try to come together to deal with the grief, to deal with the loss and to deal with the horror that they had experienced.

On Saturday, we paused for a moment at the memorial that's been established in Bendigo to reflect on our experience of Black Saturday and to remember the man who lost his life. One man lost his life. His family spoke about their journey since he passed on. Maybe it was a bittersweet moment—last Saturday was a very different day than Black Saturday—but, just as Mr Kane's sister stood to speak, it started raining. It was very cold. We sat there and sat through it, and the children from Specimen Hill played in the rain. We had the minstrel singers from Our Place, who were established in terms of recovery after the bushfires, singing through the rain with their CFA umbrellas. Yet there was that sense amongst all of us, as the CEO reflected on that day, that it's nothing for us to sit through some rain if we reflect upon what people experienced on that day.

Bendigo also lost 75 homes, and 115 outbuildings were destroyed by fire. That was a fire that started at 4 pm in Maiden Gully. It made its way through our suburbs towards our city centre. Our fire crews had been prepared for the worst and, in severe heat and wind, had pushed back as much of the fire as they could. It was a day when professional firefighters and volunteer firefighters really came together to fight the fire. On that day, more than 50 people sought refuge in the emergency response centre at Kangaroo Flat. Many others stayed with friends and family. Maiden Gully is a part of Bendigo. It's all interconnected. You don't want to think about what could have happened to the rest of our town if the fire had not been stopped at Maiden Gully.

It wasn't just Bendigo that was affected. More than 3,000 volunteer firefighters and community members, with 46 trucks, three bulldozers, four graders and six aircraft, battled to contain the blaze at Redesdale. Redesdale sits in between Kyneton and Heathcote. It has a community that is strong and that is aware of fire—it comes quite often. The Redesdale community fought really hard to ensure that their town was as safe as possible.

I should also note that, in February 2010, two teenagers were charged with lighting the devastating Bendigo fire. We should acknowledge the work and effort undertaken by our police and our authorities to pursue those who started these fires that caused so much damage. Not all of the fires were acts of man; some of them were started by accident; some of them were started by nature through lightning strikes and so on and so forth—although there wasn't any real lightning on that day, but it has happened in other areas.

Ten years on, what I think all regional members really reflect upon is the recovery effort and the efforts of our community to deal with their grief and move forward. It's fair to say that a number of people in Bendigo have what we call 'survivor's guilt', in that we were nowhere near as badly affected as other areas. Our community was able to rally around those who lost their homes and help them rebuild. Our community rallied around the Kane family to ensure they had the support they required. But how do you really comprehend the loss of an entire community, which other areas, particularly in the electorates of McEwen and Indi, are still working through to this day?

What we know is that since then, 10 years on, we have changed the way in which we tackle bushfires. Today, the response and the modelling that have gone on since Black Saturday means that our communities have a better fighting chance—the way in which we deploy water-bombers, the way in which we get communities out as early as we can. We respond differently now to bushfires and the threat of bushfires, and we know that it is saving not only property but also lives.

I have over 60 volunteer firefighter brigades and a professional firefighting unit in my electorate of Bendigo. Every time that warning pops up on your phone or you see the signs out the front of the CFA flick from orange into red, the hairs on the back of your neck stick up and you feel a shudder down your spine, hoping nobody does anything stupid. I acknowledge the change in behaviour and culture we've had across the region since Black Saturday. People have changed how they work. The moment they see that it's a red day or an extreme weather day, people don't work in those industries that could spark a fire. People are really conscious of what they do on those days. Our trains slow down deliberately to ensure that there is no adverse spark. Our mechanics change what they do. We don't work on our farms. Our farmers change what they might have otherwise done on that day. There has been a real change in culture, with every individual taking responsibility for what they do on code red days so a fire can't be started.

In closing, I acknowledge the Caine family—their loss, how they're going on their journey, their path to recovery—acknowledge all the people who did lose their homes in the Bendigo electorate, acknowledge all of the volunteers and their countless hours in fighting the fires and in the recovery and, like all the people here today, acknowledge how our nation came together to support those people when they were most in need.

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