Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Every year on 7 February we stop and remember that fateful day in 2009. Extreme weather conditions, the long-term drought, a record-breaking heatwave—it was a case of when, not if. At 11.47, off Saunders Road in East Kilmore, a power fault between power poles 38 and 39 sparked dry vegetation, which was fanned by 125 kilometre-per-hour winds. Our worst fears became reality.

The day changed our lives forever. The new normal became the reality. The landscape in our communities was scarred. For many members of our community—families and friends—those scars will never leave. The day is a day for personal reflection, to take time and pause to remember those we lost during the fires and the many more we lost post-fire because of the fire. We remember and think of the many people still carrying the pain and the scars from that time, physically and mentally, today. We pay thanks to the thousands of people who came to our aid. The worst of our time brought out the best in our nation. Whatever people choose to do on 7 February, reflect, respect and remember.

The Kilmore East fire spread quickly and crossed the Hume Freeway at 1.58 pm. It burnt through to Wandong and arrived at Mount Disappointment at 3 pm. The fire was then blown towards Humevale and Kinglake. We all stayed together, glued to our radios, listening to UGFM, who kept us up to date as the disaster unfolded across our region. They are vital, informed local volunteers and we thank them for the work that they do every time. Between 3.30 and 7 pm, the fire entered the Kinglake National Park, where it went towards Strathewen, St Andrews, Kinglake, Kinglake West, Chum Creek, Steels Creek, Arthurs Creek, Flowerdale, Broadford, Healesville and Toolangi. At 5.10 pm the wind changed from north-west to south-west, and the kilometre-long sides of the fire became the fire front.

The Murrindindi fire began at 3 pm and spread through Murrindindi state forest and the Black Range. It reached Narbethong at 4.20 pm and Marysville at 6.45, before burning through Buxton and Taggerty. The Kinglake fire complex was the most significant fire, which evolved from the merging of the Kilmore East fire and the Murrindindi fires in the early hours of 8 February 2009. It swept through state forests and national parks, with flames recorded at 30 metres high. Other fires began across the state at Bunyip, Horsham, Churchill, Redesdale, Beechworth, Bendigo, Marysville, Narre Warren and Upper Ferntree Gully. By the late evening, almost 400 individual fires were burning and Victoria Police had to announce the first casualties—fatalities.

The following day, as the Kilmore East fire and the Murrindindi Mill fire around Marysville merged to create the massive Kinglake fire complex, hot, dry conditions continued. Despite the concerted effort of more than 19,000 CFA members, the fires continued to blaze. It would take weeks before weather changes, reduction of fuel load and human intervention would make it subside. A total of 173 people lost their lives that day, 120 in the Kinglake area alone. Strathewen was the single most impacted town across that day. Another 414 people were injured. More than 450,000 hectares were burnt, and some 3½ thousand buildings and 2,000 homes were destroyed.

The RSPCA estimated that up to one million wild and domesticated animals died in that disaster. The Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub talks about Strathewen, saying 'the leaders in Strathewen seem to be able to bring people along with them'. That's one of the reasons they were successful. They invented a way of doing things, and they stuck to it. They were strong enough and cohesive enough to stick to what they knew would work.

Premier Brumby was criticised by the opposition, who said he was being 'melodramatic and over the top' in the days leading up to that fire. I believe Mr Brumby is still owed an apology. He warned us of what was going to happen and he was right. Communities paid a heavy toll, particularly people like Ben Hardman, who suffered the biggest impact of the fires throughout his electorate. Ben was actually on a fire truck all that day, defending Wandong Primary School and the Wandong community while his community around him burned.

The scale and the loss of this distress is tough to grapple with. As we think about all these things that happened, I want to pay tribute to a mate of mine, Cameron Caine. Cameron, as I've said in this place before, is a top bloke, a great police officer—just appalling taste in politics! He was the 2010 candidate against me in McEwen, but he's become a great friend. People like Cameron still deal with the issues today—friends who have been lost and scars on landscapes that are still there. Think about these people who drive through these areas day in and day out. They see the same thing happening. They see the markers of where the signs were and what happened.

We also think about Arthurs Creek CFA volunteer Joe Shepherd, who died in Melbourne's Alfred Hospital on 22 February from the injuries he received on Black Saturday. Joe's son Danny was 32, and he lost his life in the fires that day. ACT firefighter David Balfour also died in the February firefight. David was in Victoria repaying the debt of honour for those who came from our community to the ACT fires in 2003. (Time expired)

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