THE devastation of the weekend's fires has left nothing but inconsolable grief, reports ROSLYN LANIGAN

Around Yarra Glen, blackened landscapes are matched only by the blank expressions on the faces of those who lived to tell the tale.

They speak of the searing heat, the punishing wind and menacing fireballs.

And then they don't speak.

There's nothing left to say.


Homes and lives in the Yarra Valley were yesterday still under threat from the deadly bushfire that razed Wandong, Kinglake, Marysville and parts of the Yarra Valley on Saturday.

Weary police have confirmed 102 deaths in the Kinglake fires alone, and the number is sure to rise.

The toll includes 35 people at Kinglake, 15 at Marysville, nine at Narbethong and seven in the tiny community of Steels Creek, just north of Yarra Glen.

Locals put the Steels Creek figure much, much higher.

It's easy to see why.

Steels Creek Rd, the township's only sealed road, is a wasteland.

House after house has been obliterated, devoured by the flames that roared up the valley early Saturday evening.

Burnt-out cars litter the roadside and charred animals, unable to out-run nature, lay lifeless where they fell.

The forest, what's left of it, is nothing more than blackened match sticks.

Many residents who managed to flee the inferno did so via Pinnacle Lane, which joins Steels Creek with nearby Dixons Creek, on the Melba Highway.

Sadly, the fire soon followed.

Hereford stud owner Lyn Mullens lost her house, a magnificent homestead more than 100 years old. "There was nothing we could do," Mrs Mullens said.

"The fire front came over the hill and it was so hot, so fast."

Across the road, Pat Westlake was also counting his losses.

While the family home was saved, Mr Westlake's 1200 olive trees were stripped bare by the fire that attacked his 16ha property from three sides.

Mr Westlake said he had taken "plenty of precautions".

"But no one can describe to you what the fire is like when it actually arrives," he said.

"I couldn't hear, couldn't see anything, couldn't breathe.

"It was as if someone had sprayed the flames with petrol."

Police manned roadblocks at either end of the Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd, describing the area as "a crime scene".

Tarrawarra Abbey, a grazing property along the road run by monks from the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, lost 63 cattle to the flames.

Locals say nearby Tarrawarra Estate winery was also destroyed, along with other vineyards in the area.

A dairy farmer on Tarrawarra Road said while the main milking herd was unscathed, dry cows in another paddock had singed udders.

At Chum Creek, north of Healesville, Ian Mackinnon stood shell-shocked in the ruins of his brother's vineyard.

"It's like Armageddon," Mr Mackinnon said.

"It's like a bomb has gone off and there's no life left."