THE Murrindindi community is slowly returning to life, writes PETER BEALES

On February 7 last year, we, like many other Murrindindi Shire residents, had activated our fire plan but were not prepared for the ferocity of the fire.

It was totally different to the 2006 fire, in our home town of Kinglake, which gave us four days' warning.

The first sign we had of the severity of the 2009 fire were the carloads of people arriving in our driveway, escaping the burning town.

Twenty six people sheltered with us that night.

During the next two weeks, I worked at the Kinglake Shire office with a team of volunteers keeping the office open from dawn to dusk.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, we kept it open for 48 hours.

The office became the centre of emergency coordination in the Kinglake Ranges with other agencies setting up nearby.

Initially, we were only aware of the impact on our own community as we had no access to media, but it soon became apparent that every part of our shire was affected in some way.

More than 100 people lost their lives; 1400 homes, 75 businesses and 25 community facilities were destroyed, along with 3500 km fencing.

The quality and compassion of the volunteers who assisted us during this period was outstanding and we were truly humbled by the outpouring of national and international support.

It was also refreshing to see the bipartisan commitment of our state and federal politicians, transcending party politics.

Businesses were significantly affected. They were not eligible for Red Cross funds because of the laws regarding charitable donations and often struggled with the complex processes to obtain support.

Many people were under-insured or not insured and this added to their problems.

The fires had a huge impact on our very important tourism and outdoor education/recreation industries.

The shire previously had the largest number of group accommodation camps and adventure tourism operators in Victoria and many were destroyed or lost significant income when groups cancelled their programs in the aftermath.

Fortunately, in recent times there has been an influx of tourists to the area, particularly over the latest school holidays which has meant a great boost to businesses.

Murrindindi Shire has a diversity of rural industries, from sheep and cattle grazing, to timber, egg farms and intensive agriculture.

Most of Australia's strawberry runners are produced in Toolangi.

The impact of the fires on our rural industries has been enormous.

Such simple things as lack of natural tree coverage over streams has meant the heating of water has affected our trout industry.

The loss of large tracts of pasture, fencing and livestock has severely impacted our farmers and hobby farmers.

The fires exacerbated the impact of many years of drought.

It goes without saying that all the essential services working in our shire did a superb job.

They came from all over Australia.

My wife even met a firefighter from Orara in NSW who had gone to school with her cousin. It is a small world.

If people come back to Murrindindi, they will see a vibrant (if exhausted) community rapidly rebuilding homes.

They will see the signs of new construction of improved community facilities. People are moving into new homes and by the end of this year, I would expect all community infrastructure to have been rebuilt.

What are some of the lessons from this experience?

First, that to give clear, truthful answers (even if they are painful) to disaster-affected people is better than talking in "spin".

And the key lesson for governments and other agencies in a post-disaster situation is to work with existing community groups and structures and not to try to artificially create new ones.

Nature is repairing the scars of the fire and in time, the physical landscape will heal. The emotional impact on our communities will take much longer.

  • Peter Beales is the mayor of Murrindindi Shire.