PROPERTY can be replaced; lives can't, writes JOHANNA LEGGATT
When the Victorian Government launched its bushfire safety campaign late last year, the bold TV advertisements, quite aptly, created a firestorm.
The images and content were criticised by some in the community as too graphic - a handful of Black Saturday bushfire survivors complained their children were distressed by them - while others simply dismissed the commercials as needless scaremongering.
The ads were designed to shock Victorians out of complacency, to arrest what the Government feared was a creeping lassitude towards fire safety.
Deputy Premier, Peter Ryan, was unrepentant about their chilling content: "These television advertisements are confronting and shocking, but necessary as they portray what can realistically occur when people are ill-prepared for fires," he said. Indeed.
While I'm not a fan of that special breed of shock advertising that so crudely aims at the public's emotional soft spot, it is fair to argue the Government faces a Herculean task in convincing Victorians of the need to leave early.
Putting aside the very real responsibilities the Government faces in fulfilling its commitment to bushfire safety, Victorians must equally rid themselves of the notion they are capable of staying and defending their home on a Code Red day.
Victoria, with its oven-hot winds and generous parcels of bushland, is primed for conflagration.
Those who have lived through a bushfire speak routinely of its unfathomable power, the unstoppable front, the speed with which it consumes what is in its way.
Yet, if past history is anything to go by, we are far more likely to put ourselves perilously in the path of danger than avoid it.
Who can forget the moving images from recent natural disasters that so poignantly encapsulate the national character: Sam the koala being given water by a firefighter in Black Saturday or, more recently, the acres of volunteers, knee deep in brackish water, helping to clear out strangers' homes in the Queensland floods.
We as Australians excel at disaster relief.
We give liberally in times of crisis - both financially and physically - and we don't give in easily when disaster strikes. (Take note, captain Francesco Schettino of the ill-fated Costa Concordia).
Prince Charles should know.
He boarded for a time at Geelong Grammar's Timbertop and recently used a speech in London to pay tribute to the Australian spirit of resilience in the wake of the Queensland floods.
"If you want to develop character, go to Australia," he told the crowd.
The flip side of this national penchant for dash and derring-do is the dangerous predicament it puts many people in, particularly blokes.
Research from Victoria University found men are far more likely to die in bushfires than women because of an atavistic need to defend their properties.
Researcher Meagan Tyler said women needed to take a more active role in bushfire safety.
"From looking at text messages from Black Saturday victims and talking to relatives we have been able to gather that in many scenarios many women wanted to leave but ended up staying with the family because blokes wanted to stay and fight the fire," she said.
Stewart from Chum Creek puts it best.
He phoned ABC radio in the immediate aftermath of the Black Saturday fires and with impressive calm stated: "I just wanted to say that I have just lost everything in this fire, and, you know, it's only property.
"I've never seen anything so quick. So don't hesitate if you have an evacuation plan, just get out of there."
Surviving future bushfires will involve more than just filling out a CFA safety checklist, it will be about ignoring the instinct to stay put and fight what nature throws our way.
There is a risk that many Australians see Black Saturday as a fantastical event: an epoch-marking, life-changing catastrophe the likes of which we will never see again.
They will inevitably be proven wrong, and the ones that survive the next disaster will be those who leave their house in nature's hands.
- Johanna Leggatt is The Weekly Times Features Editor
