John McEvoy · 38 min
A humble farmer-teacher who kept meticulous records of every name and act of courage during Black Saturday reveals how an entire community held itself together, and how a draft horse protected a flock of sheep from the inferno.
Hear this story
John McEvoy is a farmer and teacher in Glen Creek, a small valley in Victoria's alpine region. On Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, his property escaped the worst of the fires, but his community did not. When the fire jumped the Yakandanda-Dederang Road and headed toward Big Bend, it took Mark Vanderven and Ross Wilkinson on an excavator, working with red-hot rocks underfoot, to cut it off. When the narrow valley near Barwidgee ran out of oxygen, a neighbour's house exploded. John watched the strike team leader call retreat just in time to save the crew.
Instead of returning to his teaching job, John took six weeks of long service leave to coordinate the response. He borrowed his wife's mobile phone (he did not own one yet) and spent those weeks in his ute, managing hay trucks arriving from across Victoria and New South Wales, delivering fencing supplies, distributing emergency goods from the hall, and directing three lumberjacks from Port Macquarie who volunteered for three weeks to clear dangerous trees along forest lines. He kept two books of names and farms and jobs, because he wanted to remember the people who showed up: the Rotary and Lions teams, the farmers' groups, the strangers who heard the need and came to help.
Years later, John still carries one story that stays with him. An elderly man living deep in the bush, unable to leave because his wife had just had a hip replacement, survived the fire with his flock of sheep and a draft horse. When the fire came, the horse rounded up the sheep, stood in front of them in a corner of the property, and protected them through it all. Everything around them burned to cinders. All of them lived. That moment, John says, was one of his happiest in all that work helping people. Recovery, he learned, takes far longer than anyone expects. People who were impacted still need to talk about it, because talking is part of how they heal.
“there were so many amazing stories of help and love that came out of those fires but the community spirit and support without that was the feature”
“I've always just enjoyed helping people full stop probably was a teacher”
“I still have two books of names and farms and helpers and jobs I went through them last night and I thought my goodness we really did so much in that time”
The hero, today
John's decision to take six weeks of long service leave to coordinate hay donations and fencing supplies meant he could be where the need was greatest, rather than returning to his teaching job. The three lumberjacks from Port Macquarie gave their labor freely for three weeks, then came back a month later to help again, becoming lasting friends despite the physical toll the work took on them. John kept two books of names, farms, helpers and jobs from that time because he wanted to remember and honor the people who showed up, even though he knows he cannot name them all. When the fire reached the narrow valley where John and Sue lived, the fire consumed all the oxygen, causing their house to explode and their pump to fail; the local fire team got out safely only because the strike team leader called retreat in time. The community effort came not just from local people but from teams across Victoria and New South Wales, including Rotary, Lions, farmer groups, and strangers who heard the need and drove to help.
Yes. John McEvoy is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.
Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.
John's decision to take six weeks of long service leave to coordinate hay donations and fencing supplies meant he could be where the need was greatest, rather than returning to his teaching job.
The three lumberjacks from Port Macquarie gave their labor freely for three weeks, then came back a month later to help again, becoming lasting friends despite the physical toll the work took on them.
John kept two books of names, farms, helpers and jobs from that time because he wanted to remember and honor the people who showed up, even though he knows he cannot name them all.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 00:04
Welcome to the Kansuki Heroes Podcast special Alpine Bushfires series, where we share inspirational stories of everyday people from the Victorian Alpine region who went through the bushfires which occurred from late 2019 through to early 2020. These stories highlight the different challenges and events people went through and how they overcame them. Please be aware that the story you're about to hear may have moments of deeply felt emotions and personal experiences. If anything you hear has a triggering effect, please reach out to someone who can help you. If you love this conversation, please like and share it with your friends so we can continue to share more inspiration and hope to as many people as possible. Now listen up for our next hero's story. My guest today on the Alpine Series is with John McAvoy, a farmer from the Kiwaa Valley who lives in the Alpine region, and he tells the story of his experiences during and long after the catastrophic Black Saturday fires. And whilst his property did not directly become impacted, he talked about the tireless efforts that he went to to protect and support his neighbours. And the wider community. He's kept these meticulous notes of names and days paying tribute to these people, naming many of them. He's a selfless, very humble man who made a massive personal contribution during the fires. He took time off out of his day job as a teacher. And his story ends with a beautiful and touching account of a flock of sheep called the Marauders and a draft horse. Which defended the sheep from the fire. Wonderful story, so lovely to hear, and what it's like to be a member of the community, to be on the land, and how these people have stood up and helped their fellow man, their neighbours, and done what they could in the face of such adversity. My hat goes off to John, and I'm really grateful that he shared his story with me so that you could listen and learn from him. Enjoy this one with John McAvoy.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 02:28
The lead-up to Saturday, February 7th, 2009, uh, had been a very hot fortnight, and the last week was particularly hot—41 degrees and above. So it wasn't unexpected that something could happen. We'd had a little fire on Mount Emu at Tawonga on the Monday night, which we managed. But by Saturday, when the mercury pushed to 47 degrees, we were all very nervous. We did a little bit of work in the morning on the Saturday. Just last things. Yeah, there must have been a premonition. We was covering up any exposed water pipes, um, just getting ready. Um, and then we went home because it wasn't really a working day. And by 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when that temperature really climbed to that 47, we just sat by the radio pretty much thinking, um, are we going to get through this, or 'Can we get through this?' And then we started to hear things coming through from Kilmore and Wondong, and we knew that it had broken out. So far so good for us until we got through the afternoon, and then just, oh, 6, 6:30, we thought, 'Oh, we're going to make this without any disasters.' And I think I walked out the back veranda and looked up and saw this, this massive plume in the sky directly to our west. And we thought, oh no. Then, uh, yeah, pretty soon figured what that was from a power line going down. Um, it's just the whole weather thing was, was a reminder of Ash Wednesday. Um, there's only one other day in my life where I can remember like this, apart from this day, Ash Wednesday, and one when I was about 12. I think it was, um, oh, I thought it was about 50 degrees, but it might have been quite that hot. I was, I was young anyway. Um, so, um, we had a plastic, uh, stock trough in the backyard that afternoon. Um, the kids and us were just hopping in and out of this, uh, stock trough with the coolest water we have, trying— it's just trying to cool down.. But then once the alarm came, we just got to work. Buckets of water, filled spoutings. I had to go and get all— because we were directly in line with that northwest wind, which was a howling gale by then, we had to muster all our stock in. So I went off mustering all our stock, which meant I couldn't go on the fire truck. I don't tend to go when I'm directly in line with the fire. I always hope that people behind or beside will cut in there and do the work. Our fire truck was called, of course, and strike team leader was— and I'm trying to remember some of the names because some of them did tremendous work and I'm not going to remember everybody, which is unfortunate. But some people stood out for their efforts. The strike team leader was Warren Larkin at the time, and on our truck we had Greg Green, the driver, and Mark Vandervan, and Corey Jones, and Clive Hawkins. And yeah, they were in there in the thick of it, and when the fire came down from Mount Stanley and got into Barwidgee, strike team leader Warren just called quits. He said, get out of here because this is not safe. They could see the fireballs. They actually came down through that narrow valley, um, over the top of, um, Kelvin and Jill Goonan's place, which I'll talk about later. Um, they were extremely lucky, but it cleaned up. Um, the fireball came straight through that valley, cleaned up John and Sue, um, there at Barwidgie, because, well, the valley just ran out of air and their house exploded. And poor John and Sue went with it. And by this stage, our truck and the boys had retreated to Mudjigonga Hall where Andrew Cross was was coordinating things, but it was a real pressure time. And so it went on, the fire sort of swung towards Rosewhite, a little bit away from our direction. Yeah, moved on into the night. The night was ferocious. The temperature didn't drop. I think the lowest it got that night was 43 degrees right through the night. And then the sky became red hot in the west. So we were still at home getting more water ready and yarding up stock, but the red hot sky was pretty frightening. And yeah, so that went on through the night. We just sat on guard and we were getting some ember attacks, so we really couldn't leave home because we had a few grass paddocks that we'd kept for our cows. Sheep, and the embers were starting to float in. We just had to be aware of all that. And so the fire pushed through on Sunday night into, first of all, Rose White, and then, uh, Running Creek and Cancuna. And yeah, sort of went away from us for a while. But then late on Sunday night, um, and all the boys up Running Creek were under extreme pressure Sunday night there was a wind change and brought the wind, sort of helped up there a little bit, but brought the wind, brought the fire back in our direction. And then it jumped the Yakandanda-Dederang Road, was heading for Big Bend, which would have taken it all the way to Wodonga. Fortunately, Mark Vanderven and a couple of the other boys, Andrew Walkins and later Ross Wilkinson and Jack Hicks, they managed to round it up when it jumped the road towards Big Ben. And yeah, Ross Wilkinson on an excavator, it was just so dangerous, but they pulled it up. And I remember going up there at one stage and the rocks on the hill were red hot. That was just horrible, uh, the heat was enormous. But anyway, Ross Wilkinson pulled it up with the help of those boys. Yeah, they really did avoid a disaster by cutting that off then. Then on the Monday night, the fire came, the wind changed again. The wind was coming around through Detherang and heading back in our direction, coming in from the southeast, but we felt fairly safe because by that stage, we lived pretty close to the— we're only about a kilometre from the Detherang Power Station, which is actually the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. We felt safe then because there were 50 New South Wales fire trucks in a ring around that power station just below our house in the paddock below us, guarding that station. That was a relief at that point. The fire didn't actually end up getting that far, but we certainly felt safe with these 50 trucks in a ring around the power station. The fire sort of lingered on for another week, but I really want to talk about now the good things that happened because there were so many good things that happened during that week, on that night and during that weekend, for really weeks and months afterwards. I was given a week off school because school knew that I was under threat and they were very good So yeah, just protecting our own place mostly still. And then I had a good friend who came with a couple of trucks and took away all our cows, which took the pressure off me and allowed me to pitch in and do a few other things for different people. And even our son— people came from everywhere. All our friends came with trucks and pumps and parked themselves here. Um, yeah, some of my friends from school and other friends, um, yeah, they all came to help. And even our son Ben, who had been drafted to St. Kilda in the AFL 2 months earlier, um, he was supposed to be flying to the Gold Coast with his team to do, uh, preseason training, but he bailed out, um, and came came tearing home to help us, which was really flattering. And yeah, by the time he left, we were, we were a little bit safer. I went back to school for a week but then applied for 6 weeks long service just to do— well, by this stage we hadn't been directly affected, but I've always just enjoyed helping people, full stop. Probably why I was a teacher. I just wanted to help because there was so much to do. I could then coordinate with lots of teams, but particularly running the hay depot with Graeme Hyner. We had a hay depot at Graeme Hyner's house in the Kewa Valley. He had his tractor there. So I coordinated all the trucks. Trucks came from all over Victoria and New South Wales bringing hay. So because while we lost a lot of stock, we didn't— there was a lot of stock that went lost and they had nothing to eat in a lot of places. So people were amazingly generous. So I used to coordinate the trucks. At this stage, I never even owned a mobile phone. So I had to borrow my wife's, um, and trying to coordinate all these truck drivers and coming from everywhere at all hours of the day and the night, um, it was a bit of a job. And then to get the hay out to the cows and stock that was needed. But anyway, we did all that and that went on, um, all over that next 6 weeks that I took leave. Um, and so I spent most of that 6 weeks, uh, just basically in my ute and on the phone. Soon learned how to work a mobile phone. And yeah, I was just busy in my ute for that 6 weeks because the donations were pouring in from everywhere. And so I was driving around dropping off— by that stage, in the next 6 weeks, people were trying to put containment fences up to try and hold what stock they had left. So I'd be dropping off steel posts and coils of wire and and later on bags of seed, and it just went, yeah, it went on and on. And there was all sorts of things that people were donating. There was a— in Majigonga Hall, it was full of all those emergency things, you know, those things like toilet paper and all the other things that people need immediately. So we were distributing those kind of things as well. And then there were just— oh yeah, there was teams coming from everywhere. Um, there was Rotary teams and Lions teams and farmers teams, and it was just the community effort. And, um, not just the local community, but massive wide one, wide community effort was, was astonishing. And we had a big meeting in the Majigonga Hall somewhere in the middle of that 6 weeks. I don't remember the date. Um, and I was was chairing that meeting because we had Christine Nixon, who was the police officer at the time, and we had Richard Wynne, who was the Minister for Development at the time. And it was amusing because the biggest problem we had at the time was in Majigonga, there was no no phone connection at all. And we were waiting at this meeting for nearly an hour for Richard Wynn to arrive, and finally arrived, and he said, "Oh, I got lost." He said, "There was no phone reception in this valley, and the GPS wouldn't work, and I didn't know where to go." And we said, "Hey, hey, you know, this is why you're here. This is one of the problems." So that was all quite— it was quite ironical. That pulled him up. So we had a, yeah, we had a big sort of win. We'd had made a video with the help of Paul Carroll was coordinating that, I think. Yeah, so that was, that was, yeah, we're just drumming up support at that stage. And the other thing that we did it on, the shire was also very good at this time. There were a few people that were particularly helpful. People. One of them was a counsellor, Jan Vonarx. She was terrific. Darryl Farmer, who worked for the shire, and Karen Grimer, who was coordinating things. All fantastic people. But we personally, I don't know how it happened, but we got hold of people from— a chap from Port Macquarie up on the New South Wales North Coast rang me and said, "Myself and my brother and one other chap, we're lumberjacks, people who cut down trees safely." They said, "Oh, we'd love to come and help." So we opened our house and those 3 gentlemen stayed with us for 3 weeks and every day went out with their chainsaws because there were a lot of dangerous trees everywhere, particularly along the forest lines. So every day off they went, brought all their own gear, drove down. Every day they came home black as black from cutting down black trees and clearing fence lines. And so we looked after them for 3 weeks, and I sort of coordinated their work on all the different properties in between other bits of coordination. But that was, um, that was, uh, Jim and Laurie Steep and and their friend Brian. They were absolutely superb and got a lot of people out of trouble because not many people can do that kind of work. Um, so yeah, that was really helpful to so many people to be able to— they couldn't even school— I had school kids come out in teams and you couldn't ask them to work where it was dangerous. So, um, and the other thing we had to coordinate was, was, um, skips, which the council was very good with. The skips to get rid of— what, every old fence had to be rolled up, wire and posts. And, um, so that took some coordinating. You know, I still have two books of names and farms and, um, helpers and jobs. I went through them last night and I thought, my goodness, um, we really did so much in that time. And, um, I was quite surprised just how much work the The adrenaline was flowing and, uh, yeah, there was just so much to do. Um, however, I would like to mention, uh, two people, Kim Buchold and Glenn Lyon from Talangatta Valley, who they'd been impacted, I think it was in 2006, so they knew what it was like. And they did a, um, a cow donation from their valley. People donated a cow from each farm. They made $18,000 and, and they put together 2 fencing trailers for our valley with all the big compressor and post-driving equipment. So that was fabulous. They made an enormous contribution. At the end of 6 weeks, I had to go back to school, but every weekend I was back on the road, still distributing fencing, bags of grass seed by this stage, because people were were looking to show down. But a new problem had arisen too, which, uh, which was out of my control. We had some heavy little rainstorms, and I don't know if people realize, but this hilly country, when it's been burnt, you have this black ash, and when it gets wet, it's very, very slippery. So it was sliding down and filling everybody's dams. So then water became an issue. So, yeah, we had to start coordinating excavators, but it really didn't work because that went on for the next couple of years. It just kept sliding and filling up everybody's dams. That became a real problem. I also want to mention Calvin and Jill Goonan. They lived in probably one of the worst spots, and they hid under blankets. Under there in their, in their house. And the fire actually hit a hedge on the western side of their house and jumped over the house. And that's— and soon after that was when John and Sue lost their home and their lives. But John and Jill and their son, they were so lucky that they didn't go up with it. But what they did do was come and talk to my students at school to try and get the students to understand the impact of fire and what it does to people. I don't think I realised till a couple of years on how brave they were and how hard that was because I called on them a number of times over the next few years and they were still suffering and probably still do. Anytime fire is mentioned, you see people well up. Just because it was such a massive impact. So yeah, a thank you to them. There were so many amazing stories of help and love that came out of those fires, but the community spirit and support without doubt was the feature. I hope we never have to repeat it. With all that work, and as I said, I didn't realize how much I did in that 6 weeks and beyond, because it went on for months, um, and probably a couple of years really. Um, and yeah, I was, uh, I was rewarded, rewarded for all that with, um, a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary, which was quite, um, stunning at the time. Um, and quite, yeah, very honored to have received that. Um, but no, and I didn't mention, um Hugh Forrest was the man behind all that. He did even more coordination than I did, and he's the one who should have got that award. But Hugh, he lived right in Majigonga and his farm was impacted, but his coordination of so many teams, fencing teams, you know, we worked together a lot of the time, but he was the mainstay. And yeah, credit to him. So many more people I would love to mention, but, uh, yeah, you just can't. There are too many. Um, I've tried to pick out some of the ones that, that, um, probably I worked with and, um, who featured in so much work. Um, yeah, so, um, hope it never gets repeated. And, um, what an experience. Sorry for the interruption. This is Ian Westmoreland, the founder of Katsuki Heroes, and thank you for listening to this story from one of our amazing heroes. Our mission is for these stories to provide hope and inspiration to people experiencing life challenges and to also educate the broader community on how best to provide support. If you would like to help us to continue to produce more hero stories and cover more adversity themes, we would welcome all donations. These can be made via our website website kintsugiheroes.com.au. The donate function is at the bottom of the home page. We'd also welcome any feedback. You can email me direct using ian@kintsugiheroes.com.au. Now let's get back to the story.
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When the fire reached the narrow valley where John and Sue lived, the fire consumed all the oxygen, causing their house to explode and their pump to fail; the local fire team got out safely only because the strike team leader called retreat in time.
This conversation includes 47 degrees and rising, the stock trough and the alarm, the fireballs come down, the red sky through the night, mark vanderven stops the jump and the 50 trucks around the power station.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 23:12
What a, what a brilliant account, John. Wow. You know, the one thing stood out to me from everything you shared then was just the power of community and what it really means to be in a community. That's what you've demonstrated and everyone that you talked about pitching in, doing what it takes, not sitting back and relying on the government or relying on somebody else to help. It's, you know, this is your life, your land, your your stock, you know, your families, your livelihood. And, and hearing that just, you know, really warms my heart. As much as it was a painful event, like you said, so much good comes out of that. And, um, good on you for taking the leave and spending that time to do all that coordination. It's just brilliant. Um, so your valley's name is Mudgeegong, is that right?
John McEvoy (Guest) · 24:11
No, I actually live in Glen Creek. Oh, okay. It's a valley that runs between sort of Mudgeegong and the Kiwirr Valley. Okay. Our little valley was— I think we were lucky, basically because of wind changes, that it never really ripped through our valley. It went both sides of us and came over the back of the hill, but we escaped in that. Glen Creek.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 24:36
Yeah. And John and Sue, who you mentioned, were they sort of a little bit beyond your valley, or were they right in the valley?
John McEvoy (Guest) · 24:44
No, they were right in, uh, Mudjigonga, pretty much between Mudjigonga and Barwidgee. Um, very narrow little valley. Yeah. Where, um, we think, you know, probably people know better than me, but we think the fire just stole all the oxygen out of that valley. Their house exploded, beautiful brick home, and their pump stopped because it didn't have any air anymore. Um, that's what really cost them. The pump just ground to a halt because there was no, no air to oxygen to run the motor. Um, yeah, it was just— yeah. And, uh, credit to our boys at— particularly Warren, um, who got the team out in time because they could so easily have gone up. They said it was a fireball. Think like, like 10, 15 meters high, just coming at them. Wow. I just had to get out. Wow. And yeah, the community, um, yeah, and community and friends, you know, um, the number of our friends that turned up, you know, even though we didn't get impacted in the end, but had we been impacted, uh, we were, we were pretty well defended with a lot of friends and a lot of equipment. So yeah, we're very lucky.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 25:55
And you had the 55 trucks at the edge of your property sitting there around the power station as well, which would have given you a bit of peace of mind.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 26:04
Yeah, yeah, just, uh, they were never going to let that power station go up. Um, very valuable piece of equipment because it supplies all the power to Melbourne. Um, oh wow, okay. Yeah, it's a 330,000-volt line that runs all the way to Melbourne. So, very important piece of equipment.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 26:24
Indeed. So, how close did the fire come to your property?
John McEvoy (Guest) · 26:31
As the crow flies, probably 3 kilometers was the closest, right over the back of the hill, and then sort of 5 kilometers either side.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 26:42
Yeah, so— And that's pretty close. Oh yeah.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 26:46
Yeah, the black embers, like big smouldering leaves that were still smoking and red, dropping into the paddock the whole time. We were just driving around with the water tank putting out the embers that were dropping into the paddocks. And we, along with all our friends, yeah, managed to avert any, anything further.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 27:07
And I love the story about Jim Laurie and Brian coming from Port Macquarie. Offering their services and staying at your house. I mean, how beautiful is that? And did they— they didn't do it for money, did they? No, no.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 27:23
And they did that 3 weeks. And sadly, Jim's passed away now, but I talk to his brother Laurie still often. And Jim actually came back, I reckon, about a month afterwards. He said, oh, I just want to come and help again. And yeah, sometimes wonder whether it was what brought him undone in the end, but he was just a wonderful, generous man. And yeah, and work. And he wasn't young. Those blokes were, well, they were in their 60s and just hard work. But yeah, they became really good friends and we had a wonderful time with them. Yes.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 28:04
That's so wonderful. Was there anyone else doing that? I'm always fascinated about the regeneration of the land, and certainly when fire comes through and it takes it back to a certain state, as you know, because you've lived through this now and seen how the fire changed the landscape and the land and what happens to the trees. Was it really important for the logging or pruning and cleaning up of a lot of those dead trees? Was there more need to be done, like, you know, or was it enough what the 3 guys did?
John McEvoy (Guest) · 28:42
Oh no, that was, that was only the beginning really. They just cleared the fence line. Um, yeah, you know, I know when Jim came back, we did, we did 150 trees in one stretch. Um, just at the top end of this valley in Glen Creek, And then of course they had to be all bulldozed away, or people came and cut them up for wood. So there was wood there too. But no, no, huge amount of work once it was cleared. And then the fencing went on for, well, for years, and some are probably still being done, but mostly was done. And yeah, lots of teams came from everywhere to rebuild those fences and clear up those trees and just get rid of rubbish was a was a big headache. You know, the, uh, the rolling up old wires, not much fun. Um, you know, you had to have safety equipment, gloves and masks. And I think that was our first introduction to masks, um, just because of the black dust and not very good for people's lungs. You know, you can look now and most of the bush looks as though it's recovered, but you'll still see stark dead trees poking up out of that reed grass. But it is amazing how it recovers. We're a reasonably high rainfall district, so it has a chance to recover. One of the biggest problems was that sliding debris coming out of the hills and filling up people's dams. Only a couple of years ago, we did a lot more work up at Kurriong, Kajiwar, when they had devastating fires. And they've still got landslides and that coming down the hills because that's even steeper country than here. It's a real headache, that part of it, because it's not just black ash, it's rocks and all that protection's gone from up in the gullies, up on the hills, and the water just comes crashing down. So yeah, that was a big issue for a long time. And still is up at Kajiwokkuriong.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 30:48
Yeah. Has it affected the water? Was there any kind of dams that you were using for water?
John McEvoy (Guest) · 33:51
I hope that, uh, somebody else remembers a little story. I don't know whether, whether they will. Uh, one of the people I called on, he lived over, over the hill from Running Creek. I called on this, um, quite an elderly fellow, um, who lived right in the middle of the bush. And, and I, I had some, um, equipment and stuff for him. And I said, he was a chap who was once in the police band in Melbourne, and he was the drummer, and he had this draft horse. And I said to him, how did you survive? He couldn't leave because his wife had just had a hip replacement and he couldn't get her in the car, so he had to stay. And I said, how did you survive? And he said, oh, The marauders, they helped me survive. She went, what do you mean the marauders? And he is very smart. He had a kind of a boundary around his house, um, which was only about 20 meters wide, but he had these, um, 15 or so sheep in there, which he called the marauders who had the ground, um, completely bare. And then he went on to tell me that, um, well, what about, I said, what about the sheep? How did they survive? He said, well, they stood in the corner and my horse, the draft horse, he stood, he rounded them up and stood them in the corner and stood in front of them to protect them. It was just the most beautiful story. And I can't remember the chap's name. I'd probably find him in one of my books, but I hope somebody else alludes to that story at some stage because it was just one of those beautiful moments when you— yeah, the Marauders saved me and my draft horse and my big fella. He protected the sheep as well. And they all survived, which if you saw where it was, it was incredible. Everything was burnt to a cinders around him. Yeah, just, yeah, that was one of my happiest little moments in all that, in that work helping people.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 35:52
Yeah, that's beautiful. I love it. Absolutely love it. Well, John, thank you so much for sharing with me today. I know it's not easy to go back in the past, and it was a tough time for everyone. And yet I think by sharing, you know, it helps. It helps to, you know, get it out, and other people can listen and feel into that story, and it helps them to heal as well. Yeah, because I know it takes a lot of— it takes time. When it's a natural disaster like this and it's so big and devastating.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 36:31
That's really amazing how long it takes. Quite amazing. And I think you'll find doing this that the people who were impacted will still want to talk. Um, yeah, it's still part of the healing process. Quite amazing. But thank you very much, Evelyn. Um, yeah, been an absolute pleasure and, uh, yeah, delight to work with you, and, and I hope it all goes well.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 36:53
Thank you so much, John. And yeah, you have a wonderful day. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Kintsugi Heroes with the Alpine Bushfires Special Series. Please like and share the show to your friends so we can get this out to even more people. If you If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please reach out using the contact details below. And join us for our next hero's story. Until then, keep being you, and remember that we are all heroes in our own unique way. Only when it's broken.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 37:39
Only when it's broken. When it hits you in the middle of the night and the truth burns so bright, only when it's broken, only when it's broken.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 38:00
Take pride in those cries, it's only for tonight, and then you rise.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 38:09
Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
John McEvoy (Guest) · 30:54
Has it affected that? Oh yeah, people had to lock up a lot of dams just for quite a few years. That last one in Kajiwokkuriong turned the Murray River black. Wow. Literally turned it black for months. And that was only 2 years ago when we had those 2019 fires, more than 2 years now, wasn't it? We lost a bit with COVID Yeah, people just had to, oh, there was a lot of carting water. Yeah, see, homes had to cart water too because a lot of their water was just blackened and useless. So yeah, water carting going on as well. I didn't get involved in that one, I don't think.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 31:36
What's been, uh, one of the— I guess one of the gifts, or, you know, the biggest kind of positives that come out of all of this for you, John, personally?
John McEvoy (Guest) · 31:46
Uh, oh, probably just a heightened appreciation of, of what, uh, human nature can do when, you know, when adversity strikes, um, and, you know, particular people stand up, you know, to be counted and Um, well, yeah, some people go, go the extra mile and further. Um, yeah, that was, you know, I don't think I mentioned Loretta Carroll in all this. Loretta, she ran the Hay Depot at Mudjigongo, and I'm sure somebody will allude to that. Um, and Loretta was a quiet single person who just did her own thing on the farm, but she stood up and still does. She's now an advocate for Yeah, lots of things, but she really stood up. She ran the hay depot and she coordinated a lot of things, and she's a different person, you know. She grew through that time and became a real community person. And I can't remember what they call it, but there was some money left at the end, which she— they now do community work. I can't remember what they call that, but Loretta will tell you, and she's the head of that. Which goes on and on, so it's never forgotten. And yeah, yeah, she was an absolute stalwart, that girl. She was wonderful.
Aveline Clark (Host) · 33:04
Well, you've given, you've given so many other people, um, a voice by, from that, your recounting of who helped. And, um, that just shows the, I, I guess, the way that you are, John, because, you know, you, you took 6 weeks off as well as the first week, and you know, you've done a lot as well, and you're very selfless, and that's really evident. Um, so I just want to honor you for that and for everything that you've done. And I know you got the medal for it, which you, you're very humble about, but I'd say it's, it's deserved. And I'm sure there's other people that deserve medals as well, but I just want to say thank you for what you've done. And I'm sure that you've, you know, touched a lot of people's lives through, you know, the years after those fires.
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