Alpine Bushfires
The Dam Wall: How Connection Saved a Community After Black Saturday
Ros Addison
Ros sheltered strangers through a firestorm, then rebuilt her scattered community one Thursday coffee at a time.
Kintsugi Studio
Alpine Bushfires
Ros Addison
Ros sheltered strangers through a firestorm, then rebuilt her scattered community one Thursday coffee at a time.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
On the evening of 6 February 2009, Ros heard on the radio that the next day would bring the worst fire conditions since Ash Wednesday. She asked three German backpackers staying with them to remain through the night. When the fire came on Black Saturday, Ros sheltered the girls, her neighbour, and their dogs on the dam wall behind the house while 150-kilometre winds and 46-degree heat bore down on them. She watched her house burn from across the property, heard her car's horn beeping as it caught fire in the driveway, and later found her way to her husband Quentin at the community centre in Saint Andrews. In their area alone, 65 homes were lost and 14 people died.
But Ros did not rebuild in isolation. In March, at a Red Cross registration, she and a friend decided to gather the women from the affected area for a soup lunch. Thirty women showed up. They called themselves the Ladies of the Black Belt, and they met regularly for two years, organising family camps and shed nights, becoming a lifeline for women who had lost husbands and had no other close community to turn to. The scattered nature of the land meant these women had not been neighbours before the fire. They became so because they chose to.
Fourteen years later, a core group still meets for coffee on Thursday mornings at a cafe. They rarely talk about the fire anymore. What matters is the space they created together, and the choice to stay. Ros's message is simple: if you see someone struggling, ask the question. Are you all right. Is there anything I can do. Are you eating. Put yourself first after a disaster, because so many people rely on you.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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