Alpine Bushfires
Roz Addison · 40 min
After watching her home burn to the ground on Black Saturday with three teenage German backpackers beside her, Roz Addison helped forge a circle of women survivors whose weekly coffee catch-ups became a lifeline for an entire grieving community.
If this story feels close to home
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
On the evening of 6 February 2009, Roz heard on the radio that the next day would bring the worst fire conditions since Ash Wednesday. She had no concept of what that meant. By Saturday morning, the temperature climbed to 46 degrees, winds gusted at 150 kilometres an hour, and embers from 20 kilometres away were starting spot fires across Saint Andrews. Roz sheltered behind the dam wall on the south side of her house with three German schoolgirls who were staying with them, two neighbours, and two dogs, breathing what she describes as crunchy air as the fire passed through. Her husband Quentin, a trained firefighter, had taught her exactly what to do. She stayed calm, kept the girls focused, and waited. From the dam wall, they listened to the girls' car catch fire in the driveway, its horn sounding one long, mournful beep. Fourteen people died in their immediate area, and 65 homes were lost.
What happened next shaped the community as much as the fire itself. In March, at the Red Cross registration, Roz and a friend named Kathy decided to invite every woman from the fire-affected farming area for soup and connection. Thirty women showed up. They became known as the Ladies of the Black Belt, meeting regularly for coffee and cake, organising family camps and shed nights, and becoming a network for sharing information about resources and support across the scattered community. The group held particular meaning for women who had lost husbands in the fire. Fourteen years later, a core group still meets for coffee every Thursday morning at a local cafe, no longer talking much about the fire but holding space for each other as enduring friends.
Roz's advice to others in rural communities facing disaster is simple: notice small things like whether people are eating. Put your own health first, because so many depend on you. When she sees footage of other disasters, she feels the weight of empathy for strangers' loss and trauma, but she has learned to choose not to carry other people's devastation on top of her own.
⚠️ 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
Every story here belongs to the person who lived it. They said yes to sharing it, and we sat with it carefully before it went up. Nothing here is exaggerated and nothing is used without permission. Read how we handle these stories ↗
Kintsugi Heroes · Registered Australian not-for-profit · kintsugiheroes.com.au ↗