Black Summer Bushfire
The black summer bushfire destroyed the sanctuary on the 1st February 2020.
3 out of control bushfires, the Creewah, Postmans trail and Black Jack mountain bushfires met here. We thought we had prepared well for this fire. We actually started preparations 4 months earlier after seeing what was occurring in the bushfires in northern NSW. Then the south coast, the the far south coast, the Victorian boarder region, the alpine and sub alpine areas, the bega valley, the monaro region and then finally it was our turn. We were the last area to burn in the black summer fires. A week later the rain came and put the remaining fires out and ended the black summer bushfires.
We decided that we would stay and defend the sanctuary. We were advised to leave before the fires came, however that was never an option. Eventually though, we had to evacuate, too many fires burning too hot. We left with 4 joeys and the firefighting clothes we were wearing. We saw our loved animals panicking, jumping into burning bush with nowhere to escape to. It was a very difficult decision to leave.
The fires burnt for many days here, but we were determined to return regardless. When we returned 2 days later, we saw that everything had burnt. Except to our surprise, our old house and my workshop were still standing - burnt a little, but still there. Our immediate neighbours sadly lost their homes.
Minutes after returning, we started searching for survivors. We found 2 female kangaroos in the veggie garden with badly burnt feet. 3 other female kangaroos heard us arrive and came up to us. They were burnt. The rednecked wallaby we saw jumping into flames when we left, was coming out of the forest badly burnt. We found a juvenile male kangaroo, not too badly burnt but still needing help. A swamp wallaby that was in a very bad way. More red necked wallabies. And many that didn't make it.
We treated the survivors with the limited medical supplies we had. Each day we continued to look for more survivors and called for help. It took a week for that help to arrive, and it came from a very unexpected place!
