Bushfire Recovery at Granny Annie's Place

This is the road to my mum (Granny Annie)'s place. As Mum is the closest person to me who was involved in the February 7th fires, this is the closest impression I get of how the bush is recovering since that day. I don't know what its like in other areas, and wouldn't want to pretend to - I only know about here.


The lunar landscape has (almost) gone. The ash has washed away, the bush has stood still for a while - a tad bewildered by what happened. But now Mother Nature is getting busy...

Trees that have looked like burnt match sticks for long enough are now prettying themselves up with fluffy new green foliage. There is a fresh green spray of grass covering parts of the ground. This grass almost seems greener than any of the grass that was here before - it is vivid.

And here I was, merrily snapping away with my camera the other day, the Hatchlings waiting patiently in the car. The Hatchlings know that Mummy does weird stuff when she has her camera in the car - they're used to it.

Hatchlings: "Why are we stopping Mum?"
Me:"Oooh! I just saw a thing and I want to take a photo of it!"
Hatchlings: "How many minutes will it take?"
Me: "Not many."
Hatchlings: "Can we listle to Wiggles?"
Me: "Yep"
Hatchlings: "Okay Mummy"

Then they bop along to Wiggly music and watch me curiously, until I leap back into the car and we take off again.


On this day though, I had no idea somebody else was watching me - until I spotted him through my lens:

A great big male kangaroo, casually mooching around nibbling on some tasty green shoots. He looked slightly amused by my antics and the fact that he had gone unnoticed. I could see him smirking - swear I could!

I have grown up around this place and have seen kangaroos a billion/squillion/cadjillion times. And every time I get a kick out of it! I think this guy's name might be Brian...


Something else the Hatchlings have become accustomed to is Mummy saying
"Quick! Go and stand on that ... (insert item here) and I'll take your picture!"
This time it was a digger that was resting on the road to Granny Annie's, in preparation for fixing the roadside drainage.


The rain that we've had since the fires has washed a LOT of soil/ash into the gutters, and consequently the roads are not holding up so well when it rains. Fortunately something is being done - just not while Hatchling No.1 insists on standing on the digger grinning from ear to ear!

Nope, I don't think he enjoyed posing for that shot at all.

To top off this adventure, there was some fuel reduction activity going on when we arrived at Granny Annie's place. Mr D loves a good bonfire, and this day was no exception.

The bushfires came from the other side of the property, so Mr D is balancing things up by burning off this side now. However you dress it up Mr D, we still know you just like a nice big bonny on a cold day!

You can't hide that smile - we saw it!


Oooh, this is something else that happened in the days following 7th February - a fire break was cut through Granny Annie's property. We've christened it Eastlink.

Eastlink provides the fire trucks with another method of access to this area, as well as an alternative escape route for local residents should they need it. After narrowly escaping the fires of Black Saturday, nobody is complaining about Eastlink. On a windy 40 degree day it looks beautiful!!

Jen xx