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Victoria: One year on from Black Saturday

Last weekend, thousands of people around the Australian state of Victoria gathered for memorial services to mark the first anniversary of the Victorian Bushfires, in which 173 people lost their lives. While a Royal Commission into the causes of the Black Saturday tragedy continues, efforts to rebuild the communities devastated by the fire are well underway through the $193 million Rebuilding Together strategy.

Several communities have embraced the opportunity to rebuild, but some within these communities have been hesitant.  According to figures compiled by the Victorian Bush Fire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, 60% of people affected by the fires will go back to their former homes and rebuild. Others are undecided or have chosen to start again elsewhere, after the events of Black Saturday made them reassess their love of the bush and the risks involved living there.

According to The Australian, this uncertainty is reflected in the appearance of the townships including Kinglake, where 38 people died, which is 'a jumble of new construction, vacant lots and "for sale" signs'. And in places like this, there is little employment aside from construction and more job options are needed for the community to be sustainable. The paper also noted that each community is recovering at a different pace with recovery in towns like Flowerdale at a more advanced staged, while Strathewen, which lost 27 people, has virtually ceased to exist.

Those who chose to return have rebuilt and have moved in or are due to move back into new homes. There is plenty of help for those who want to rebuild such as this self-build guide. But inevitably, the communities residents return to will differ from what was there previously as advice about prevention strategies, including fire resistant building and vegetation clearance, filters through to residents.

However, the slow pace of reconstruction may help to avoid the mistakes of the past when Noojee in eastern Victoria was devastated in 1939, just 13 years after its reconstruction following a previous bushfire.