My country is on fire.

Today is the third day, last Saturday and Sunday being the first two, that our fair city has been covered by smoke. Smoke so thick it looks like fog, and the smell of burning wood is very much in evidence.

The nature of living in the Australian bush is that fire is a natural part of the ecological life-cycle. We have several species of plants, especially the Australian Gum Trees, whose seeds will not germinate until they are physically burnt with fire. The bush dries out, and summer storms bring lightning strikes that start fires. I haven’t done much research into the actual cycle of fire, I’ve heard 7 years, and recently there’s been talk about a larger cycle being around 50 years. This means that every once in a while, there’s going to be fire – a lot of fire.

Most of the people who live in the bush here respect nature I think; you’d be pretty silly to move out to the bush and not understand that fire is part of nature, but that being said, there’s still a lot of loss when people’s homes and often long histories in the bush are burnt and lost.
A thought should also be spared for the many fire-fighters from all around Australia who are in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania fighting these colossal fires – our main fire here in Victoria in East Gippsland has a front that stretches 240 kilometers after two fires joined up earlier today.
We also give greatful thanks to the fire-fighters from New Zealand who have come to help us out, and any others from around the world who will or already have joined us, like those from Canada.

In this we must always remember that the land will let us live on her, but once in a while she will take herself back as the price.