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MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Tuesday 12 November 2019
A letter to my home town Bobin, burned down in the NSW fires but unvanquished
Ned Haughton saw friends who escaped the bushfires, house intact and animals alive. And others who lost everything
Ned Haughton
NSW fires: the remains of a property destroyed by bushfires n Bobin, 350km north of Sydney.
Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
Hey
Bobin, I came home today. I wasn’t really expecting to. I got a call
when I was still asleep, asking if I wanted to drive up to see if the
house I grew up in still exists. It does. I’m glad I came.
We’re
reasonably well fire-prepped but the house probably only remains thanks
to a well-timed water bomb from the RFS. The cottage I grew up in until I
was 12 doesn’t.
Ned Haughton in the YouTube video he posted from Bobin. Photograph: YouTube/Ned Haughton
It’s an oddly pretty pile of corro, ash and charred logs supported by
a couple of stone walls my mum built when I was in utero. The sculpted
face of a warrior woman that looked over me from the mantel while I was
sleeping in the lounge room as a kid now looks out over a ruined mess.
Maybe a fitting end for that place. At least it means we don’t have to
decide what to do with it.
Bobin, I saw parts of you today that I thought I’d never see. Parts
that I probably shouldn’t have seen. I saw the insides of trees as
infernos. I saw blackened hillsides with nothing left but rock and ash. I
saw rainforest on fire. I saw fucking creek beds on fire. Creek beds
completely dry, with water in the few deep pools a foot lower than I
have ever seen in my 35 years of knowing you.
I saw a country school blackened and twisted and melted to the ground
today. After only 136 years. I’m glad the library still stands, and I
hope that the relevant authorities have the vision to bring it back. And
the hall. We would be devastated without you.
The remains of a property destroyed by fire in Bobin. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
I
saw a few people today. Some fucking amazing ones. I saw firefighter
friends who I’ve known for years, still working after a few hours’ rest
following 36 hours of chaos. I saw friends whose houses had been saved
looking out for other people. I saw friends who had nearly lost
everything, but had managed to escape with their house intact, and their
animals still alive, riding the relief high. I saw other friends who
had lost everything. Like, everything. Just got out to a neighbour’s
house with wallet and laptop and a change of clothes before everything
collapsed. Photos lost. Memories lost. The smell of home replaced with
the lingering smell of ash.
I saw some of those friends still smiling, laughing even. I saw
others crying. I met new friends helping old friends with a place to
stay, and old friends helping new friends put out spotfires. I saw other
friends getting ready for the fire that would be hitting right now,
well prepared, but with fingers crossed that their place burns out
slowly tonight, because if it isn’t burnt by Tuesday, it will probably
burn harder then. I left knowing I have many friends who are prepared,
but also knowing you can never be prepared enough. I hope they get it
easy.
Bobin, you’re fucking gutted. I’ve seen fires run through you. The
hall nearly burnt a few years ago. But there was never anything like
this. No one expected six houses in the middle of the village, in the
middle of open paddocks, to just disappear. What the fuck.
A hose on the grounds of property destroyed by fire in Bobin. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
But Bobin, if I know any place, and community, that can take a gut
punch like that, and stand straight back up, it’s you. You’re a
community of amazing people, with an amazing capacity to get shit done.
You can pull through this. You’ll probably even do it in style.
I
really came home today. I felt it so much. I am who I am because of
you. I have fallen back in love, and I look forward to helping you back
on your feet in whatever way I can.
The above was first published by Ned Haughton on his Facebook page and reproduced here with his permission
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