Vickie, 12, Blake, 14, and Melissa Carbis attended the relief centre after noticing their home was in the yellow emergency zone.
Photo by
Billie Davern
As smoke bloomed in the sky and the sun scorched the ground on the hottest day of the year, people who had been displaced by the Longwood bushfire sought refuge in the heart of Seymour.
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While temperatures soared to a searing 44°C on Friday, January 9, and the nearby fire surged towards Alexandra, the Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre was transformed into a bustling community relief centre which housed evacuees from across Central Victoria.
Bill Brindle, who runs a caravan park in Eildon, was one of these evacuees.
He found himself spending the night on a foam mat in the gymnasium, and wondering, the entire time, what had happened to his home.
Bill Brindle from Eildon spent the night on a mat in the gymnasium of the Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre.
Photo by
Billie Davern
“I’m getting to the point where I’m accepting that anything could happen. With all the technology that I’m constantly abusing, looking for numbers and wins and things like that; the truth is, I don’t know what will happen,” he said.
“Funnily enough, this morning, when I woke up here, I thought that, perhaps, I’ve been crying ‘the sky is falling’, when it didn’t actually look that bad, but it’s starting to look (bad), very much so now.
“By the time these winds are finished this afternoon, I’d be quite surprised to see a lot of Eildon still there.”
The shared sentiment at the relief centre was the fear of the unknown – of not knowing if you’ll return home to find everything you know and love to be burnt to dust.
Cathy Smith, who owns a sheep and cattle property in Molesworth, said all she could do was wait for the next day.
“It’s very distressing,” she said.
“I want for today to be over, really, because I think once today’s over, things will be better.
“It’s just so unknown – how things are going to go.”
Pups Maddie and Jules waited alongside their owners at the community relief centre.
Photo by
Billie Davern
Seymour local Melissa Carbis sought refuge at the centre with her children Vickie, 12, and Blake, 14, after finding that her property on Tarcombe Rd was in the yellow zone.
She said her 12 years of experience being a firefighter made it easier to decide to leave before it was too late.
“I’ve seen other fires, and people are comparing it to Black Saturday today. I just walked out there, and I looked across, and went, ‘it’s the same’,” Ms Carbis said.
“I’m not used to being on this end, I’ve always been on the other end, fighting it.
“I knew what I had to do. I didn’t care about my house because I didn’t have kids (back then), but it’s different now.”
Cars began to fill the carpark at the Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre, as evacuees sought refuge inside.
Photo by
Billie Davern
The Telegraph also spoke with a man from Whiteheads Creek and a couple from Thornton, who each wished to remain anonymous.
The couple from Thornton evacuated early on the morning of Friday, January 9, and said they were worried that their current property would reach the same fate as their former property in Yea, which previously burnt down in a different fire.
The man from Whiteheads Creek said he believed his property burnt to the ground, and the worst thing about the situation was not knowing what had happened.
