IS OUR DAVID CAMPBELL OK?

[Glenny Palmer]

I'm just in a mild fret over the catastrophic fires down south, as our David Campbell lives somewhere near where they are impacting I think. I do hope & pray that those fires have missed David & Eleanore's home. Hopefully we'll hear from him soon. Fingers crossed.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Hi there, Glenny. I spoke to David on Christmas Eve, and he was talking about the possibility of fires. He is in Airey's Inlet, which is a fair way north of the trouble, so I'd be very surprised if he is not OK. He was talking about the possibility of clearing out to Melbourne if necessary, and he may well have done that. I don't want to trouble him now, but I expect you will hear from him soon.

[Glenny Palmer]

Thank you so much Stephen. I'm not familiar with the area so that is a great relief. Apart from the potential tragedy of losing their home, one secondarily wonders what absolute treasures of verse would also be lost in such a situation. It makes one think more seriously on 'backing up' our work in a removed location, just in case. Ta gain sir.

[Maureen K Clifford]

David wrote this yesterday on another post -

That's all I can offer at the moment as we're rather preoccupied with the bushfire that's still out of control near Lorne. Our house is at Aireys Inlet, which is not too far away. Mad weather...stinking hot yesterday with a massive smoke cloud heading out to sea, and cold and wet this morning, although not enough rain to kill the fire. A real Aussie Christmas!

[David Campbell]

Many thanks Glenny, we're fine, although we had a very anxious Christmas Day. Wye River and Separation Creek, which bore the brunt of the fire and lost over 100 houses between them, are 35 km away along the Great Ocean Road, while the main tourist town of Lorne, which was also evacuated, is 19 km away. The police set up a road block and wouldn't let anybody through along this section of coast. The big problem is access...pretty much "one road in, one road out", and it's a narrow, hilly, winding road with dense forest on one side and cliffs/beach on the other for much of its length. So a major traffic jam in an emergency evacuation during peak holiday times could easily cause a catastrophe.

We learnt a valuable lesson when this whole strip of coast was devastated by the 1983 Ash Wednesday fire which ripped along the coast from Lorne to Aireys Inlet in 90 minutes. My parents only escaped from the house at the last moment when someone arrived and told them to get out. Aireys was almost wiped out although our place somehow survived unscathed...just one of those freakish things which happens in bushfires. This time we were lucky again as the rain came with the change on Friday night. The fire's still burning, though, and could do so for weeks, so the next test comes on New Years Eve when temperatures are up in the mid-thirties again.

They reckon the local tourism industry will lose about 30 million dollars because of the fire and, with the misery caused to those who lost property, it's a very unhappy Christmas for many people down here. Fortunately, unlike 1983, there was no loss of life.

Fingers crossed it stays that way!

David

[Glenny Palmer]

Thank you David. I'm sure we're all relieved to know that you & your property are ok. Feeling so sad for those who lost their homes, but as you say, thank the good Lord that there was no loss of life. Here's to a hopefully brighter 2016 for your community. Stay safe.

[Catherine Lee]

A very unhappy Christmas for so many indeed, David. But I'm so glad to hear you are OK - thank you for posting this.

[David Campbell]

Thank you, Catherine. It's a timely warning of how easily a tourist paradise can become a death trap. The very features that make this area so popular also make it highly dangerous at the height of summer. Complacency is our biggest enemy.

Cheers
David