19 January 2009

Bushfire Memorial - Where the bloody hell is it?

18 January 2009 | cranky

Todays CT had a couple of items re the fires of 6 years ago, including an item on the memorial.

It described the location as near the Cotter Rd. / Eucumbene Drive intersection, so jumped in the toy and went for a drive.

Whether by design or otherwise, it is not easy to find. There is no indication, road, signage, carpark or any other means to identify the location.

Can someone direct me to it?

[ED – And here I was thinking we could get through the day without raking over the coals]

UPDATED: The Rawhide Kid 2 has sent in the following image and asked that it be credited to: Politas – Wikipedia web Site.

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SammyLivesHere4:08 pm 29 Jan 09

Well done for getting an Article into The Chronicle advertising the facebook page for the Flood of 1971… I found this on the Bush Fire Memorial Site (includes pictures of the whole site from 18 Jan 2006).

http://www.arts.act.gov.au/pages/images/Fact%20Sheet%201-%20ACT%20Bushfire%20Memorial.pdf

Pandy6:06 pm 19 Jan 09

Kids: Build a bridge.

Deckard4:39 pm 19 Jan 09

I reckon it’s a pretty good memorial.

The bent poles are a snapshot of what that whole field of pine trees looked like after the fire had gone through. It looked like a scene from a nuclear holocaust movie. It was pretty eerie with all the trees frozen in time as if there was a howling wind going through there – even if there wasn’t a breath of wind.

The tree stump in Kambah is a good idea as well.

peterh4:38 pm 19 Jan 09

and additionally, I did put forward my views of what the memorial should be like, but was informed that the committee was well aware of what the community was after.

peterh4:30 pm 19 Jan 09

excuse me?

kambah did not lose any homes?

think again. there were homes lost on kambah pool road, up near the equestrian area.
there were many lost in kambah, up at the foot of mount taylor, and on inkster, and in buckley…..

the majority of homes were in Duffy. and Rivett. and Chapman. and Kambah. The bushfire memorial does not show me what my father thought, when he lost his house, it doesn’t show me what his neighbors thought, it shows some black poles bending over.

if the memorial was in darwin, you’d think it was for cyclone tracy.

if this was the best idea that the community could come up with, in comparison to a burnt tree, carved and painted with scenes from that day, even though I do recognise the significance of the 5 poles, it is a really big shame. we are all rebuilding. be it our lives, our families or our homes. the memorial should have something to show the tourists or other canberrans what happened, what we did, or how we, as a community, banded together and helped one another.

I can see, in my mind’s eye, neighbors helping each other to save their homes. spraying down roofs of neighbors away for the break, saving their homes. we all pitched in. South Canberra became a community. we all talked afterwards, to each other, in some cases for the first time to neighbors we had lived next to for years.

we should be celebrating the fact that we survived. the memorial is not a reminder of the determination of the fire brigade, the volunteers, the AFP members who tried to help, it is a bleak reminder of what we lost. not what we have gained.

Peppablack3:53 pm 19 Jan 09

peterh said :

Pandy said :

I have no intention of visiting the “memorial” – maybe that money, along with the cost of taking the coroner to court over the independent findings, when the govt and more to the point, stanhope, didn’t like the outcome, could have been spent in assisting the families who were left short. There is a tree in kambah, carved and painted to show the fires and their impact, I regard that as the memorial…

and if you were here, were you in the thick of it, or in perfect safety?

cranky, check out the tree off sulwood, in kambah, it is a far better memorial than the one cobbled together by the act government…

Peterh….FYI…..The Bushfire memorial was established with the help of several individuals and organisations, and it was put together with input from families and people who had lost their homes in this tragic event. The fires first hit weston creek and majority of homes where lost there, not in Kambah. If you have no intention of visiting the memorial, well so be it

peterh11:46 am 19 Jan 09

Danman said :

I was frontline on that day.

All I will say is that smelling bushfore smoke for me now is a major stress inducing PTSD event.

6 years later and it was so full on that I’m yet to get over it.

you and me both. there are kids in my street who are still traumatised, in fact, there was a letter put in our letterbox asking for us not to use the wood fire if we had one, as their children were thinking that the fires had returned.

not many wood fires last winter.

I think everyone was impressed by the appeal.

Danman11:38 am 19 Jan 09

I was frontline on that day.

All I will say is that smelling bushfore smoke for me now is a major stress inducing PTSD event.

6 years later and it was so full on that I’m yet to get over it.

harvyk111:00 am 19 Jan 09

Yeap, that’s a day I’ll never forget in a hurry. I was right in the thick of it as I have family who live in chapman, who I went to help on the day.

We where lucky and managed to save their place (by sheer luck more than anything else). Unfortunately a few of the other families in the street where not so lucky.

I’ve seen the memorial a couple of times (whilst driving past, never stopped). I think there is a sign pointing to the memorial itself, but you have to look for it, it’s no bigger than the average street sign, which makes it even more difficult to spot when doing 80ish.

justbands10:17 am 19 Jan 09

We have our own little memorial in our backyard….a brick water feature (no water in it thanks to restrictions of course) that was the only thing remaining of the previous house after the fire.

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