Black Saturday Fire The Book
8 Jun 09
A group of ladies are working on a book to record the bushfire events and stories of people living in the areas affected by those terrible ‘Black Saturday’ fires.
“We see it as important to record all aspects of what was a momentous event in our local history”.
Those involved in this project are Catherine Turnbull, Suzanne Jamieson and Heather Knight. Catherine has been a volunteer with Blazeaid since the fire. She has a lot of experience as a volunteer with the Knox Historical Society. Suzanne Jamieson was a volunteer at the Wallan Recovery Centre and is now working as a bushfire case manager. She has a degree in anthropology and sociology. Heather is a volunteer and committee member of the Kilmore Historical Society and in 2007 published a book of Kilmore reminiscences. Heather has also been volunteering with fire relief effort since the bushfire, distributing tools and other necessary goods. Our commitment to those affected by the fire is ongoing.
As a result of the volunteer work we have all been doing, we have met a lot of fire affected people and heard a lot of stories. We find lots of people tell us what happened (we usually do not ask – they volunteer it) and we feel it is extremely important to record the stories, especially for places like Reedy Creek, Upper Plenty, Wandong and Clonbinane.
Some people from these locations feel that they have been forgotten in the aftermath and it would be really good to put their stories on the record and their towns/locations on the map
We want the accounts of everyone affected by the fire; this would include those that evacuated, fought the fire, saved or lost a home or property, were worried about relatives or friends or were volunteers. Often members of one family have different stories as they were in different places on the day.
We also wish to record the stories of the volunteers as they have formed a large part of the overall story.
Our plan is to record the Kilmore East - Kinglake complex fire. We would like stories from the towns and areas covered by that particular fire i.e. Kilmore East, Clonbinane, Wandong, Heathcote Junction, Upper Plenty, Reedy Creek, Strathewen, Humevale, Kinglake etc
Stories can be emailed to blacksaturday@nl.com.au
We would also appreciate any photos. All contributions in the way of articles and photographs used in the book will be acknowledged.
Many thanks,
Heather Knight