The terrible fires in the north-east of Victoria still rage, the mountains are aglow, fires scattered and emerge over enormous areas and at night the red glow can be seen in the sky above. Parts of Canberra have been burnt out. The loss of lives - of people and of animals and loss of loved houses and gardens - shatters everyone. It is extremely fortunate that only four people have been killed. We see the fearful pictures on television and in the newspapers and read the stories of those who survived or escaped the fire storm. Streets wiped out completely and a communities homeless. The burnt houses and black hillsides are a burnt nightmare. Nothing but a fearful silence remains with drifting ash. The trees are black heaps of curled charcoal, those that have not been burnt to the ground are leafless and blackened. There is no sound in the burnt out areas - did the small birds get away, did they flee the nightmare scene? It will be days before the birds return. Around Canberra the hills are a devastation of burnt earth and rocks but when the rain comes the wattles will spring up, their seeds germinated by the fires and soon the eucalypts will put out fresh green leaves all up their trunks and in tufts along their stark boughs and the land will renew itself as people rebuild their lives.

Near our home in Narre Warren, paddocks are blackened and burnt. The lingering smell of smoke, and the scent of burnt gum trees remains in the air. This morning, the sun came up, through the smoke, in a huge orange ball. The northerly wind has started to blow and from the office window I watch it rip through the trees. The smoke remains flannel-thick outside the office and the smell of burning still permenates the air.