People's Page... Mike Callaghan.

Bush Fire

                                It’s that time of year

“There’s a bushfire fire” it’s the summer words you dread particularly if you live in the Australian Bush.  Your first response is where is it? You feel a particular sense of relief if it’s not in your locality but you feel for the people whose homes will come under threat 

We live in a particularly bushfire prone area suggested to be in the worlds top five most dangerous and friends ask us why do you live there? It’s a matter of equating the  bush-land against fire and for us the bush wins, you would be a fool to live here if you didn’t take the necessary steps to ensure you had some chance of survival; our house is constructed of a fire retardant material consisting of a single story with overhanging verandahs back and front and our domestic/firefighting water comes from a 9000 litre rainwater tank adjacent to the house with  feed sprinkler spray system over the verandah and pressure  hoses fed by a Petrol driven pump

 We have to be completely self sufficient in the event of a fire as the fire chief has told us that he will not risk a tanker or crews into us in if a fire comes through.

. There are approx 25 houses dotted around our particular area and we have formed a fireguard Co-operative   and hold meetings throughout the year to discuss procedures and personal fire plans, in the event of a major fire, we all have our own survival plan some have” Hides” dug into the ground somewhere adjacent to the house which doubles up as wine cellars for the rest of the year.   While others leave at the first warning  received,  the rest of us just prepare for the onslaught by damping down around the house blocking of the rainwater gutter down- pipes and filling the gutters with water and wondering what the bloody hell we’re doing here,

 Bushfires are a necessary evil to the bush as they burn all the small scrub which accumulates on the forest floor and is necessary for many Australian species of trees to germinate. The unfortunate part is that many species of tree dwelling animals and forest floor animals perish, the only survivors being the creatures that live in burrows. Fires are also used in parts of the country by the Aboriginal people who set controlled blazes to flush animals they want for food, and they can be frightening when you are confronted by such fires. On one occasion we were traveling through Arnhem land a vast largely uninhabited region of far Northern Australia, and on breasting a crest we were confronted by such a fire on a wide but of little depth front, fortunately from the crest we were able to see over the top of it, and we calculated that we could close all windows up place a filter over the engine snorkel and as it was a good track we would give it a go. We approached the fire at about 60kph with everything that was not tied down bouncing around and the thoughts races through your mind are we being stupid or smart? Only the next half minute would tell on reflection it was stupid but the surge of adrenalin that follows is a great feeling and I think you only live or die by your own decisions and we would have found it difficult to have done anything else

The firefighting teams or brigades are all volunteers and known as the C.F.A ( Country Fire Authority ) and will be manned by all ages in the community from youngsters, boys or girls about eighteen on  right up to veterans  from all walks of life who give their time for weekend training and standby duty. Officers and administration staff are usually fulltime professionals and last but not least “Elvis” the helicopter a monster of a thing which sucks up water from the reservoirs and literally dumps 9000litres a time at the fire base,

Arguably by living here we do not enjoy all the benefits of  more urban living  as we draw water for domestic/general purpose from a creek which originates from a spring in the mountains behind us, although we do enjoy Electricity, Gas must come from tanks which are filled on request by a local Gas tanker operator.

  Toilet waste is neatly disposed of by natures microscopic workers who like doing jobs like that, and the system is exactly like any town house but we have our own sewage works buried beneath the ground and on completion of the little fellows work the clean water is automatically pumped to the top of the property via a underground pipe into a perforated distribution system  which allows the clean odorless water to percolate back through the ground to water our gardens.  We collect all grey- water in a separate manner and this is used for flowers and shrubs -  as you see we do our bit for conservation of the environment

As I previously said people ask why do you live here but where else could I have a Kookaburra for an alarm clock because at the first light of day they make contact with each other with their raucous calls and that means first light is my start of day.   A day  with parrots, Magpies and Blue Wrens who descend on the house  to get corn seed from my wife while my dog runs off through the morning mist and woe betide the wombat who is silly enough to have stayed out late, and all creatures of the night retiring for the day

Further plans envisaged will to be to fit a solar hot water system and at this moment I have bought the materials for building a solar oven (for my wife) I am a vegetarian though I am pretty enthusiastic on all food as long as it doesn’t contain meat.  I have an aversion to meat eating which to me means unnecessary husbandry cruelty to many species of animal that are reared specifically for human consumption and I could not live with the hypocrisy of reveling in the innocence of the spring lambs while pouring the mint sauce on their carcass , but hey that’s me,  I don’t ask anyone to share my beliefs everyone to their own although Nicholas my oldest son does share the same persuasions as myself  

There are some who would consider our life Spartan without the dubious benefits of society i.e. mains water, connected to the main sewer system, and no natural gas connection no street lighting but we love our life in the bush with birds wombats wallabies snakes and goannas (lace monitors) bull ants (they grow to about 20mm long and their bite hurts like hell) but at the end of the day we would not want a home anywhere else. Well perhaps only our homeland

Mike Callaghan