While rain has brought relief to a number of communities, the memories of the bushfires are still vivid, and some images will hardly fade in the minds of the people who witnessed the hellish scenes at their door steps.
On the morning of December 31, 2019, in Bermagui, a small town in southern NSW, time froze for Francesca Michielin.
"The sky was very dark from the early hours of the morning and remained dark until late, there was a very strong, hot wind coming in. It was a surreal situation," recalls Francesca Michielin, owner of Bermagui Gelati Clinic. "Part of the sky was red, and you think, 'it's the rising sun'... But it was on the wrong side of the horizon, so it couldn't have been it. Then I realised it was the fires."
Like other villages along the South East coast of Australia, Bermagui was been threatened by the fires and its residents were forced to evacuate during the first few days of 2020. The fire alert appears set to remain high until the end of the season, even after rains doused most of the fires this week.
Coffee and refuge during the darkest hours
"We got the message to leave our houses and go to the beach earlier that morning," Michielin told SBS Italian. “As soon as the emergency warning started, we thought of going to the shop, which is on the wharf, to be near the water.”
“Everything happened very fast. We started making coffee for the tourists and the locals who came into the shop thinking that we were open,” continues the owner of the gelateria.
“I remember in particular a young couple, with a very small child who asked if they could stay inside with us. Then... the young mum started crying because she didn't know what to do. No-one had any idea of what was next."
The ice cream shop offered coffee until Bermagui ran out of electricity.
Turisti e residenti hanno trovato rifugio alla Bermagui Gelati Clinic Source: Foto fornita da Francesca Michielin
“A lot of people thanked us, but for me it was the only thing to do.”
We started making coffee for the tourists and the locals who came into the shop thinking that we were open
“We were not the only ones. Other shops in town offered refuge and did their part to keep the spirit up, as much as they could, even though no-one knew what was going to happen," explains Michielin. “We are a small community, everyone did something and that was beautiful."
"The wind changed 10 minutes before the catastrophe and brought the fires in from a different direction, it saved us at the expense of other houses," recalls Michielin. "Many have lost their houses here, and someone even lost their lives."
Francesca Michielin, Alberto Cementon e Anna Sofia alla Bermagui Gelati Clinic Source: Courtesy of Francesca Michielin
Open for business
After many of the residents were evacuated, the community is slowly getting back to normal.
"We lost the season, like the whole region, because of the fires. The economic impact is immense if we think of all the towns like Bermagui that live on tourism. It’s our livelihood... Generally this time of the year, there are six or seven people working in the shop every day, now we are two sometimes three," Michielin says.
“The shop will survive and solidarity can be felt right now. We are in a very small community, we all know each other. I understand that there may be emergency situation, but if we face them together we can overcome everything," concludes Michielin.
She feels inspired by the resistance of the community in the region, “especially after hearing stories of people who have lost everything, they want to rebuild, they want to move on. It would be too easy to leave."
