Louise Knight says she'll never forget the sound of the fire that broke out near her home on January 12, 2013.
“You could just hear it roaring; that was a terrible, terrible sound,” she says.
“On the Friday when it got close to the house, the smoke was so thick we couldn't see the outline of the garden.”
The Knight family's farm lies 30 kilometres south west of Coonabarabran in NSW, in the shadow the Warrumbungle National Park.
The fire started in a campsite at the park during a 'catastrophic' fire danger day.
It burned out of control for 41 days, destroying 50 homes and causing immense damage to farms and local industry.
The Knights lost several hundred sheep, and damage to their property took months to repair.
“Some of our neighbours have lost a great deal,” says Mrs Knight.
“Some near the national park; they lost everything… even the dogs on the chain.”
Warrumbungle Shire Mayor Peter Shinton, who set up a Mayor's fund to help those affected, says residents are still finding damage to their property.
“We found one house, and they noticed just a little bit of burnt timber on one side, and the fella thought, I’ll just replace that one bit of burnt timber,” he says.
“When he pulled it off to replace it, all the wires had lost their insulation. They were just bare wires now. Now who would have thought of that?
“So as maintenance is being done, they’re still finding things that are wrong.”
He says the emotional toll of the devastation is also still evident around Coonabarabran.
“Some of the people that are in the town have never fully recovered from that disaster.
“Although they’re mixing quite well, you can’t really talk about fires. It really sparks a raw emotion.”
In the months following the disaster, numerous local residents voiced concerns that the fire could have been prevented.
Some questioned the actions of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, which led the early response.
Those concerns were heard by a NSW parliamentary inquiry, which handed down its findings in February.
There were 29 recommendations in the final report, including a recommendation that the Rural Fire Service or Fire and Rescue NSW have ultimate responsibility for all bushfires, regardless of where they occur.
Louise Knight's husband, Stephen Knight, agrees with this recommendation.
He believes the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service should be held responsible for the fire burning out of control.
“We’re not sure how it started, but we know where it started.
“It should not have gotten away so quickly; it should not have turned into such a big fire so fast.
“If people had been monitoring there in the park, it could have been nipped in the bud; it could have been stopped.”
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service declined to be interviewed by SBS, pending the results of a NSW coronial inquiry into the fire.
However, the service released a statement saying: “It is important that lessons are learnt whenever there is a catastrophic event in NSW such as the Wambelong fire.”
It says the report and recommendations from the Legislative Council inquiry into the fire will be “carefully considered”.
The parliamentary report has also received criticism, including by Greg Banks, a Bushfire Policy Officer with the NSW Nature Conservation Council.
"One of things we've always believed is; national parks are managers of national parks for a good reason,” he says.
“They know their land; they actually know how the best way to initially make that response.
“Now we're certainly not saying that they shouldn't be cooperating with the Rural Fire Service, but to impose arbitrary type command and control systems over the National Parks and Wildlife [Service], we don't think it’s going to be a useful thing to do."
Mr Banks also disagrees with a recommendation to introduce hazard reduction targets of five per cent across fire-prone public land, as a means of reducing the risk of uncontrolled fires.
"That's been brought in in Victoria and now it's being reviewed as to the value, and it’s been found that it probably hasn't got much value,” he says.
“It's not actually achieving what it was supposed to achieve after the Victorian bushfires."
It could be many months before any decision over the recommendations is made.
The state government is expected to respond to the parliamentary inquiry report in August this year.
Stephen Knight will be among those closely watching the response - for healing as much as retribution.
“It’s just hard to get over being burnt out, and having no compassion shown,” he says.
“If people could admit they were wrong, and it won’t happen again, I think that would help with the closure.”
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