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Source: ONE News -
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It was an astonishing scene. The middle of summer yet the same Victoria mountain range that burned so fiercely 12 months ago was shrouded in fog.
I was not living in Australia when the Black Saturday fires ripped through these communities, killing 173 people and affecting thousands more, so this wasn't what I expected.
Arwyn Taylor invited us into her house in Kinglake, one of the hardest hit towns during the fires. Dan, the TVNZ cameraman, followed me into what was a relocatable two bedroom building where Arwyn lives with her partner and her sister's two children.
The building is one of about 60 on a temporary site that houses more than a hundred people who lost their homes in the fires. There are several of these temporary housing hubs across the mountain range that look more like glorified camping grounds.
As we stood in the small lounge/kitchen, Arwyn broke down in tears as she tried to explain to me what it's like living here. Surprisingly, Arwyn told me she wasn't crying because she was sad, but because she was proud of how the Kinglake community was coping after the disaster.
This message seemed to ring true as Dan and I made our way around Kinglake. The fire damage was still plain to see but one sign on the roadside summed up the atmosphere. It read 'Kinglake, a town too tough to die'.
Not far from this sign was a big red. This was home to expatriate New Zealander Jane O'Connor. Jane had lived in Kinglake with her husband for the past 17 years but lost almost everything on February 7 2009.
We caught up with Jane before her Nephew Brad Eyre arrived from New Zealand. Brad just happened to be visiting his Aunt when the fires roared towards Kinglake last year.
It was a touching reunion. They hadn't seen each other since Brad left this mountain of destruction and death a year ago. There were hugs all round, especially for Jane's dog, Harley who Brad managed to pluck from the flames.
Jane allowed us to set up office in the back of the barn to edit our story for the 6pm evening news. Dan set up the lap top on a couple of chairs.
It was hot, 35 degrees and not a breath of wind, still well below the 48 degrees that fuelled the fires this time last year.
Back at TVNZ HQ, the memorial service from Melbourne's St Pauls Cathedral was being recorded via satellite which we would use alongside our interviews and the local Kinglake service we had filmed that day.
We sent the edited story back via the internet to the Auckland newsroom. You have to hand it to Telstra, the internet coverage in Australia is fantastic and gives us the ability to achieve so much from remote locations.
We packed up the lap top and made a dash to the Kinglake sports oval where the official 1st anniversary event of the Black Saturday bush fires was about to start.
Media vans and satellite trucks lined one side of the oval as journalists and presenters prepared to deliver their live reports to various states and countries. Dan raced ahead with his camera gear to find the ABC satellite truck and set up for my 'live cross' into 6pm One News.
Live crosses are always challenging because no matter how much you prepare, there's always something that can happen out of the blue you can't control. On this occasion it was the heat.
With 30 seconds to 'on air', a teenage girl standing a metre of so away suddenly fainted and collapsed. As I received the director's cue in my ear to start talking, people were scurrying around me (out of camera shot) looking for first aid boxes.
After I had finished my report I went to check on the poor girl who by now was being helped by several concerned locals. It was yet another example of how quick the Kinglake people are to respond to one of their own in trouble.
The Black Saturday fires may have taken lives, torn apart families and destroyed homes but what has emerged from the ashes is a greater sense community spirit by which Kinglake people are bound.
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