I can't imagine how it would feel to lose everything in one go. In the earthquakes, I lost stuff, then the house started falling apart. But I had a roof over my head and lots more stuff. The bush fires are voracious, devouring everything in their path in a storm of heat and flames. I have immense sympathy for the people of Australia who must flee for their lives, surrendering their assets and future security to the flames, and returning to ruins of smoldering ash. So I'm reposting this story which came via Greenpeace, Australia to spread their message. The consequences of climate change are real and governments must act now. We are the last generation who can save our planet. Future generations will judge us on the future we bequeath them.
My partner Dean, myself, and the remains of our home out the front of Parliament.
Hi Jillian,
My name is Melinda, and my beautiful home of 38 years was destroyed in the bushfires that swept through Nymboida. Right now, I’m standing on the lawns of Parliament House with the remains of the home I lived in and loved.
I won’t ever forget the morning I left my home for the last time. I’d been picking tomatoes in the vege garden when I got the message from my sister in law “I think we need to get out”. Minutes later, the official emergency warning came: “If your bushfire plan is to leave, now is the time to leave”.
Nothing can prepare you for that moment. I got the photos from the fridge, some precious artworks, clothes & supplies and stacked them into the car. The sky thickened with smoke and turned dark. I couldn’t believe this was happening.
I got out. I was lucky. But after an agonising two days wait a friend who had walked into our property called us and confirmed our fears: we’d lost our home. Our beautiful slice of paradise in the bush had turned to ash.
Today, I’ve brought the very rubble of the home I loved to the steps of Parliament House.
Our slice of paradise in the bush. Turned to ash.
No one should have to go through what I’ve gone through. But what makes this tragedy so impossible to stomach is that we’ve known it was coming. Scientists and firefighters had been predicting it for years.
I could see it myself, in my own backyard. The ironbark trees and the spotted gums were losing their leaves on mass. Afternoon summer storms had become a distant memory. The gullies dried up, and we couldn’t hear the frogs croaking anymore. The natural world I cherished so much was sending us a message - yet our leaders refused to listen.
When 23 former fire chiefs requested to meet with Scott Morrison in April with a warning for the fire season ahead, he refused to meet them. Their predictions came true, manifesting in an unprecedented start to the bushfire season - all before summer had even begun.
Scott Morrison is telling me “now is not the time to talk about climate change” when I am a victim of its impacts. He offers his ‘thoughts and prayers’ when we’ve been calling on governments for decisive climate action for decades.
Even now, as fires continue to burn only a couple of hours away in the Tallaganda and Bimberamala National Parks, our politicians still refuse to commit to no new fossil fuel projects - even when coal is the leading contributor to this climate chaos. Well, if they can’t smell the smoke - I’ll make sure they see firsthand what their inaction has done to people like me.
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