As wild bushfires threaten the town of Yea, farmer Greg Barker has said goodbye to his wife, bracing himself to defend their home.
Yea Residents Prepare for Bushfires
Barker is staying at the brick home he and his wife have lived in for more than 20 years, preparing for a significant battle against the approaching flames. His wife, Jacinta, has evacuated towards Seymour, hoping to avoid road closures.
“Jacinta, you’ve got to get out of here,” Barker told his wife as the sky turned orange and the wind picked up. They exchanged worried glances before she drove away.
Thick, grey smoke is blanketing Yea, and most houses in Barker’s street are empty as residents followed warnings from authorities about an out-of-control fire traveling south towards the town.
“I’m not scared or anything, just apprehensive as we just don’t know what this wind’s going to do. When it comes into the edge of Yea, what’s it going to do?” Barker said.
Nearby, the town of Yarck has already been engulfed by fire. Barker, a trained country firefighter, has heavy-duty hoses and sprinklers ready to extinguish any embers.
Barker has battled fires before, including in Strathbogie, but says these bushfires feel different. “Some of the fires have been pretty horrific, similar sort of country, really hilly, stony, steep country,” he said. “We’ve had a few major grass fires here, but nothing ever like this. This was as bad as the Black Saturday fires in 2009.”
Most residents of Yea have packed their cars and left the historic town, which experienced a devastating bushfire on January 8, 1969.
Barker received a phone call from a friend who fled as the fires changed direction and began moving towards his house. “He’d made up his mind to stay, and then he called me, and he just said, ‘The fire is coming straight for us, we’ve got to go now’,” Barker said, while hosing down his garden.
Yea resident Micky Rawling is moving her animals to a nearby vacant plot, hoping to protect them. She is attempting to create a marshland to provide a wet area for protection.
“Things are getting a bit hairy now,” Rawling said. “But I’ve decided to stay because I want to protect my home and animals.”
Paul Heyen is putting down buckets of water throughout his front yard, deciding to stay with his family, cat, and two visitors to protect their home of over 40 years. He has a battery-operated hose ready and a plan to flee to the local hospital if necessary.
Heyen says several friends in nearby towns like Ruffy and Yarck have lost their homes. “I’ve lived through a lot of fires here. It is life in the country. The Black Saturday fires, that one was awful, really bad. My kids lost a couple of their friends in that one, so they’re a bit anxious because of that.”
The situation remains precarious as the fire front stretches approximately 100 kilometers, and the winds continue to shift.
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