Drake Village Voices
On the 30th of July 2022 – three years on from the bushfires that devastated the local community, following long periods of isolation caused by Covid restrictions, and just after the floods caused landslides on roads that cut people off from surrounding regional centres – the people in and around the village of Drake got together for the Drake Unlocked Xmas in July event and Drake Village Markets. The event was organised and rolled out by several community volunteers from the Drake Women’s Shed, the Drake Men’s Shed and the Drake Village Resource Centre, with coordination of it all led by Belinda Fields.
Belinda was inspired to put on the event after witnessing the impacts of the bushfires, Covid lockdowns, and floods on the mental health and wellbeing of community members. She was later awarded the Citizen of the Year 2023 for Tenterfield Shire Council for her efforts.
The event featured live music, face painting and games for the kids, Christmas carols, and a visit from Santa. The Fire Stories team were also invited, and on the crisp winter day, we set up a photo and interview booth, conducting the last of our interviews for the project asking the event attendees three questions about their challenges over the last three years.
We had a few hard times
but we’ve bounced back
we’re pretty resilient
Marcus (and Flash), Drake
We’ve had three big events – fires, COVID, floods – on the Northern Rivers in the last three years; how have you gotten through this time?
Considering all the fire, flood, pestilence, pandemic – we’ve bounced back. We had a few hard times, particularly during the fires. We almost lost our home, like really almost lost our home to fire; it got within two metres of the house. But yeah; we’ve bounced back, we’re pretty resilient.
What has been the biggest challenge for you and your community over this time?
I think the fires were the biggest problem, and the inability in some cases to get support. We lost every outbuilding on the place, and that contained all our machinery and tools, 25 years’ worth – everything you needed to live in the bush – and some of the outbuildings and guest accommodation. But because we didn’t lose the house, we couldn’t get access to any financial support. We probably lost 50 to 60 thousand dollars worth of stuff. In some ways that would have been better to let the house burn down and save the outbuildings. Then we would have got some sort of financial aid. We had the house insured, but we didn’t have insurance for the outbuildings.
What does recovery look like for you and your community?
It’s been very piecemeal. There hasn’t really been any coordinated sort of community response; I think people have been left to fend for themselves. That’s partly to do with a lack of unity; probably if we had all got together and had a united front to press for assistance, that would have worked better. But also, people are a bit too independent, maybe people don’t like to ask for help. Lots of people didn’t even bother to access stuff that was on hand. We tried for a bit, but we gave up because we just got knocked back at every turn. I rang up the recovery line, and the woman said, ‘Oh, as far as we’re concerned, you weren’t affected by the fire.’ And I said, ‘Watch this,’ and I put my phone on video, and panned around, 360 degrees. All you could see was the smoking rubble, everything for 150 kays in every direction was burnt out, the sheds still smoking, the machinery melting down. And she said, ‘Oh, on our map the fire hasn’t even got to you.’ So there was a real lack of understanding of what had happened.
I live in the bush
and I look after the bush
Paul Osborne, Drake
We’ve had three big events – fires, COVID, floods – on the Northern Rivers in the last three years; how have you got through this time?
I’ve lived in the forest for 42 years. I love fires and floods. But we’ve had some people lighting fires at the wrong time when conditions don’t suit, and that has made it difficult. I managed to keep the fire out of 150 acres in my place. For the next year and a half, it was just incredible, the wildlife that I had around me, because everything else had been burned for as far as you could fly in a day.
It was very frustrating – dealing with some aspects of the people who were supposed to be helping from the government. A lot of them didn’t have a clue what they were doing. I read an article in the Saturday paper the other day, and this scientist thinks that we shouldn’t be doing hazard reduction burns. This man has no clue! He does not have a clue about how to preserve the wildlife. You have fires at the right time, and then there are lots of little areas that don’t burn, so that when you get a big fire, all those little areas stay unburnt.
What has been the biggest challenge for you and your community?
I live here in the bush and I look after the bush and the animals and, you know, there’s not a lot of paid work around here. The biggest challenge has been surviving on hardly any money, but that probably goes for a lot of people these days. But it’s a lot worse now, it’s harder than it’s ever been.
What does recovery look like for you and your community?
There’s no damn recovery. I’m driving on the worst road my road has been. For the first twenty years I was here we had a great council and my road steadily got better and better. For the last twenty years, it has just got worse and worse and worse. And not just a little bit worse, it is disgusting. There’s no funding and people can spend money on stupid things. They got this pothole fixing machine that doesn’t fix potholes and cost half a million dollars. We could have twenty guys going out fixing potholes for the price of this stupid truck.
I really think we can do it
and we will do it
Kerrie Gray, Northern Rivers, Red Cross
We’ve had three big events – fires, COVID, floods – in the last three years; how have you got through this time?
Well, it’s been a hard time for a lot of people financially, emotionally. But people have realised that if they work together, they recover better. When a community comes together, you get through things a lot better. In a disaster good things happen and bad things happen. I found that during the bushfires; when a lot of organisations got together, we were able to help a lot more people by working together, and that that was a good outcome. And that’s carried through now to the floods, not in every situation, but in a lot of situations.
What has been the biggest challenge for you and your community over this time?
I think the biggest challenge is mental health for both individuals, volunteers, and members of the community. Everyone has been impacted some way or other. Because when you’re dealing with people who are traumatised, it impacts you over time. And that’s where having people that you can trust and talk to is really important, to debrief properly; a safe space where you can go and talk about how you’re really feeling. That’s something I’ve watched and seen happen in a lot of communities. At first, a lot of people are resistant to actually talking about how they felt. But once they gain that trust, they were able to download a bit. Where they needed extra help, they’re referred to help. And in a lot of cases with those people, we keep seeing and watching them recover, which has been great.
What does recovery look like for you and your community?
This last flood, because it was so massive and widespread, and so many communities are involved, it’s going to take a long time for the recovery. That’s what we’re trying to get through to people that we were here on the ground with them and we’re not going away. We’re here for the really long-term recovery. It’s got its challenges. But if we all pull together and listen to each other, and listen to the problems, I really think we can do it and we will do it. It’s just a little bit slowly slowly at the moment.
It’ll be sunny days again
with music and smiles and laughter
Ruben Mcalpine, Bonalbo
We’ve had three big events – fires, COVID, floods – in the last three years; how have you got through this time?
Living here my whole life, and knowing that it’s going to be better. Having lived in the Northern Rivers and knowing that it’s one of the most beautiful areas in the whole country. This is the reason why people choose to live here. Knowing that, and that rain, hail or shine, at the end of the day, everyone does have each other’s backs around here. And it’ll be sunny days again, with music in pubs and smiles and laughter.
What has been the biggest challenge for you and your community over this time?
I think it’s been the accumulation of events. Beginning with the drought – seeing waterholes that I’ve never seen dried up my entire life, as tiny little puddles. Then having fires come through and floods that were just gonna wash everybody’s houses away, and then to top it all off COVID, with the isolation and stuff. Bush people don’t take too kind to having to be told to stay in the house when you’re out in the middle of the bush. That’s been very hard on a lot of people as well.
What does recovery look like for you and your community?
It’s events like this, it really is. This is a small market compared to what used to run every single Sunday, twenty years ago. It was every Sunday and Drake would probably double in size. It would just be all the local people that would come in and hang out. Then usually accompanied by drinks and food at the pub, or music jams up at the hall. I think things like that, that are a bit more community-orientated and focused, where people come together for jam sessions and food nights where you only pay five dollars a plate. They still do that out at Ewingar Hall. That’s why I started learning music, because it was the jams back in the day. I’d go and see all the old boys and their old Fenders and Gibsons and say, ‘I want to do that.’ The community out there has been really strong for the past thirty years, because it’s what they do. They all come together once a week and you pay shit-all money, and you get a good feed for nothing out there in the bush. And everyone gets to come together and share that camaraderie. I think that’s what’s important. People to feel like they’re together again and not isolated, talking to each other and stuff like that.
It was like being in a war zone, where the fire was the enemy
Janelle Navin, Drake
We’ve had three big events – fires, COVID, floods – on the Northern Rivers in the last three years; how have you got through this time?
Just the mention of fires started my heart racing. But then I realised that’s all a part of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which I was diagnosed with after the fires, not knowing what was wrong with me. I emotionally broke down twelve months later.
It was like being in a war zone, where the fire was the enemy. There was a lots of anticipation, we knew the fires were coming. We knew they’d be coming up Rocky River, down the back of Patemans Road. Many a time your fire would be coming from one direction, so you’d be dealing with that, then you’d look somewhere else, and the fire would be coming from another direction.
We had days and days of anticipation, preparation, always something to do, something to clear up, to sort out, to make it easier when those fires hit. So a lot of adrenaline pumping emotion going on. Being a nurse in the past, I had that professional ability to deal with it without getting emotional. I focused on helping people cooking, making meals. My place is en route to Drake so we’d have a lot of people calling in who were stuck in town because they couldn’t get home.
People would say things like, ‘What did you lose in the fire?’ And I would say, ‘Well, I lost sleep and my nervous system.’ And they would think, Well, what’s wrong with you if you haven’t lost anything? But they’ve got no idea of that waiting, that wondering the outcome of the fire. You don’t know your outcome until the fire is passed.
What has been the biggest challenge for you and your community over this time?
We thought when we had the fires people wouldn’t understand how we really are and how fragile we really feel. But it’s more than the fires now. There’s floods. There’s COVID. It’s like a new way of life that we have to adapt to. Everyone says, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ There will be something next, and that’s how it is now. It’s a matter of still being able to enjoy your life with all these environmental issues occurring around us. It’s prompting a lot of us to go, ‘Well, we’re here in the moment, we got to do something now.’ Turn your lights off, recycle your rubbish, do all those things. Teach your grandchildren to do all these things. You got to have that hope to keep your head above the water.
I think I get survivor’s guilt: ‘My house didn’t burn down. The shed didn’t burn down.’ Lismore’s been through hell and back with the floods, and Woodburn. I feel blessed because I haven’t lost anything. And then I’ll see good people who’ve got nothing. I would like to share my things. You think, Well, I’ve got plenty. It’s not a time to go, ‘Oh this is mine.’ Inflation’s high. Petrol prices are high. It’s not a time to go, ‘Oh, this is mine and I’m keeping it that way and I’ll guard my food.’
What does recovery look like for you and your community?
I think there’s something about today, about having a big market, because we’ve been through a lull in winter – not many stalls, not many people. And today, people are coming out of the woodwork. There’s so much Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in our community, which tends to isolate you. But you’ve got to say to yourself, ‘I need to make this effort, I need to get out and talk to people and see what they’re doing and share and communicate.’ Because if you don’t, the anti-social thing gets worse. It’s something we all need to work on. Communicating and loving one another, appreciating one another, understanding one another, you know, what we’ve been through, and you’re not the only one, and sharing those feelings and thoughts. Life’s complex, and we need to work on simplifying it, is my attitude. We need to make life that little bit less complex.
All photos: Jodie Harris
