‘It’s about knowing what’s going on. It’s about being informed, not being afraid.’

When Tara evacuated her house at Korinderie Ridge with her kids, her husband Alex decided to stay and defend. Worried about his safety and feeling uncertain of the severity of the threat, Tara and her friend set off to the fire-front to investigate.

‘I feel like I’m only just completely recovered.’

Fourteen-year-old April talks with her sister Olive and Avida Guise do Rego about the fear she felt for the safety of her community and family during the fires, the injury she suffered when walking through the bush after the fires, and the concern she felt for people that lost everything.

‘The penny started to drop, and we bolted for home.’

After three days of battling the Busbys Flat fire with the RFS, Roger Bailey returned to his cattle farm near Rappville to defend his own property.

‘I realised if I stay here and wait for the fire to come to me, it’s going to be that much bigger and more dangerous.’

During the Mt Nardi fires, Ivy Young helped to organise volunteers, clear trails with her trusty McLeod tool, and patrol and put out fires in the months following. After things had settled at home, she set off with her newfound skills to help her parents as a fire threatened their home in the Bega Vallley.

‘The look on her face; it was like she realised she lost a dear friend.’

Terri shares the story of two special trees in the rainforest on her parents’ property in Terania Creek. One that was lost. And one that was saved.

‘Where does your mind go when it doesn’t have a body to attach itself to?

After the fires burnt through his property on Long Gulley Road near Drake, Paul was ‘cleaned up’ by a dead stringybark tree. Paul shares his story of that day, and where his mind travelled to before he was found by his partner Belinda Fields.

‘We’re getting there… we’ve still got family.’

Phil McKenzie recounts how they survived in the months after the fires destroyed their property on Myall Creek Road, the rebuild process, his personal health struggles, and the much-appreciated help and support received along the way.

‘To get to the Black Summer fires, I guess it’s the blackness in my heart as well, the grief.’

When the fires reached the Bog Conservation Area – the property of Jimmy and his late partner Richard – Jimmy was amazed, and heartened, by the area the fire left untouched.

‘So we went and stayed outside of Leeville School.’

Linda and Steve Cavanagh share their story about evacuating with their two dogs when fire threatened their property near Rappville, and how the preparation they’d done beforehand paid off.

‘It just felt like a miracle.’

After days of smoke and flames and the sounds of dozers and choppers, the rain finally came dousing out the flames, much to the relief and amazement of Cloud’s Creek resident, Meredith Stanton.

Gulli-bul elder Aunty Kali (Marcia McBride) shares her childhood memory of rescuing a boorabee (koala) during a fire at the Anamoor State Forest, what the 2019/2020 fires meant for her, and her work with cultural fires since then.