🔗 Share this article

When a local resident returned to his property on the end of the week, his rural mid-north coast property was encircled by a massive cloud of smoke. Within twenty-four hours later, two houses on his street were consumed, and the nearby woodland would be reduced to blackened skeletal remains.

A Community at the Centre of Tragedy

The township of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has become at the centre of a tragedy after a veteran firefighter lost his life on Sunday evening when he was struck by a falling tree. This represents a “foreboding start” to the fire season.

A total of four homes have been lost in the wider Bulahdelah area, comprising two on Emu Creek Road, the residence of Garry Morgan, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.

“No words can express it,” he said. “My dogs stayed right by me, it was frightening.”

Landscapes of Loss and Fortitude

Bulahdelah is a common pause on the Pacific Highway for tourists journeying up the mid-north coast to coastal destinations such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.

On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was shrouded in dense, ochre-hazed smoke. Water-bombing helicopters hovered overhead, assisting ground crews who were attempting to quash a fire that had consumed 4,000 hectares since Friday.

Transport vehicles slowed to observe road markers and warning signs, the blackened gum trees and burnt grass on each side of the highway evidence of how far the fire had burnt through the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It was still at a 'watch and act' alert level on Monday evening.

A Hub of Emergency Response

In Bulahdelah, though, it would seem like a typical day if not for the helicopters circling overhead and smell of smoke hanging in the atmosphere.

A fuel depot for aircraft has been set up at the town’s showground, turning it into a hub for around 300 firefighters and volunteers who have come from across the state to help.

On Monday afternoon, supplies of water were being unloaded from trucks and sweets were being packed into zip lock bags. One firefighter estimated that they needed a bottle of water every 20 minutes when on the fire line.

Personal Accounts from the Fireground

Plumes of smoke were continuing to emit from glowing hotspots on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that hugs a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.

On a fence post outside a burnt property, a scorched stuffed toy remained pinned to the log, complete with a Christmas hat.

Further along, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a little patch of grass surrounding his house the sole remnant of how the landscape used to look. Miraculously, his property was spared, despite his neighbour’s burning to the ground.

He recalled receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, telling him “you have roughly 30 minutes and then a fire’s going to hit”. His estimate was spot on.

“We hosed down the property and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “panic”. “I said to myself, ‘what have I gotten into’,” he said. “But I refused to leave.”

Thankfully, crews protected the home, and succeeded in defending it. The bushfire moved through in about half an hour, sounding like “a roaring inferno”.

A Landscape Transformed

Morgan, who has lived in the same house for around 30 years, has not witnessed the land this parched.

“We used to get rain every week,” he said. “We’ve never had fires like this. But you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

On the same street, Jeff Curley was looking after his friend’s property which had also largely survived Saturday’s blaze, other than a broken headlight on a car and a container of wood stored for winter that had burnt to ash.

“I am very familiar with this area,” he said. “Previously a fire almost reached a local ridge and that was pretty scary then, but the wind changed.

“The conditions are far more arid now. It came from everywhere, and the firies pretty much saved it [the property].”

This experience wasn’t new for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires came through in 2019.

“You see people on the news say, ‘The speed was unbelievable’,” he said. “It seems distant, and all of a sudden it surrounds you. I know what it’s like. I told my friend to evacuate immediately, and he did.”

Official Response and Ongoing Threat

Kirsty Channon, spokesperson for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from various services had come from “across the coastal region” to help with the containment effort and had done an “incredible work” protecting houses from being destroyed.

She said all agencies had “pulled together” after the tragic loss of one of their own.

“The firefighting community is one big family,” she said. “However, the danger is not over.

“We’ve seen the Pacific Highway closing and reopening a few times, the fire spot across the road. It’s still not contained, it will continue to grow.”

Channon said efforts in the coming hours would focus on the small community of Nerong, which was anticipated to be impacted by the Pacific Highway blaze on Monday evening. Residents had been urged to leave if not prepared, and have a fire plan.

“Small blazes are igniting from storm activity a few days ago,” she said.

“Tomorrow’s weather is mid 30s with variable wind, and that has been difficult - wind swirls in the area.”