Before The Fires:

Birds

After The Fires

Just before Christmas, 2015, the property was hit by bushfire. Since then, I’ve been documenting the recovery and how the environment is responding.

December, 2015

The Bush Block Got Burned: Part 1

This post shows what the property looked like the week following the fire. It was quite confronting. The cars we had all learned to drive in were burned. The shed and gazebo where we sat on many winter nights were flattened. There were some animal carcasses. There was no life, no greenery. Until we got to one of the neighbours, whose fields were still green.

Bush Block got burned: Part 2

During this visit, I tried to take more creative photos to show the destruction. We did see an echidna and kangaroo, which was reassuring.

More Photos From The Bush Block

A week after the previous visit. I was surprised to still find skinks.

Ants from my parents bush block

We found a healthy ant nest near the dam – so naturally I took a lot of photos. This was the main nest we saw.

January, 2016

Signs of life at the Bush block

This was taken a couple of weeks later. Ants were starting to return and I saw a decent amount of birdlife. I didn’t see as many birds for quite some time.

February, 2016

Signs of life at bush block

I may have done the same title twice! Things were starting to get exciting. We saw trees starting to get regrowth in places, especially around the dam. Insects were starting to return. We also got a new fence thanks to Blaze Aid which did so much for morale.

Lots Of Regrowth At The Bush Block

We were getting more and more regrowth. It was growing about a foot out from the trees in some places and in others, growing independent of any trees.

Lots Of Regrowth At The Bush Block #2

This visit, I showed the regrowth in a winder context. You can see the green up to the top of some trees and we were starting to be able to tell which trees had definitely died.

May, 2016

Autumn Regrowth at the Property

I didn’t have the change to return here for a couple of months. The absence meant that there was a significant contrast between visits. My parents had cleaned up the wreckage from the shed. There was a lot of groundcover returning and a couple of specimens of fungi.

June, 2016

Groundcover is Returning At The Property

After 6 long months we were finally starting to see groundcover returning. Grass and sundew were popping up in their previous haunts. There was alsoan increase in bird activity; especially the first sighting of a wedgie!

Fungi at the bushblock

May was unseasonably warm. As the cooler weather hit, we noticed a lot more fungi around. We’ve been making an effort to document this, although I’m struggling with ID’ing.

Post Cleanup Pictures Of The Property

We finally got someone in to help with the cleanup. It was a bit of a shock seeing it compared to what it was like before. The tractor knocked over some of the fungi. It forced us to look harder to find interesting specimens and we found some new types.