As the weather cools and the risk of imminent danger eases, the residents of Harcourt, Walmer, and Ravenswood slowly begin their return home.
Surveying the damage, they are met with the acrid smell of smoke, the sound of helicopters circling, and fire trucks wailing, and the devastating, unfamiliar sights of a once-familiar landscape.
The number of people who have lost their homes and a lifetime of belongings numbers in the hundreds, with over 45 houses lost.
As people rummage through the wreckage to find even a scrap of the familiar, the birds perform an eerie dance of flight above, hunting for easy prey on the blackened ground.
Neighbours bury their exhaustion and fear in feelings of guilt at their gratitude for being spared. They grapple to find a new normal, cleaning the rotting debris from their darkened fridges, wiping soot from the kitchen benches, tending to their animals with care.
Nearby townships, shadowed by the brightly burning mountain, exist in a strange stillness as friends and acquaintances engage in a social dance, carefully inquiring about the impact of the fire.
Forgetting, even for a short time, is nearly impossible as phones beep with constant reminders of emergency warnings and updates, and great columns of smoke rise into the sky.
TV, radio, and the internet are flooded with horrifying stories and images and news of friends and acquaintances who have lost everything.
Tears, embraces, and stories are shared freely as the community collectively wraps its arms around the fire-ravaged townships, offering support, services, shelter, and friendship.
These same feelings, actions, and thoughts ripple across Victoria, replicated in fire-affected townships with different landscapes but the same enduring community spirit, as the stories move slowly to become part of the state’s history of Black Friday 2026.
Ray Fowler, who lives in a neighbouring community, joined the community in Harcourt as they gathered in the days following the worst of the fires.
