What happens in the early morning in a suburb of Geelong? In Belmont, the pelicans are looking for their first meal of the day and the Barwon Rowing Club was hard at it as a number of teams were going through their paces on the Barwon River that runs near the Comfort Inn. Sunday Market place was also stirring and was similar to a large flea market with a little garage and rummage sale thrown in for good measure. People were arriving and setting up booths and displaying the items that wanted to sell.
Walking past a Roman Catholic church, a Uniting Church, and of course, an Anglican Church, early church goes were leaving after the first service of the day. The return trip to the motel an hour later was easier as it was down hill. It didn’t take long for the small shopping center across from the motel to come alive as shoppers were on their way to K-Mart, the bakery, or one of the other eating establishments.
About 2:30PM the Rotarians from Alexandra arrived and most of the luggage was loaded to the UTE (the Australian version of a utility truck…..we’d call it a pickup with a topper on the back. In any event, it was really needed as the team’s purchases had grown in the last twenty-four hours.
The trip to Alexandra took us by the refineries of Geelong, the Ford plant that makes both V-8s and V-6s….no four cylinder vehicles. Heading north to Melbourne we were about seventeen kilometers north of the city when signs of the recent fire started to appear. It was amazing how selective the fire had been with houses and property randomly selected to burn and others mercifully spared.
Our driver, Rotarian Bob Chaffe, noted that the houses without the trees, but rather those that had a lot of green space immediately adjacent to the property had escaped the fire’s flames. The ones that burned were twisted shells of mangled metal and heaps of ashes. In villages that had been totally decimated, there wasn’t even enough forensic evidence to identify some of the bodies. On Tuesday, we will learn more about the fire, the battles, the people who fought in it and the recovery process that is underway. Funerals are a common occurrence for those that perished and it doesn’t take long for a discussion to take on a somber note. Emotional recovery for everyone will be a long-time coming. Interestingly enough, the eucalypt trees and the oil that they contain, caused the huge, hot flames….but, the eucalypt tree also quickly recovers, and green shoots could be seen sprouting from many of the black-charred trees.
As we got closer to Alexandra, it was apparent that we were circling north of the fire and soon we entered the town of 2,500 people. We met host families in the local Rotary Park and departed to our respective homes for the next three days. The Alexandra Rotarians have just the right balance of work and play scheduled for us, so we’re anxious to learn more about this community. Monday brings vocational visits in the morning.
North of Melbourne…..in the aftermath of Black Saturday…..from Alexandra, Victoria, Australia……G’Day,
