When Garry Morgan arrived home on Friday afternoon, his rural mid-north coast property was encircled by a massive cloud of smoke. Less than twenty-four hours later, a pair of homes on his street were consumed, and the surrounding forest became a scorched landscape.
A Community at the Centre of Tragedy
The community of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has become at the centre of a tragedy after a long-serving firefighter died on Sunday evening when he was hit by a falling tree. This signals a “foreboding start” to the wildfire period.
Four structures have been destroyed in the broader Bulahdelah area, including two on Emu Creek Road, where Morgan lives, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.
“Words fail to capture it,” he said. “My dogs stayed right by me, it was frightening.”
Scenes of Destruction and Resilience
Bulahdelah is a frequent rest stop on the Pacific Highway for tourists on their way up the mid-north coast to beach areas such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.
On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was shrouded in thick, orange smoke. Water-bombing helicopters hovered overhead, aiding firefighters on the ground who were attempting to quash a fire that had burnt 4,000 hectares since Friday.
Transport vehicles reduced speed for traffic cones and warning signs, the charred eucalypts and burnt grass on each side of the highway evidence of how far the fire had ravaged the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It remained at a watch and act level on Monday evening.
The Nerve Centre for Firefighting
In Bulahdelah, though, it would appear as a typical day if not for the aircraft overhead and smell of smoke hanging in the atmosphere.
A refuelling station for aircraft has been set up at the town’s showground, converting it into a base for around 300 emergency personnel who have travelled from across the state to help.
On Monday afternoon, water bottles were being offloaded from trucks and lollies were being packaged into zip lock bags. One firefighter estimated that they needed a bottle of water every 20 minutes when on the fire line.
First-Hand Stories from the Blaze
Clouds of smoke were still rising from glowing hotspots on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that follows a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.
On a fence post outside a destroyed home, a scorched stuffed toy remained pinned to the log, complete with a Christmas hat.
Further along, Morgan was on his veranda with his two dogs, a little patch of grass surrounding his house the only remaining sign of how the landscape used to look. Miraculously, his property was spared, despite his neighbor's home burning to the ground.
He remembered receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, telling him “you have roughly 30 minutes and then a blaze will arrive”. His prediction was accurate.
“We hosed down the property and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “alarm”. “I said to myself, ‘what have I gotten into’,” he said. “But I wasn’t leaving.”
Thankfully, crews protected the home, and succeeded in defending it. The bushfire moved through in about half an hour, with a sound resembling “a roaring inferno”.
A Landscape Transformed
Morgan, who has lived in the same house for around 30 years, has not witnessed the land in such a dry state.
“We used to get rain every week,” he said. “This intensity is new. But you must accept the challenges with the rewards.”
On the same street, Jeff Curley was looking after his friend’s property which had also mostly been spared 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.
“It’s just so much drier this time. It came from everywhere, and the firies pretty much saved it [the property].”
This was not a novel situation 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, ‘I can’t believe how fast it came’,” he said. “It seems distant, and suddenly it's upon you. I understand the feeling. I told my friend to just get out, 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 “right up and down the coast” to help with the containment effort and had done an “amazing job” saving properties from being destroyed.
She said all agencies had “pulled together” after the death of one of their own.
“Firefighters is a close-knit group,” she said. “However, the danger is not over.
“There have been instances of the Pacific Highway open and close a few times, the fire spot across the road. It remains uncontained, it will continue to grow.”
Channon said efforts in the coming hours would focus on the tiny township of Nerong, which was expected to be hit by the highway fire on Monday evening. Authorities advised locals to leave if not prepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.
“Little fires are popping up from lightning strikes a few days ago,” she said.
“The forecast is mid 30s with variable wind, and that has been difficult - wind changes direction in the area.”
