Black Saturday February 2009

The Black Saturday Bushfires is the name given to the bushfires which started on the 7th of February 2009 in Victoria, Australia.

The weather conditions on the day were some of the worst bushfire weather conditions ever recorded. Temperatures reached 46 degrees celsius with winds in excess of 100km per hour. Leading up to the disastrous conditions was 2 months of extremely low rainfall and hot dry conditions.

The Black Saturday Bushfires killed 173 people, injured 414 people, destroyed 2,100 homes and displaced 7,562 people.

Initially I was reluctant to visit any of the areas as I did not want to intrude on the grief of those affected by the devastation caused. However, after a few months there was a constant call-out on the radio for people to show support by visiting these areas. So In June and July I made a couple of trips to Marysville, Healesville and Kinglake. The advantage of waiting a few months is that new growth can clearly be detected in my images which translates into fresh hope for the future.