As a youngster growing up in Victoria I visited Marysville, about 100km to the north east of Melbourne, many times.
Even knew where the decent take away places were. I first went there on a school trip, like so many other youngsters, to see Stevenson's Falls. I went back a few more times at school on the way to Lake Mountain cross country ski resort, which lies at the top of the mountain over looking Marysville.
On the way to Marysville we would go along the Maroondah Highway, through Healesville, up the Black Spur, and then down the other side into Marysville. You would see the signs along this bit of road, past Healesville and before Marysville, commerating the bushfires of 1939 and then the 1983, and you could still see some blackened trees from the 1983 fires. As a kid at school we learnt a lot about bushfires because so many of our classmates had lost homes in the 1983 fires so we knew that the risk in these areas was real, but never did we ever think that cold and wet Marysville, surrounded by huge mountain ash forests, would ever be at risk.
I did some bicycle racing and riding in and around Marysville when I was at uni, and some cross country skiing at Lake Mountain. I used to love going there because the mountain ash forests seemed to just go forever up into the sky. The forests were thick and green, and untouched by any bushfires, particularly those close to Lake Mountain. The air was clean and crisp, free of the pollution of Melbourne. You could hear the sounds of the forest, and if you were lucky enough maybe even a lyrebird.
That was my memory of Marysville. But not anymore. Below is one of the most terrible things I have ever read and am ever likely to:
CFA firefighter John Munday, who was in one of the fire trucks that entered Marysville about 10 minutes before the firefront swept through the town just before 6pm on Saturday, described in horrific detail how little hope so many residents had of escaping, let alone surviving.
"The toll is going to be massive," Mr Munday said.
He described how he and his crew had to make the heartbreaking decision to save themselves knowing they were leaving people to die.
"We had people banging on the sides of our tanker begging us to go back to houses where they knew there were people trapped, but we couldn't because if we had, we'd all be dead too," Mr Munday told The Australian.
"There were children running down the streets with flames behind them. It was hell. I never want to go back to that place, never.
"As we drove down to the Gallipoli Park, where people were assembling, we knew there were people in homes that were on fire and they had no hope.
"The whole town died around us as we bunkered down on the outside of the oval ringed by funeral pyres while all around us we had the screaming noise of gas cylinders exploding in homes.
"The only way we could have saved them was to put ourselves on the altar and put a sword to our own hearts."
The official death toll from the Black Saturday fires had risen to 181 last night, with 15 confirmed dead in Marysville.
I will say a prayer for John Munday, and all those firefighters and people affected by the tragedy, for no one should ever have to live with that memory. None of us should ever have to had made a choice like that. None of us should carry that burden for more than a second.
There are many who right now have no idea if their loved ones are alive or dead. Imagine living with that knowledge. Terrible. Many of the residents in Marysville are now described as missing. Here is a story of some of the missing:
"Those missing include Liz Leesfield and her boys, Mathew and James. Ms O'Sullivan said she had learned that the three had died in their spa when the fire swept through their new home.
"Liz was part of a little sewing group we have in town and she and her husband and boys had only just moved into their new home a week before the fires," she said.
"Liz and her husband, Rod, who survived and is in hospital, had saved for five years to get the deposit to buy this property which they were going to run as an accommodation complex. She was just an absolutely energetic, bubbly, wonderful woman who had worked so hard to achieve this dream and I can't believe she's gone but it appears to be the case," Mrs O'Sullivan said.
Another Marysvile resident who lived near the Leesfield family, Steve Guilfoyle told the same story. "Liz was an extremely religious person, the whole family was. They were always good for a laugh, mountain hillbillies who'd lived in the area for years and had settled back in town just days before this tragedy."
It is emotional reading that story, how a mother died protecting her boys. But I know God will rebuild lives after this disaster. That His grace and love for us will shine through the darkness that now covers so many. But it will not be easy. Many mountains will need to be climbed by sooooo many.
But my memory of Marysville will have a different context now. It will be one of prayer and hope for the people who called it home. For those who made terrible decisions in trying to save the town.
I hope and will pray that life returns to Marysville. I hope and will pray that the bubbles return for the people who live there. That one day laughter will return and replace the sadness. That one day Marysville will once again be a place of happy memories as it was for me.
God Bless.
