Jo Dodds

President, Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action

(Bega Valley Shire Councillor, Bega, NSW)

My home was impacted by a bushfire on March 18 2018. The fire was due to unprecedented weather conditions for this time of year which fanned sparks from powerlines. Phenomenal hot, dry winds hurled the fire towards our forest home and also towards the small township of Tathra on the NSW far south coast.

My partner had time to set up sprinklers around our home then we stood on the riverbank 2 kilometres downstream and watched over 4 hours as the fire approached and grew into a towering, terrifying inferno. We saw the forest burn and the plumes of black smoke rising from the homes of friends and neighbours as we waited for the fire to reach our home. We heard gas cylinders exploding in town, saw traumatised people being evacuated in over-crowded cars and even in boats being towed behind vehicles. I had taken nothing from home and thought of the many precious things I stood to lose - my mother’s last letter to me, my grandfather’s clock, my great grandmother’s jewellery and ALL of the writing I have created over 40 years of work!

We were incredibly lucky that the wind stopped just as the fire reached our property and all we physically lost was some building timber. But we also lost our sense of safety, our peace of mind, our beautiful forest drive into town, and our friends and neighbours whose homes burned to the ground now live elsewhere while they struggle with the myriad traumas, tasks, and griefs they must now face.

Even those with ‘gold-plated’ insurance are finding that it won’t cover the full cost of replacing homes and contents. And nothing will restore our lost photographs and artworks, our forests, or our peace of mind.

I have seen for myself that climate change is not a future threat, or something happening only in Antarctica or Kiribati. It is happening NOW, to my communities and others who face similar threats now, not just in the traditional fire seasons, but all year round. Even when our Bega Valley is lush and green, even in winter, our fire chiefs have warned us we are only ever three days of hot, dry wind away from the same conditions that caused our fire to be so devastating.

I decided to seek a leadership role in my community because I realised that we needed more diverse voices speaking up about issues of concern. But it wasn’t until after the March 18 fire that I realised the biggest and most critical issue I could address as a human and as a community representative, was climate destruction.

Any government that knows what we have been through and continues to suggest that there’s no need for urgent action should be held directly responsible for the next fire. It is their job to ensure the safety of our communities, their job to represent OUR interests against those of the fossil fuel industries that are driving the majority of the climate destruction. Any government which does not prioritise the people, our homes and livelihoods, our food production and livestock, any government that ignores our security from the biggest threat our communities will ever face, should be held accountable.

Mr Morrison, Mr Shorten - there is one issue which must rise above all others in your work in office. It requires that you be courageous in the face of denialists and fossil fuel industry representatives, within and outside your own parties. It requires that you step up and speak out like the smart, brave Schools Strikers for Climate Change. It requires that you acknowledge what communities like mine have already lost. You have the technology, the economy and the will of the vast majority of the population - act on climate change NOW. Move to renewables, cease fossil fuel mining and production. Transition our economies NOW so that we may sleep safer and know that there’s a future for our children