Sabrina

Davis

Bushfire Survivor, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

The fires on Kangaroo Island burned for over three weeks before I evacuated with my children and dogs on the 3rd of January 2020. We said a tearful goodbye to my husband who had decided to stay behind and defend our farm together with his brother and father whilst we left, needing to escape the smoke. Many hours of no power and no phone reception, fear and tears, no communication and sheer panic followed until we finally heard from the three men and found out they were luckily alive but we had lost everything we owned that day.

After losing our entire farm including all our livestock and our house, our little family was suddenly homeless and I was lost. For weeks my husband was still firefighting, helping other community members and friends and family even after we lost it all, whilst I tried to create a new temporary home for our children over 100 kilometres away. This is how we lived our lives for another year after the Black Summer fires of 2019/2020—separate. My husband cleaned up our farm, living in the midst of a black dustbowl surrounded by ash, while I was in a zombie-ish state for months following.

At some point over the next year, I craved human interaction and connection while Covid-19 restrictions kept me apart from my German family and even other community members and fire-affected friends in the neighbourhood. The isolation bubble was the worst thing for our mental recovery and I therefore started a project called Humans of Kangaroo Island, telling the stories of local residents online to connect, uplift and inspire each other. The project gave me great purpose each day while I struggled mentally, re-connected me with friends and introduced me to residents of the island I had not met before. The page quickly gained in popularity and I decided to use it to make an impact with storytelling. Over the next month I shared the stories of our unsung heroes, the local firefighters who give their all each summer without compensation, many who lost it all as well. I ran a fundraiser alongside with the aim to re-equip the firefighters with the funds collected. We raised $60,000 over two months and I have successfully equipped 225 farmers with protective clothing, dozens with replaced UHF radios and the island now has 6 quick fill pumps to prepare us for future fires. I am still using the funds to further equip our community with woollen blankets and first aid kits, and provide new units to those firefighters who lost theirs, enabling them to help again.

Our community has experienced many fires over the decades but had never lost a house or life before. The fire we experienced in 2019/20 was like nothing anyone here had ever seen. Although I was aware of climate change previously, the fires made me so much more aware. Now I knew, not only was climate change real, it was already affecting ordinary Australians.

The community on Kangaroo Island have all learned that we need to work together: conservationists, farmers, community members, council and the big powers. I believe we need everyone’s help, from a grassroots level, to convince the powers that be to make the urgent changes our environment needs.

In hindsight, I am now grateful for the experience of Black Summer, even though losing your home and fearing for your husband’s life is nothing I would wish upon anyone; but it has changed me in incredible ways. I am more grateful for what I have; I have learned that we live in a very strong and resilient community and that connection and communication is key for our recovery. I have also learned that we are not alone; there have been many affected before us and many will follow. If we share learnings and experiences, we can help each other and further prepare other communities who will experience fires in the future.

I have therefore also created a documentary film called ‘January 3rd’, the day many in our community lost it all, including myself. The film tells the timeline of events on the 3rd of January 2020 through the eyes of those who experienced it first-hand. It also looks at the outpouring of love and donations our community has received after the fires and reflects on our recovery as a whole. I hope the film will help those coming after us, those having to live through a natural disaster in the future, to see that there will be light at the end of the tunnel when you see no way out, and that they are not alone.