A Series of Unfortunate Events.

"Australia has witnessed it's greatest natural disaster. Worse then Black Friday. Worse the Ash Wednesday. Only in wartime has the toll of dead and wounded been greater." (www.newsbreak.com.au)

I have been hearing small bits and pieces of the weather and the heat wave that has struck Victoria and Australia over the last month, mainly from the complaining words of the status updates from 'facebook friends'.

I have heard of temperatures in the high forties. Of bushfires raging the state. Yet, nobody expressed to me the extent of the natural disaster at hand.

The state of Victoria is about to be wiped out by bushfire. Marysville has gone and surrounding towns are threatened. Kinglake is gone. Phone networks have been cut. The countries relief team is stepping in.

Hundreds of people are without homes, without shelter.

We were sitting in our lounge on Wednesday night in Peisey Nancroix, France, watching 'The Castle'. One of the more classic Australian films. The Castle is a film about building a family, loving what is affordable, creating memories, building a home out of love and creating a Castle. The people who have been affected by these Victorian bushfires are in a somewhat similar position to Darryl Kerrigan and family. But rather then being able to fight the government for what is rightfully theirs, the memories of the home they had built, these civilians didn't have a choice. This natural disaster has taken what some people have spent their lives creating. No questions asked and some, not even a chance to try and defend. Their lives, their houses, their homes, their castles, all gone.

In writing this I would like to acknowledge the families that have been affected by these fires, to the heroic work of the Country Fire Authorities, to the brave who have defended their homes, and most definitely to those that have lost their lives in defending and trying to save memories, homes and castles.

We live in a country that is dominated by bush, our natural surroundings are vast. We have settled on a land that needs to revive, fertilise itself and go through these natural processes to be able to continue living. When you settle and decide to build memories on a land such as this, you have to accept what may become.

Unfortunately for us, that is the revival of bush, for the UK, it is the snow that is taking over the city and making locals house bound, the floods in Queensland. Cyclone threats in WA. Like us, Australians, the rest of the world is also experiencing natural disaster. We must adapt and accept that the land and it's weather has power over all human activity.

photos from www.theage.com.au