Long Relationships

By Mr. JM

Today we head out into the fire-ravaged countryside around Melbourne. For those who don’t know, Victoria, Australia, has been hit by the worst fires ever in our history.

Almost 200 people died in a firestorm that burned hot enough to melt metal, totally destroyed towns and swept across the land so fast that it burned out entire towns while leaving green leaves at the tops of trees. At times the fire front was being sucked along by its own wind at speed in excess of 100kms per hour – that’s 60mph. You can outrun that on the open highway in a car – on windy narrow mountain roads, not a chance and many people died in their cars.

So why, just days after the horror, are we heading up that way?

We go to celebrate a Valentines Day together, in a lovely little pub just to the North of the worst of the blazes that swept north of Melbourne. We go to start the process of bringing money back into the area, as a gesture of defiance at the devastation being able to interrupt the normal life of the wonderful people who live in the country and we go to show them they are being thought of by people other than those who have gone through the inferno.

I sent an email around my work, emphasising that people need to think about the near future for these places. Give them a few months to get the rebuilding well under way, but make plans to head on out, visit the devastated towns and spend some money there.

The people of Melbourne and the rest of Australia have raised almost a hundred million dollars to help, the Red Cross is turning away blood donors because they cannot handle the sheer volume of people showing up to give blood, and the government is making ready to rebuild these communities as soon as they can get into them, but what is important is after the news has died away, when the aid has done its job and the communities are starting to live again – we need to get out there and support them by using their services, buying their produce and crafts, eating at their pubs, restaurants and cafes.

So we go to have a lovely night together, in beautiful rooms with excellent food, at The Peppercorn Hotel in Yea.