🔗 Share this article

As Garry Morgan returned to his property on Friday afternoon, his home on the coastal fringe was enveloped in a “big plume of smoke”. Within twenty-four hours later, two dwellings on his street were destroyed, and the nearby woodland became charred remnants.

A Town Grappling with Loss

The township of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has become at the centre of a tragedy after a veteran firefighter died on Sunday evening when he was struck by a collapsing tree. This signals a ominous beginning to the bushfire season.

Four properties have been destroyed in the broader Bulahdelah area, comprising two on Emu Creek Road, the residence of Garry Morgan, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.

“No words can express it,” he said. “My dogs stayed right by me, the fear was palpable.”

Landscapes of Loss and Fortitude

Bulahdelah is a common pause on the Pacific Highway for tourists journeying up the coastal region to beach areas such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.

On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was blanketed in dense, ochre-hazed smoke. Water-bombing helicopters circled above, aiding ground crews who were battling a fire that had burnt 4,000 hectares since Friday.

Heavy vehicles slowed to observe traffic cones and warning signs, the scorched trees and charred grass on each side of the highway proof of how far the fire had burnt through the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It was still at a 'watch and act' alert level on Monday evening.

The Nerve Centre for Firefighting

In Bulahdelah, though, it would appear as another ordinary day if not for the helicopters circling overhead and smell of smoke lingering in the air.

A fuel depot for aircraft has been established at the town’s showground, converting it into a hub for around 300 emergency personnel who have come from across the state to help.

On Monday afternoon, cartons of water were being unloaded from trucks and sweets were being packed into zip lock bags. One firefighter noted that they needed a water bottle every 20 minutes when on the frontline.

Personal Accounts from the Fireground

Billows of smoke were continuing to emit from glowing hotspots on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that hugs a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.

On a boundary post outside a destroyed home, a charred teddy bear remained pinned to the log, complete with a Christmas hat.

Nearby, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a little patch of grass surrounding his house the only remaining sign of how the landscape used to look. Against the odds, his property was saved, despite his neighbour’s burning to the ground.

He remembered receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, warning him “you’ve got about half an hour and then a blaze will arrive”. His timing was precise.

“We sprayed the house and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “panic”. “I said to myself, ‘what have I gotten into’,” he said. “But I wasn’t leaving.”

Thankfully, firefighters surrounded the house, and managed to save it. The bushfire moved through in about half an hour, sounding like “a roaring inferno”.

An Environment Altered

Morgan, who has resided at the same house for around 30 years, has never seen the land in such a dry state.

“It once rained rain every week,” he said. “This intensity is new. But you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

On the same street, Jeff Curley was looking after his friend’s property which had also largely survived Saturday’s blaze, except for a damaged light on a car and a barrel of firewood stored for winter that had been reduced to ashes.

“I’ve been here many, many times,” he said. “Previously a fire almost approached a nearby ridge and that was pretty scary then, but the wind changed.

“The conditions are far more arid now. The fire approached from all directions, and the firefighters pretty much saved it [the property].”

This was not a novel situation for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires swept through in 2019.

“You see people on the news say, ‘I can’t believe how fast it came’,” he said. “You think it’s over there, and all of a sudden it’s on top of you. I know what it’s like. I told my friend to just get out, and he did.”

Fire Service Update and Continuing Danger

Kirsty Channon, public information officer for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from multiple agencies had come from “right up and down the coast” to assist in the containment effort and had done an “incredible work” saving properties from being destroyed.

She said all agencies had “united” after the death of one of their own.

“The firefighting community is a close-knit group,” she said. “The threat persists.

“We’ve seen the Pacific Highway closing and reopening a few times, the fire spot across the road. It remains uncontained, it will continue to grow.”

Channon said efforts in the coming hours would center on the tiny township of Nerong, which was anticipated to be impacted by the highway fire on Monday evening. Authorities advised locals to evacuate if unprepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.

“Spot fires are igniting from storm activity a few days ago,” she said.

“The forecast is the mid-thirties with variable wind, and that has been difficult - wind swirls in the area.”