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Issue 153 Autumn 2023
Publication of the Anglesea Community House
Scenes from post Ash Wednesday fires Photo supplied by Anglsea and District Historical Society
Remembering Ash Wednesday By Liz Clark Liz attended several recent commemorative events where locals shared their experiences of the
devastating events of the Ash Wednesday Fires of 1983. On the fortieth anniversary of the Ash Wednesday bushfires, several special gatherings in Anglesea and Aireys Inlet were held for townsfolk and visitors to recall the events of those days. To honour those who had fought the fires so bravely, to share memories and enjoy the comradeship that followed the recovery from those difficult times. So much was said, from the inspiring story so vividly told by the Anglesea fire captain at the time, Bill Bubb, to the tales from people who told of what they had done on the beach that night. Recollections of what they took with them when told to leave the area or go to the beach, and how life changed forever for some residents. Ash Wednesday’s bush fires were short and harsh. In 24 hours or less
the world here changed. Fire spread with demonic speed from Deans Marsh to Anglesea in a rush of wind and flames, smoke and fear. It was a hot day, people did what they could to stay cool and safe, but no one expected the speed and intensity of the raging fire. When people in our towns heard police driving by ordering them out of their houses – ‘Don’t stop and worry about what to take, just go,’ – some people quickly headed for Geelong. Frightened, with children in tow, not knowing where other family members might be, not knowing where they were going, what they might return to, whether their homes would burn, what would be left, they headed away.
Those who stayed were ordered to go to the beach and described the furious rushing noise of the wind and the fire ‘like a freight train’ one said and sheets of iron roofing landing on the sand, and people yelling and crying and talking, and sudden silences in the frenzied night air. . The animals and lizards and creepy crawlies emerging from the bush and the fear as the incoming tide reduced the amount of room on the shore. Loclas remember cars driven into the sea, and the excruciating heat. People were thirsty, hungry and afraid. Not just afraid, terrified. Finally, after hours of enduring enormous uncertainty and peril, an all-clear was announced. They remembered the fear of going home.
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