A broken clothes line in a blackened patch of dirt is among the only hints that the pile of tin and rubble nearby was once a family home.
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A ruined car, its aluminium wheels melted into the ground, stands in front of what was the garage. It’s hard to imagine there is the mangled remains of a caravan inside.
The black earth, with its preserved row of silver birches and strip of green lawn, was the home site of Vicki Angus, her husband, and four children for more than 20 years.
Ms Angus, the vice-principal at Camperdown College, said the rational side of her family knew they should just be grateful they’re all alive, but at times “the emotional side wins over”.
“We’re just heartbroken with just such a profound sense of loss,” she said. “It’s hard to come to terms with.
“I feel for my kids, that they have no history to pass on to their children like I’ve been able to do.
“I was an avid collector of antiques and china and I’ve lost all that. I suppose at the end of the day you wonder why I went to so much trouble when they’re just gone.”
The Elingamite family was having dinner in Peterborough on the night of the fire.
“Our daughter text us to say the Terang substation was on fire and from Peterborough you could actually see the glow of that and it was really very windy,” Ms Angus said.
“Then we received another text message to say we had fires popping up everywhere on the emergency app and they’re close to home. The weather was so horrific that we knew we couldn’t drive there.
We’re just heartbroken with just such a profound sense of loss.
- Vicki Angus
“We knew (our kids) were safe and we just had to sit it out.
“It was really just terrible not knowing, and we lost power, we lost all charge on our phone. So it was a sleepless night.”
They drove to Warrnambool about 5.30am Sunday morning and bought a charger. “We opened our phone and there had been a text message that just said ‘so sorry for your loss’.
“And we heard on the radio on the way over that houses had been lost in Browns Road, so we knew then.”
Son Tosh Merrett and his brother were at a party in Colac on the night of the fires. By the time they realised how close the blaze was coming, it was too late.
“The fire wasn’t supposed to really be anywhere near us and then all of a sudden it was, and by then it was too late, we couldn’t do anything about it,” he said.
Ms Angus said the family returned to a scene of total devastation on Sunday.
“One of the hardest things was not knowing and then we had to wait and wait and wait and actually got through late on Sunday afternoon to have a look,” she said.
Apart from an old paddock bomb and a fire pit, Tosh said the fire had destroyed everything.
“There was nothing standing,” he said.
“There’s nothing really to salvage out of it. It’s all too far gone.”
Ms Angus said the community had rallied around the family since the fires.
“It’s very, very difficult and we’re not alone. We’ve been absolutely wrapped up by members of our community and we’ve just been overwhelmed by support, it’s just come from every direction, it’s just lovely,” she said.
“We have just had overwhelming support from past students and … People we don’t even know have dropped stuff off and I’ve got a very, very close friend who I work with who has co-ordinated everything. We’ve got a house to move into and people are just coming and dropping off things. We’re overwhelmed and feeling very much loved.”
The grief-stricken family is unsure whether they will rebuild.
“We built the house when Tosh was a baby, so we moved in just before he was one year old. Lots of memories for four kids,” Ms Angus said.
“When we were there Sunday afternoon as a family we agreed we could never come back. As the days grow, you just don’t know.”