Ash Wednesday survivor recalls 'huge fireballs' landing in paddock

He recounted his story after a small ceremony at the Panmure memorial where wreaths were laid on the 40^th anniversary on February 16, 2023, to remember those that lost their lives.

Mr McConnell lost his own house and most of the dairy farm that day on February 16, 1983.

"I had a weatherboard house and that burnt," Mr McConnell said.

"We lost about 60 head of cattle. We sheltered in my father's house and it went over the top of us.

"It was full of smoke and soot. The walls were brown."

But luckily the house didn't catch fire.

"The garden burnt but it wasn't the fire front that burnt that... we were putting it out when we could get outside. It was dark, very dark," he said.

"But you move on, you have to move on and rebuild."

While Mr McConnell is now semi-retired, he still lives on his Garvoc farm.

When the St Patrick's Day fire swept across the region in 2018, it burnt the back of the farm again.

His daughter, Catherine McLeod, said on the 40^th anniversary of the fires she was reflecting on the kindness of those who came to help her and her family rebuild their lives.

For Bev Moore, it is just a whiff of smoke that is enough to take her mind back to the events of the Ash Wednesday fires that came close to her property.

"We were at Naringal at the time and we were probably only about five minutes away from the site of the fire," she said.

"I still recall these huge fireballs going over the trees... landing in the neighbour's paddock.

"And the sight of a boat in an open hay shed - you could clearly see from where we were the boat lit up and it looked like a great big sailing ship with all the flames and everything it outlined.

"Those sorts of things stay with you."

While the fires may have come close, she said they didn't really lose anything in the fire.

"Everything that was insured wasn't taken by the fire but everything that wasn't was. That's the irony of it."

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