Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Michael Rowland, ABC Books, $34.99.
It’s been over a year, but anniversaries have been marked for the 2019-20 bushfires that affected many communities in Australia.
They were some of the most devastating bushfires in the nation’s history. Statistics are a raw reminder of weeks of despair, with such devastating consequences.
Known as Black Summer, 24 million hectares of land was burnt, 3,000 homes destroyed and three billion animals were killed or displaced. Thirty-three people died, including six Australian firefighters and three American aerial firefighters.
These were fires that burnt in every state and affected all Australians, directly or indirectly. The uncertainty, anguish, ache, demise and damage felt by everyone, in Australia and around the world.
From eastern Victoria to Kangaroo Island in SA and southern Queensland through NSW and the ACT, the impact was overwhelming. This is evidence of the events, with photographs, and an acknowledgment to those who lived through, managed to flee, grappled and in some cases, paid the ultimate price.
Black Summer showcases the finest writing about this bushfire season from those best accredited to speak on the subject. Alongside an introduction by editor Michael Rowland, is a foreword by chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Ita Buttrose and another by NSW Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance, with a conclusion by a presenter on ABC Radio Sydney Josh Szeps.
Black Summer gathers 16 personal essays from ABC staff under the headings ‘Dread’, ‘Disaster’, ‘Heroes’, ‘Evacuation’, ‘Community and Resilience’ and ‘Facing the Future’. In these narratives we hear from those reporters – while facing down the firefront – who risked their lives to broadcast, some alongside essential service personnel under the pyrocumulus of the megafire, others from smoky Sydney studios and packed community centres.
Black Summer is a bittersweet nostalgic wander through the compilation of stories of loss, courage and community from the 2019-2020 bushfires. However, the narratives of bravery and communal comraderie have resulted from tales of tragedies, the fear, the lost homes, the burnt forests, the bleak holidays and the unrelenting smoke.
All publisher profits from this book will be donated to the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.
