Mitchell Shire Community Bushfire Memorial - ClonbinanePrint Page 
The memorial stone seating wall commemorates those impacted by the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009. A memorial plaque displays a map of the region and the time that the fire reached each town, and plaque containing a poem is integrated into the seating wall.
The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria were the most devastating in Australian history; 173 people tragically lost their lives, 414 were injured, more than a million wild and domesticated animals were lost and 450,000 hectares of land were burned.
In February 2009, the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments jointly established the $10 million Community Recovery Fund to assist in community development and recovery after the Victorian bushfires. Funding of $2.5 million was allocated for memorials and commemorative events and has supported the creation of 59 memorials across 18 councils through extensive consultation with those communities impacted by the fires. The memorials include walls, sculptures, places of reflection, storyboards, lookout towers, roadside stops, shelters, signage, murals, plaques and seating, commemorative gardens and rotundas.
Location
| Address: | 11 Linton Street, Clonbinane Hall, Clonbinane, 3658 |
|---|---|
| State: | VIC |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -37.297938 Long: 145.068763 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Structure |
|---|---|
| Monument Theme: | Disaster |
| Sub-Theme: | Fire |
| Actual Event Start Date: | 07-February-2009 |
| Actual Event End Date: | 07-February-2009 |
| Designer: | Urban Initiatives & Arterial Design, William Thomas Jones & Sons Stonemasons (memorials) |
| Monument Manufacturer: | Meridian Plaques |
| Link: | http://www.rdv.vic.gov.au |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Saturday 8th February, 2014 |
|---|
Map Plaque:
Mitchell Shire
Community Bushfire Memorial
February 7, 2009
Plaque:
Memories of a milestone in time;
The seventh of February 2009
A summer of unrelenting heat,
Grasses cured like golden wheat.
Fuel-loads building to their peak -
And then, that scorching searing week.
The breaking of that fateful dawn,
Silent, still; the calm before the storm.
What would the day bring? What was The Plan?
C.F.A. primed for a Total Fire Ban.
Fire in the valley! A nuclear blast;
Headed south and travelling fast!
Whipped along on a freakish gale;
The spine chill of the siren’s wail.
Waiting for the wind to turn,
Hoping that we wouldn’t burn,
Putting fire-plans into place,
Waiting, watching – just in case.
The moment when the furnace hit:
The smoke, the roar, the day unlit.
Exploding, popping, steam-train in force;
A fiery monster on its course.
The choking smoke, so hard to breathe;
Decisions made, to stay or leave.
Pines and mountain up in smoke –
Shrouded in some surreal cloak.
Night turned on a flaming show
With trees and ruins all aglow.
Time to take in things we’d lost;
Tomorrow we would learn the cost.
Waking to an alien ‘scape,
Learning more of others’ fates.
Faces etched with disbelief;
The enormity of the public grief.
Dealing with the ‘after’ shock,
The stark crack of the rifle’s shot.
Houses lost and houses saved,
History gone to molten grave.
Regrets and flashbacks, ‘survivor guilt’,
Sifting through the rubble’s silt.
The stench, the filth, the charcoal hue,
No power; no water; no life-style ‘glue’.
Heroic tales of bravery,
The comfort of community,
Back to basics, a brand-new start;
The kindness of the human heart.
We will remember all that passed,
The day itself – the aftermath.
One day when day became the night…
That day we fought the Fight of Fights.
C. Soulsby
