Black Tuesday, My story.
Black Tuesday. The aftermath.
All Images using Grok2 to lighten the mood.
Although I was not there on the day I did arrive in the area during the events, I had heard about the bushfires on the Eyre peninsula via radio in the car, I was told the airport had been shut down so the only way in was to drive over 1000kms.
I still don't know why I felt it was important to me, but without thinking too much I decided that night to pack up and borrowed my old camper I had sold to mum and dad and packed a few essentials. I was off. Just me the car, the fold out camper and my dog, We took it easy stopping for late lunch and it was near 6pm by the time I made it to Whyalla, I looked at my atlas and rang ahead to Arno bay c/van park and explained I was on my way but would be late, The owners agreed to stay open late and I arrived at 2100 .
Set down for the night listening to the radio the whole way it was clear Lincoln and surrounds were in a mess, That was Black Tuesday.
January 10th 2005.
I agreed to meet a lady,(no names lets just call her Jill), at the relief effort depo in Tumby bay the following day. I was there a bit before noon and Jill had contacted the CFS on my behalf, at this time they said that it was contained (again), and they were not short of crew members so I was asked if I would mind helping her with the relief effort.
I agreed and contacted my cousin who I knew had a shack in Tumby, He agreed to let me stay there so I got the key from the nice neighbour set up camper and the lovely lady offered to cook me tea(I didn't get that meal for 2 weeks).
I returned to relief station at 1500, I was then asked to head to Tumby CFS shed and assist with communications giving some locals a well needed break, I was there until nearly midnight. The next day I returned to see Jill at 0700 and in her desperation I could see she and her staff of volunteers were rushed off their feet, I aided with stacking of boxes etc, donated goods and blended into the office thinking this isn't really what I came to do, but was glad I could help do something.
I was full of pip and bravado and at 1000 am Jill came to me randomly and said she had a task for me if i was up to it, She wanted me to go out to a farm east of the highway tween Edillilie and Wanilla, Meet the farmer,(lets just call him Joe), I was given boxes of clothes and blankets signed for a fuel card and a credit card then asked to visit, pick up a shopping list, Head back down to PT Lincoln pick up the shopping and deliver it back to the farm. It was explained they had lost their home.
Along the way in some spots the trees were still smoldering, I rang Joe along the way for directions and I arrived to devastation, There was very little trace of a house, there was a shed frame but no shed and some posts where it looked like the remains of stock yards, the only other real remains were 2 molten piles of plastic where the tanks had been and a mash of bent blackened corrugated iron, and a small patch of nice green lawn next to a pile of ashes and rubbish, They had pitched 2 tents on the lawn. I introduced myself to Joe and his family and got the list.
The bravado evaporated, I was not ready for this situation, I am no counsellor, so I took the list and headed off. I got everything on the list and returned by 1630. At that time I asked Joe what the extent of the damage was and asked to go for a walk, along the way he pointed out that all the fences were just about gone, he took me over a hill to the only remaining trough to provide water to nearly 800 head of cattle (the survivors or those who hadn't run off). At this point he broke down completely explaining he couldn't cry in front of his family, I remember then thinking, I am the wrong man for this job.
He thanked me and we had a chat, He was full of questions and I had no answers. What to do with the cattle ? etc, He explained they had only been there for a less than one year and his little dream of a cattle operation and small house in the country had so quickly turned into a nightmare.
As we walked back he explained he would send his wife off to accommodation in Tumby and he would stay, Then THE question I was not expecting, Would I stay with him ?
I had my dog with me and no reason not to, so could not refuse, Although I must admit I felt as useless being there as tits on a bull, any sense of bravado now was completely trampled into the scorched earth. I rang Jill and asked her advice, Without hesitation she said if I was up to it I should stay. And so I did.
Joe's Wife (lets call her Jane), packed up with their 2 lovely daughters and headed off. Leaving just us 2 and 3 dogs for company. A short while later around 1800 Joe received a call, an Insurance bloke was on his way and needed directions, Neither I nor Joe knew what to make of this and 15 minutes later up the drive comes a black BMW. Out pops a big tall man in a suit and god only knows what we must've looked like to him.
He was very direct and his first words were - "What a bloody mess"-,One of you must be Joe and Joe stepped forward, he extended his arm for a handshake and introduced himself,(lets call him John), "I come baring gifts", he said, Then I shook his hand adding- Jay- and he went to the boot of the BMW, He began by pulling out an Esky full of ice and beer, He offered us each one as we stood like a pair of stunned mullets, then proceeded to get another esky and asked for a hand to unload.
He had a small BBQ, gas bottle and a host of stuff like torches a 3 man tent, a flash new swag the BMW was packed full of tinned foods and stuff. even a little 800watt generator and small 5 ltr gerry full of fuel. after we had unpacked it all from the car onto the lawn, we sat on the fold out chairs around the BBQ while he began cooking up some chops, and explained he was with X insurance company.
He asked about the cattle and Joe explained he had no yards and they were all around the one trough, 28 had already been put down due to burns and some 200 or so seemed to be missing. There was no feed for them etc.
John hung around listening intently and after a feed and 2 beers he headed off saying he would be back the following day with some paperwork and promising that he would see this claim processed as quickly as possible.
We sat up late that night just generally chatting and trying not to think to much about what was happening around us. By far Joes biggest worry was for the cattle, At dusk a little Joey had wandered in to feed from the lawn, at a guess it was about 10 months old and clearly missing its mother, The dogs didn't bother it, and it didn't seem bothered by us. Next morning at 0530 we woke to find the Joey gone, A neighbour had arrived,(lets call him bill), and we checked the cattle, they were clearly beginning to fight over position to get access to the trough, Bill said he had some drums so went to go cut them in half and bring them back, it was the only plan we had at that point.
At 0700 Jill rang while we were trying to hook up hoses and 2 more taps in the pipeline to fill the coming drums, They had had a generous donation of a caravan from a local Tumby resident and I was asked to go and pick it up and return it to the farm. I met with Jill then picked up the van, Upon my return John was there and had with him an electrician in tow. The guy had organised and was digging a hole to find the power line to the house, I helped, and parked the van nearby, by the end of the day he had a power pole and box installed however it could not be connected till the next day, Drums were set up for the cattle and John n Joe took a walk.
In the meantime I had done another trip back to Tumby and got my camper trailer. I returned the cards to Jill and she wished me luck and promised a daily call to get updates on how things were going, She hugged me and called me an angel, although I felt more like a small worker ant in a large colony at that time.
Jane had returned leavening the girls with their grandparents and that night on dusk as we sat around the BBQ, the joey showed up again, Joe explained that Bill was having trouble arranging fodder and with no yards trucking out was impossible, The idea we may have to muster them out was the only idea, but where to ?
The vast majority of farmers in the area were sheep farmers with no suitable yards or loading facility for cattle, those that were available were too far away for the weakened, hungry stock to make it to.
We all agreed we just had to have faith in John and trust that by the next morning he would have a plan. Joe and I headed off with a rifle to check the cattle that night, they were quickly going down hill with many now dropped around the drums and trough. We didn't put any down, just topped up the drums and went to bed.
On Friday morning we awoke, had breakfast and went to fill the drums, when we returned we found John, He asked to walk with Joe and when they returned Joe asked Jane to leave, She did and we 3 sat in silence for a while.
Joe said to John "show Jay the paperwork", and he handed it to me, Joe walked over and grabbed a beer at not even 0900 in the morning and handed me one too.
I sat and began to read, I asked John if I was reading what I thought I was reading, He responded with a simple -yes-.
Joe said it best i think- "It's an execution order" -as he welled up not even trying to hold back his tears.
John replied,-"that's about the sum of it, I have with me a rifle and some ammunition, The cattle will be replaced by X company as soon as Joe is ready for them"-.
The silence was deafening.
I was not prepared for this, but I don't think any of us really were.
After some time Joe asked- "Jay would you sign that" ?
All I could think to say was "they are not my cattle mate".
So Joe asked John "would you" ?
John said -" Its the only option i can offer at this time mate, i wish i could do more".
After a minute or 2 Joe asked for the paper work, I handed it to him and pen in hand before he signed he looked me in the eye and asked " Would you give me a hand mate"?
I just nodded, and we both began to bawl like a 2 year old with a skun knee. Its safe to say, at this point I was in a state of shock.
The cattle were in a bad way but surely it wasn't that bad ?
It seemed there had to be something we could do. Joe signed the paper work and john explained he couldn't help with the cull but had to return the next day to confirm the dirty work had been done. He was full of apologies but this is definitely where the divide between the man in the suit and Joe and I became crystal clear.
It was 0930 on Friday the 14th Jan 2005, the beginning of a day I will never forget and already on our second beer's we watched as John in his BMW drove away.
With no sense of urgency, we walked the track up to where a herd of hungry cattle were gathered around the trough, and 40 half 44 gallon temporary water drums were set up, with a .202 and boxes full of shells.
I never made an entry in my diary that day but I will never forget it, We went one for one and the numbers 344 and 688 are branded into my brain to this day.
We had to fetch the ute around midday to track down some of ones that spooked from gunshots, but most of them never even tried to run away.
We were face to face with many of them and at the end of it all, we wandered around aimlessly amongst the senseless destruction in some sort of depressive daze, conversation was limited and the air itself seemed as hard to breathe as the smoke from the fires.
The ground below my feet had never felt so hard, and the sheer weight of gravity never so heavy.
I lost all track of time but as it got dark Joe received a call that the power box should be on, we checked it and found we had power, a little light in the dark, The Joey showed up again and we decided to name him HOPE. Jill rang and apart from briefly mentioning the cull I just told her of the Joey and she reassured me I could leave at any time.
To late now I thought but kept it to myself.
Bill showed up late and none of us had much to say, He did mention that a kangaroo had been raiding his garden patch at night like the little joey on the lawn and he didn't stay long, he left a box with some veg's including a scored pumpkin and some half eaten spinach . Neither Joe or I slept, we just sat listening to the radio and drinking till the sun came up...
We fired up the BBQ 0500 ish not that the time seemed to matter anymore we were just hungry and ate away from the meat in diminished ice in esky, and some fried chunks of pumpkin and spinach etc, Jane showed up 0800 ish with the kids and the mood seemed to lift some with the girls around, we cleared a pitch and played cricket with a hollow plastic bat, and a tennis ball on the lawn without keeping score. at midday Jane began to fry up some fish she had been given and John arrived, I stayed behind while him and Joe went to do the inspection for company X, Then Jill rang, to my surprise she asked about Hope, She had been contacted by Bill and channel 7, Bill thought Hope might belong to the Roo that kept raiding his veggie patch, Jill asked if it was possible. I didn't think so but she said channel 7 were looking for a -Feel good- story amongst the devastation.
In my present state I was abrupt and dismissed the idea. Well an hour later Bill shows up just as John and Joe returned. John left and Bill began to explain his theory of Hope and his mum. We all thought it a long shot, but we decided if Hope returned that night we would try to to catch Hope, and then we all laughed hysterically at the idea of- catching Hope-, not that we thought it would be a problem as Hope had already eaten bread out of our hands.
Sure enough while joe and I were loading debris from the remnants of the house onto his ute for dumping elsewhere at around 2000 hrs along came Hope. The girls where ecstatic and i took the case off my pillow and Joe walked over and bagged Hope, The jokes abounded (we bagged hope), and when we rang Bill he said channel 7 was already there, we headed off,(it was only 7 kms away) but it seemed like a long trip, They didn't seem at all concerned about the plight of Joe and his family, Nor me or Bill, they just wanted footage of a joey reunited with its mother if it was her mother, By now the media seemed more skeptical than us.
I learnt a lot about the media that night, and the need/want of information from the general public at large, as it got dark they complained there wont be enough light to film until Bill turned on a a spotlight, and there she was, maybe 50 metres away in Bills paddock, eying off the vege patch, I was handed Hope, cameras and stage set I had my first time on TV, You couldn't see my face as I stepped forward and let Hope out of my pillow case over a barbed wire fence, hope called out, The Roo called out, and Hope hopped straight over and jumped in her pouch.
Channel 7 packed up and They were gone in no time telling us to watch for it on the news tomorrow. Like they had no concept of emotion at all, I cried that night, tears of joy for a bloody pair of Roo's while the night before I had cried solemnly for the cattle, we all headed back to camp and went to bed as the breif high didn't last long...
I was awoken by the sounds of children playing on Sunday morning around 0800, I wandered over for breakfast and by now felt like part of the family, Joe offered me a feed and I felt comfortable enough to ask him, What now ? his reply- Ill Get to work on the fences I guess, what else can I do ? You are more than welcome to stay mate. up to you-.
I rang Jill and told her of the proceedings and she too said I could do as I wished. I decided to stay for a while, but I was not prepared for what was to happen next either.
we went about clearing away old wire and trying to reclaim droppers etc when Joe got a call, A delivery driver asking for directions, We headed back to camp and then I witnessed something both emotionally uplifting and devastating all at the same time, a truck laden with hay coming up the driveway followed by another smaller truck with a fork lift on the back, The forklift was unloaded and Joe began to protest to the driver, I have nothing to feed it to, They explained they were on delivery routes and these were donations, non returnable.
They began to build a stack of hay while we both said take it to someone who needs it, they didn't listen and then as soon as the first truck left in came another, it went on all day, 11 truck loads in all, delivering and building a stack 4 X bigger than the missing 3 bdr transportable house had once been, while on the other side of a small hill there was a veritable war scene of a paddock littered with rotting carcasses.
I rang Jill and told her it needed to go elsewhere but she was to busy to help and I don't blame her, It was the ultimate icing on the cake, and when John showed up he stood at the foot of the mountain of hay dumbfounded.
He had with him the final paper work for Joe to sign, and he tore it up in front of him saying this wasn't good enough. He sat with us ate, drank and even stayed the night, he put in a call to company X saying he was mortified that he had not been notified, they had not been notified either, He then said he would personally draw up a compensation package with Joe and they would pay it.
They didn't seem to disagree, The next day Jane and the kids headed off for Tumby and Joe went with John to the lawyers office in Lincoln, I stayed behind with the 3 dogs and took one last tour around the property in its current condition trying to make sense of it all.
This I have never been entirely able to do, I stayed a further week, and am glad I did, I made friends for life, and learned many things about life in a short period of time that have since served me well. It came at a cost that one cannot put a $ value on though...
©Jayman W Newell.
Epilogue ---
Joe and Bill who also used pseudonyms in the book had parts of our accounts published in a book titled - Ashes of the firefighters - Vivien Thompson.
https://ashesofthefirefighters.com.au/
Some accounts had to be protected due to the legal fall out of the decision making process throughout, in fact the investigations and hearings lasted over a decade and this was only published in 2021.
Many good people suffered tremendously long after the fact.
From inside i will dispute any media saying the death toll was 9, it was 11 from the immediate fall out of the fire, and a further 8 as a result of the fires impact within 5 years including the man who accidentally started it, he was fully exonerated as innocent of any wrongdoing.
Keeping in mind that youtube was invented and started on the 14th of Feb 2005, thus there is little available to view regarding the events, however I did find one video.
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