b'At 5:00am, surrounded by smoke nothing left of my Nissan Patrol,and the bright red haze of the tent and belongings, we wereimpending fire front moving surprised to find it had escaped thetowards us, we waded through the ferocity of the fire!water back to check on camp Throughout this ordeal the level of(which was OK) and headed to the community spirit was amazing asCommunity Centre where 900 this town pulled together as one.Inothers, 30 dogs, 2 cats,a rabbit and the circumstances of the ferocity ofa budgerigar were sheltering and the fire, we were in absolute awe ofwaited. the CFA (from everywhere) , police,Doors were closed with no one paramedics, SES and volunteersallowed out and the sky went black who sacrificed their own propertyfollowing the red sky. What little for the community at large.morning light was left disappeared Driving around the devastation wasinto a blackness the likes of which shocking, one house remainedwe have never seen before. The sky standing, the next was burnt to thewent red, yellow then black.Quite ground in a random fashion.Weeerie and scary. were the lucky ones.The community was amazing, Quite a few residents propertiesresilient and quiet. were destroyed (about 40) as wereAt approximately 9:00am the fire some of the board walks and muchfront came through Mallacoota with of the park areas including wildlifeits full force.We were required to and vegetation.The vegetation atremain in the centre till 11.30 when the well-known BastionPoint anddoors opened to a smoky yellow the golf course were raised and thehaze with embers, burnt leaves and dwellings nearby were randomlyash everywhere. decimated by the fires.Anticipating that there would beCarey and Meredith from the Range Rover Clubwent toMallacoota for their Christmas break. Instead they experienced a hallowing story of surviving a fire stormTRACKWATCH MARCH 202015'