'Charred mess': Rex Newton loses his home, his animals and precious photos
Rex Newton returned home to a "great big, melted, charred mess".
The Bunyip North home he built 38 years ago is gone. There is nothing left of the lush, green garden that he was once told he wouldn't have a hope in hell of growing in the south-east Victorian climate.
The only thing he could recognise as he walked through the ruins on Monday afternoonwas the buckled, melted roof.
And all of his birds. He had dozens and dozens of them in 38 aviaries. A lot miraculously survived – fire burned around the yellow-headed and white headed-parrots – and Chook the emu was running around in the bush back there, but Mr Newton has lost a lot.
"Well I had 30 budgies under the veranda. The veranda's not there any more," he said.
He got two of his dogs out, but another two were still missing.
And the photos he had of his wife, Peta, they're gone too. She died 25 years ago after being hit by a car as she left the front gate of their Tonimbuk Road property. Mr Newton saw it all happen.
"Thank goodness I got rid of the horses," he said on Monday.
Peta Newton was horse mad and leaving them behind while fleeing the fire would have been a nightmare for her.
Mr Newton reckons he escaped from his property with about 30 seconds to spare, after initially deciding to stay. He lost the hair on one arm.
From here, he'll start to relocate his animals before he starts to think about a home.
"We're back to a black paddock," he said.
He wasn't the only one taking stock of the loss on Monday.
At the relief centre set up at the Drouin football oval, Kate Hurford was trying to keep a smile on her face after losing her one-bedroom bungalow on Wright Road, Garfield North.
She grabbed three plastic bags and shoved some random clothes in them when she evacuated.
"My friends aren't allowed to give me grief about my outfits," she said.
Ms Hurford, who has lived in Garfield North for about five years, said she left her house early.
"I can't change it; it's just going to be a matter of dealing with it. I'm glad I got out early, that for me is really important. It's just possessions," she said.
"I need to keep smiling. I think about the people who have [been in their homes] for 10 years, 20 years – their whole lives are in these houses."
Black Saturday is never far from people's minds.Malcolm Evans and Elle Langdon lost their Labertouche home in 2009, but built on the same block a year later. Their house was safe this time around, but both were constantly checking emergency and weather apps on their phones.
"It's a good thing and a bad thing that we have all this information, sometimes it is too much," Ms Langdon said, while her husband was able, in an instant, to show how the wind was sweeping across the region.
As daylight broke on Monday in Nar Nar Goon, hundreds of firefighters were coming off the fire ground after a night in the field.
Bunyip CFA volunteers Russell Pendlebury, Shaun Jarry, Tony Ward, Paul Pedley and John Van Wel were weary and dirty, but in good spirits.
Residents on the street applauded them as they drove back into town.
"It's our community, that's why we do it," Mr Jarry said.
The region now faces a massive recovery effort.
"The sheer destruction we saw – it's not just the structures, it's the stock, all the fences are gone, all the livestock, cows are running on the road. It's all the rebuilding ahead and it's in the middle of the drought," Mr Pendlebury said.