Bushfire Recovery

Over the summer holidays, bushfires struck many communities around Australia. For the kids that live in those areas, recovering has been a really long process. So we asked some of them to let us know how they were going in the lead-up to school going back. Rookie Reporter Kane has more.

KID: Hi, my name's Kane and this is a pretty exciting day for my family.

We're getting these cool packs, and so are hundreds of other kids around here.
And we're getting them for free! It's kind of like a back to school boost for all of us kids because, for a lot of people here, things haven't been so great over summer.

A few months ago, a bushfire broke out in Pinery in South Australia, which is really close to Hamley Bridge where I live.

When the fire started me, my friend we were looking on the computers at where it was and everywhere. When my mum picked us up from school me, my brother and sister were scared when the smoke came over and we hopped in the car and my mum took us to the Balaklava recovery centre.

All up, the fire burnt 87 homes and around 300 farm sheds. Two people died and so did heaps of animals.

Coming back into town there were some trees green and some trees were black and then there were some houses burnt to the ground.

But our area wasn't the only area to be hit by a big bushfire this summer.

Over in Western Australia, the town of Yarloop was hit by a bushfire. Now there's basically nothing left.

And over in Victoria, there was another fire that caused heaps of damage. But my friends can tell you more about that.

Thanks Kane! Hi I'm Pema. Hi I'm Juna. we live in Wye River in Victoria.

We were having Christmas lunch at our Auntie Carol's. Mum got the evacuation message on her phone. We went home and started our fire plan. Fortunately Auntie Carol's house was ok. But as you can see it came pretty close.

Dad's a fire fighter so he went straight to the station. Mum had already packed our bags so we went home, got our stuff and came straight the surf lifesavers club.

This is where we huddled. We waited for the fire to come. It was very hot. We had to drink heaps of water.

When the fire finally came, it was pretty scary. There were heaps of fire fighters and helicopters and luckily they managed to save lots of the town. Wye River lost 115 houses but most importantly, no lives were lost.

It's going to take a long time for the area to recover, but with the help of volunteers and people like our parents we'll all get through it together.

Back here in Hamley Bridge, we're now getting ready for school to start again.
Luckily my school wasn't badly damaged in the fire so now we can go back straight away. And these packs will really help, especially for those kids that lost everything.

KANE: This is Rachel and she's the nice lady that's organised the backpacks for all the other kids. So Rachel, how many packs did you do in total?

RACHEL: In total we've got 209 packs for kids registered by their family and we had a school call us and say can you help us out with another 320. So we've got lots of packs to deliver over the next two days and we asked lots of people through our Facebook page if they could help out and donate. We've had help coming in from Melbourne and Western Australia and Whyalla and boxes arriving every day full of supplies.

KANE: I've got snacks, a pencil case, a lunchbox and a watch.

Things might not be completely back to normal for me or my friends, but we're staying positive and looking for a better future.

• Emma Davis | Reporter
• Charity helps children affected by Pinery bushfire with back-to-school supplies: ABC News | weblink
• Are you feeling upset by this report?: Upsetting News Page | special
• Bushfire Escape: Behind the News | history
• Bushfire Investigation: Behind the News | history
• Bushfire Plan: Behind the News | history
• Bushfire Education: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority | weblink
• Australia | Map
• Bushfire Recovery | Worksheet
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