Tags:
Black
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saturday
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fire
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anniversary
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compassion
By ANNIKA SMETHURST
MAREE Stockdale and George Stirling have found a unique way to commemorate the anniversary of Black Saturday this weekend.
A year on from the disastrous fire that engulfed their mud brick home, Maree and George will place the first peg to mark the site where their new home will stand.
“It has taken us six months to find a builder,” Maree said.
“The past year has been very tough but our whole outlook has changed in the past week now we have secured a great builder and we just thought that Sunday would be the best opportunity to start this journey and mark the anniversary.”
On Sunday the couple will join family and friends to celebrate the beginning of their new life on the same property on which they lost everything on Black Saturday.
George had lived in the stunning mud brick property since 1976. Eight years ago, Maree moved in and the pair started their life together.
“We are both hoarders,” Maree said.
“We love second-hand books and inside our home we had more than 20,000 beautiful books, I started collecting them when I was a child.
“We had a whole room dedicated to children’s books.”
The former home on Albert Street was an oasis, a beautiful abode filled with a lifetime of memories surrounded by luscious greenery and roaming animals.
Their rooms were filled with boxes of photos of the couple’s adult children, photos which cannot be replaced.
On February 7, 2009, George was catching up on some sleep as Maree browsed web pages for more antique books. In a twist of fate, George suggested Maree turn on the radio to listen to fire updates from around the state when she heard an evacuation alert for her street.
“I was shocked, I thought they had made a mistake, we had no idea it was so close,” she said.
After a frantic evacuation, and some harsh but encouraging words from a policeman, the couple fled to stay with family, returning the following morning to survey the damage.
“We had no idea that it would all be gone,” Maree said.
“We cried from Sparrowhawk Road, and didn’t stop crying for weeks.”
Surviving with two cars, two dogs and the clothes on their backs the couple said their whole world changed and their needs became very primitive.
“We had just never been in that position of accepting things like that, but we had no choice, we had nothing.”
For the past year the couple have struggled to deal with the tragedy with health scares adding to their woes.
“Every day you go to look for something in your house, or an outfit you want to wear and you remember it has gone,” Maree said.
“You feel like a different person and you think, did this really happen to us.”
Maree and George concede there have been some positive moments in the past year and the fire brought them closer together.
“George and I support each other. When he is down, I bring him up and he does the same for me.”
As a university lecturer Maree returned to work shortly after the fires and said she was astonished by the support she received from her students. During the last lecture of the semester Maree was distracted by a knock at the door. Hoping to ignore the knocking she eventually let the persistent visitors in.
“The students had got together and bought me a huge bunch of flowers and given me book vouchers to start my collection again,” she said.
“It was remarkable and gave me a positive outlook towards the community.”
The next year will bring new challenges for the couple, who are now focusing on preparing their new home.
“This is our home, even without the house. We have stayed here in the caravan since the fire and you hear the same noise and smell the same smells and we cannot wait to return here,” she said.
“It sounds silly but I cannot wait to see the postman at the end of the drive dropping off our mail, then we will really be back.”
