‘I haven’t slept for three nights’: Residents of Yarck return to ruins

Robbie Cumming’s house is gone. So is the cubby house he built for his daughters using a slide and an old horse float and the jumping mat from the trampoline by the shed.

He struggles to hold back tears as he looks at the pile of rubble and metal that now stands in place of his home on the outskirts of the small farming community of Yarck, in central Victoria.

The brick barbecue, the site of endless family celebrations and events, is still standing – a painful reminder of all the happy memories.

Cumming calls this part of the world “God’s country”. He takes a sip out of the beer can in his hand.

“We’ve never been burnt here … ever before like this,” he says.

He would know. Even though he moved to Yarra Glen in 2007 and kept his home as a second residence, his connections to Yarck run deep.

His family were among the first settlers in the Yarck area. His house, on Yarck Road, belonged to his grandparents. His father was born in a cottage across the road. When his parents got married, on the same day they won a tennis championship, they moved into a small house by the creek they called “the milk” where they raised their first children.

They eventually moved to a new home down the road, where they live to this day.

When the Longwood fires crept up over the rolling hills and threatened to reduce Yarck to cinders last week, Cumming’s parents decided to stay back and fight for their slice of paradise. Cumming and other family members joined in, working to defend the home.

“A CFA truck dropped in and, unfortunately for them, they blew a tyre coming into our place. And fortunately for us, they had to stay there and couldn’t move,” Cumming says.

The house was saved.

“That was a blessing,” he says.

At the Yarck Hotel down the road, locals listened to Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire as they drank cold beers and played cards on the bistro tables. It was an oddly everyday scene for a town that has lost multiple homes to the devastating blaze.

Earlier on Sunday, staff from Agriculture Victoria toured affected farms, assessing the cattle and euthanising any animals badly injured by the fire. At the CFA headquarters, locals were finally able to catch a breath, after sleepless nights trying to protect local assets.

Resident Bob Balsdon watched as a wall of fire surrounded his property in town on Friday night, the smoke so thick he could not see his hand in front of his face. The heat was tremendous.

“Them fires came over us at a million miles an hour, and it was very … scary,” Balsdon recalls.

He fought the blaze with mops, shovels of dirt and buckets of water. His shed was destroyed, but the house, along with some cattle and an emu, were saved.

“I haven’t slept for three nights,” he said.

Later on Sunday, police confirmed they had found human remains on a windy road on the outskirts of Yarck. The body was found about 100 metres away from a vehicle on a section of Yarck Road known as “the cutting” due to its switchback nature.

Elsewhere, in Yea on Sunday morning locals eagerly waited to stock up on food supplies outside the local supermarket after the nearby fire caused a power outage.

“Next person. Cash only. You’ll need to be guided,” a worker manning the door at FoodWorks said.

Inside the store, staff guided customers through the aisles in the dark with a torch and clipboard. Some were picking up coffee and milk, while others needed tomatoes, bread and Milo.

Homewood local Fiona Purvis walked down the aisles looking for cartons of milk and a large tub of water.

“We’re keeping our eskies full with just the essentials — milk and bread, butter,” she said.

Worker Adam Kupke said the supermarket had a generator but it had broken down overnight.

“We’re just trying to do what we can for the people that need help, basically. It might get to a point where we’re going to have to close, [but] we’re just doing this for the moment,” he said.

Kupke said words could not describe the horror the region had experienced since the fires started.

“I know so many people. I grew up in the area. It’s devastating, mate,” he said.

An Ausnet spokesperson said crews had restored power to Yea just after 2pm.

Hundreds of buildings, including homes, have been destroyed in Victoria and there have been many stories of close calls.

Just north of Yea, at a remote property on Caveat-Dropmore Road, police made a dramatic air rescue, evacuating two generations of a family, including a 92-year-old man and the family’s cat.

Police said on Sunday morning that they used the Air Wing on Saturday to evacuate the family, who had lost their home while trying to defend it and sought shelter in a shipping container on their property as the fire raged around them.

“Two women, aged 59 and 82, and a 92-year-old man called emergency services Friday afternoon seeking assistance to evacuate their isolated property on Caveat-Dropmore Road,” police said in a statement.

“After trying to manage the conditions for two days, including the complete loss of their home by fire, the 59-year-old woman called for help with concerns for the health of her mother and uncle.

“Police have been told the family bunkered down and sought safety in a shipping container on their property as the fire swept through the area on Wednesday, 7 January. The trio also slept in their vehicle Friday night.”

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