Black Summer coronial inquiry does not capture the full story

The ensuing media reports, reminding readers of the devastating loss and scale of the fires, are not easy reading - 5.5 million hectares of land scorched, 2476 houses destroyed, 800 million animals lost, and 25 people losing their lives.

But the figures do not capture the story of what has happened since. Of how communities have clung together, rebuilt as best they can. How families have rebuilt homes, where they can.

The figures do no justice to the lives affected - the living in caravans, the wearing of other people's clothes - families living with grief and unseen hurt.

The figures do not capture lives forever affected and communities always braced for the next time.

The coronial inquiry was an investigation into the source of the fire event. O'Sullivan acknowledged the figures "do not capture the human tragedy or impact upon the community's collective psyche". She also acknowledged it was not about apportioning blame and said the Black Summer bushfire season was "unprecedented in scale and intensity."

700 pages later, 28 recommendations have been made. The recommendations have been levelled at the commissioner of the Rural Fire Service (RFS) and police, and the chief executive of Essential Energy.

For Cobargo resident and business owner Zoe Pook, there is a certain "weariness" at the release of more findings.

"An inquiry is all well and good - as long as there is action following it, otherwise it just feels like process. This is what we do - we go to meetings - have inquiries and nothing ever changes. It's all a bit frustrating," Zoe said.

Zoe and her family experienced first-hand the impact of that summer. Shortly after Christmas 2019, Zoe, her brother and her two daughters set out by car to Adelaide for a family wedding.

Her partner, Scott, was to follow a few days later. Scott, who was a ranger for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) continued to work, and was keeping an eye on the Badja fire that was burning at the time.

What followed was the stuff of nightmares. Zoe and her family travelled south, unwittingly "straight into the middle of the Gippsland fires". Here they were evacuated to the beach as highways were closed around them and they scrambled for long sleeve clothing.

Mid conversation with Scott, and discovering the fire had reached their property, they lost contact with each other.

When they next spoke, Scott had escaped with his life but their house and the girls' beloved horse was gone.

"The girls were 10 and 12, and I was very much trying to keep information away from them about what was happening in Cobargo. We were stuck in Orbost, it was dark with searing red skies. I didn't tell them until we got to Adelaide and we were around family and safe," Zoe shares.

Batehaven resident Berkeley Braham, also has first hand experience with the Black Summer fires. A volunteer with Malua Bay RFS, and a RFS employee with the RFS State Mitigation team from 2016 until August 2020, but speaking as a resident and community member and not on behalf of the RFS, said he would like to see more recommendations addressing prevention rather than response.

Berkeley, who has a degree in emergency management, says he studied the 2013 Wambelong fire near Coonabarabran. The inquiry findings in this case "did address the importance of the fire trail networks".

He believes that more should be done to maintain these networks as they are crucial on several levels, saying fire trails provide access, provide ready made containment lines for hazard reduction burns and make back-burning during a fire much safer.

Additionally Berkeley believes that "complacency" can set in after a big fire event.

"People can tend to think "oh well that's the same as doing a hazard reduction burn", but a proper hazard reduction burn never gets up in the forest crown...during Black Summer the crown was obliterated".

"Once the crown has gone, and the light can filter down, the understory can really go bananas and create a lot of bushfire fuel, especially after three La Nias" Berkeley explains.

Berkeley is adamant that the focus must be preparation and mitigation rather than response.

"We continually concentrate on responding to these natural disasters. We need to start talking about mitigating and preparing for them a hell of a lot better," he concluded

Inspector Ben Shepherd, manager of media and communications with NSW RFS, said as an organisation they have already begun to implement changes that have been noted by the Coroner, but of course there will be more work to do.

"First and foremost we all recognise that the impact on the community, and especially our firefighters has been significant and that will take many, many years for many to recover from.

"But from all the findings and recommendations, anything that we can do to improve safety to the community, and our firefighters, we will always take them and look to improve," Inspector Shepherd said.

Regarding the maintenance of fire trails he went on to say:

"There is a massive amount of work going on in the fire trail area at the moment... but when you take into account that the fire trails in NSW are as large as the state road network, there is a lot of work to be done and it will take considerable funds to take them up to scratch."

Zoe and her family have rebuilt their home on their property. Zoe can not speak highly enough of the volunteer organisations, including the RFS, and charities who continue to assist and drive change.

"The change we see, and the measurable impact of any positive interaction or support or help is generally through the volunteer sector or charities. That's where we see the change coming from." She said.

Did it cross their minds to leave Cobargo?

"No. We were really rooted in the community when it happened. That was the one really positive thing that came from the fires - it really brought the community together. It felt more like home than less."