 My name is Mark Oakley. We've been here for nearly 30 years and it's a 10 acre property, long skinny one. It was just a barren piece of grassland, well, a barren piece of grassland. It was just a barren block and we've planted everything and turned it into a park until the 30th of December. We started with just a 25 foot caravan and a shed which in later years we decided not to build a house. We just converted the shed into a dwelling and that just involved into a lovely little country manor and it was beautiful. Had beautiful gardens around it and everything. We had a beautiful swing pool. That was wonderful on a summer's evening, just floating around like a queen on your lilo, looking at the beautiful view and the stars and the skies and that was just beautiful. Previously we've had fires, probably two fires to the north of us, but each time those fires have been completely different. Each time they've had a threat coming towards us, the winds have always changed. This fire was completely different to any other fire that we've experienced in all our entire life of actually living here. The fire in the north was still going. I come out about three o'clock and notice the fire in the west. That day it was a stinking hot day. It was quite a windy day as well. The fire in the west. I went inside. I said to Mark we've got fire at the west. I said it's quite big. There was smoke, ash and leaves falling at that stage. I went back inside for 15 minutes and then I said to Mark I think you need to come out and assess this. I come out and it doubled in size in 15 minutes. Well the animals were behaving different. Birds come to the back door, were squawking around the water and things like that never happened before. Well I was pretty calm until then and just thought yeah it's the same, oh same, oh. And as I say after the birds that alerted me and Jane kept on coming going what do you reckon, what do you reckon? I go no, no, no. When I panic we all panic kind of thing and the next plume just blew up and it just it seemed so threatening and I felt threatened. So two second decision bang we're gone. The factors are that we were in drought, our dam was empty, our tank was not enough in there to fight a fire. My husband's got a medical condition and you just know that the two of us weren't going to fight a fire that's uncontrollable and unpredictable as this fire was. My situation was that I've been crook for well many, many years. A couple of years ago I had a heart attack. I got fibromyalgia, I got spinal issues, things like that. 10 years ago when all the dams were full and the tanks were full and there was plenty of water, I probably would have stayed and I would have died. So in hindsight we certainly did the right thing by just leaving and not thinking about possessions although we could have shoved them in the car. But you've got to think about your capability and what resources you have and we come to understand that we weren't capable and we didn't have resources, no issue in the car and go. It just cut like a knife through here and took out everything but the solar panels which was great. The water tank that's still there wasn't burned but all the lead melted out of it. So the air here must have been over 800 degrees. It was a pretty powerful fire. I'd say it was like a blow torch blowing through here. It was a bit unbelievable really. I'm kind of, I don't know, I'm not an emotional person generally but just drove up and just looked at it and just thought okay well that's it. We've got to scrape it off and start again. Yeah not really distraught in any way like that, just a bit sad for all of the things that were lost. Took 30 years to collect them. I don't have 30 years left of me to collect them again. But no, no, just get on with it. Yeah. Hi, my name's Dee and I work for Gippsland Disability Advocacy here in Bernsdale. Our head office is in Turalgan but we have two workers here in Bernsdale. My job is specifically for bushfire disability advocacy. That's what I was employed for working with people with disability who have been impacted by bushfires and as with with all our clients our main aim is to give those with disability a voice. Well this is actually the Sarsfield football ground but also located here is the bushfire relief recovery hub. The significance for me is that this is how as a bushfire disability advocate I came to be introduced to Mark and Jane. What struck me about them first and foremost I have to say was their courage, their fortitude and their amazing attitude because despite losing absolutely everything, everything was burned to the ground. They have such a positive attitude and there's no doubt about that that is their home. They're determined to rebuild. Determined to rebuild and what's happened to them has not knocked them down. Yeah, yeah, no, this is my home. This is it. This is where I feel at home. That'll never change, not certainly not at my stage of life. Yeah and rebuilding, I mean even though it's all disastrous and everything, having a heart attack a couple of years ago I didn't have a lot to do so I suppose I've got a new lease on life in a tough kind of way but yeah hey, good things come out of bad things. So there will definitely be a next time much as we would like to think there won't be. So now is the time we really need to be preparing for when the next time happens and particularly those with disabilities. We need to be able to identify those people who are at risk. We need to be able to help them prepare their bushfire plans. We need to focus on being their voice in all stages. A couple of days before the fire on the Saturday I'd been I went to the pool shop and brought a creepy crawly because I've been having problems keeping my pool clean because of all the ash and everything and the dirt and dust and everything in the in the air so I went and brought it come home I set it up put it in and I just sat there in awe for hours watching it do it and I did the same thing on Sunday in awe on Sunday but Monday was a different story Monday I didn't put it in the pool and start it because I just had a different feeling of the day the day was just completely different I knew something was going to happen that day spent most of the day inside because it was a stinking hot day but about three o'clock that's when the fire at the west started and by 3 30 I said to mark I said we need to go so I packed that in my car I had to take that with me because I couldn't lose that and also my Dyson vacuum cleaner I had to take that in the car as well because there were just two things that cost me a lot of money and I just didn't want to lose on the day.