Victims take charge

By Kelly Yates
RESIDENTS have taken matters into their own hands by creating a sign to be used as a memorial to mark the 12-month anniversary of Black Saturday.
Carol Miszkowiec and Karen Randell and their families, who both lost everything in the Black Saturday fires in Narre Warren South, wanted a monument erected at Amberly Park Shopping Centre to remember the losses on the day and thank the community for their ongoing support.
Ms Miszkowiec wrote a letter to Casey Council in October last year, after hearing about grants which were allocated to councils for bushfire memorials.
According to Ms Miszkowiec, she still hasn’t received a response from the City of Casey, nearly three months later.
“It would have been nice to have an official memorial up for the one-year anniversary. We were hoping for a rock with a plaque or a park bench,” she said.
“But I believe the mayor at the time, Geoff Ablett, stated that the money could be better spent elsewhere.”
In the aftermath of the fires, the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA) offered funding for public memorials to each of the bushfire affected municipalities.
As a result of property damage from the fires in Narre Warren South and Harkaway, Casey mayor Lorraine Wreford said Casey was classified as a bushfire affected municipality.
At that time, Casey CEO Mike Tyler advised the VBRRA representative that available funds should be directed to more pressing needs in the bushfire-affected areas, in preference to erecting a memorial in Casey.
The residents have placed the sign outside FoodWorks at Amberly Park Shopping Centre this week.
“I don’t think the council will leave it there,” Ms Miszkowiec said. “It will be extremely disappointing if it’s taken before the anniversary next weekend.”
Ms Miszkowiec wanted the memorial to be for anyone who was directly affected or knew people who were affected by Black Saturday.
“After the fires we saw community spirit like never before,” she said. “Strangers in the community were giving us money and gift cards. Just the other night we were stopped in the shops by people who just wanted to know how we were going a year on.”
Recalling the events of Black Saturday, Ms Miszkowiec said she remembered running out of her house after seeing images of the local fires on the news. “We saw smoke and thought it was coming from next door. Then we realised our back room was on fire,” she said.
The Miszkowiec family went back to Langbourne Drive later that night to find their home had burnt to the ground.
They sold the block of land last year and have since moved to Berwick. “I can’t go back there. I don’t like Langbourne Drive now,” she said.
“It brings back those memories. They’ll stay with us forever.”
The City of Casey has been allocated $10,000 under the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund – Commemorative Events Grant.
According to the council, community recovery committees will assist with determining the most appropriate use of these funds.
Several meetings have been held with the community recovery committees, with Cr Wreford saying there had been minimal support towards erecting a memorial.