We’ve had the most horrible bushfires in Victoria this past week or two. Temperatures of 45C and high winds have allowed summer bushfires to becoming racing, raging infernos that destroy EVERYTHING in their paths. So whole towns and villages have been completely wiped out and the death count of people is 300 and rising. The death count of native animals is in the millions, with several endangered species possibly being wiped out forever. And then there are the forests, completely devastated. Where there were towns and lush bush, there is now charred rubble, burnt trees, and dead bodies of people, animals and birds.

Left are 7,000 homeless people and millions of homeless animals and birds.

All left at the altar of the human ego.

Our bush needs regular fires, and unfortunately with all the small towns in the wooded hills north of Melbourne that has not been possible. But with consequences like this perhaps we need to rethink how we approach bush-based villages and towns, where they are safe for humans and animals and plants to thrive alongside each other.

But pictures like this one give us hope that perhaps we can work it out:-)

We had a big fire in Kings Park, too, which wiped out a big swathe of native bushland. But not everything died. Magically enough, a flock of little honey eaters now comes through our back yard in the evenings for a feed until their usual patch of bush regrows:-)