On Saturday 7 February 2009, as the day progressed, all-time record temperatures were being reached, 46.4 °C (115.5 °F) in Melbourne, the hottest temperature ever recorded in an Australian capital city and humidity levels dropped to as low as 6%. The bushfires destroyed townships, homes and 173 people died.
On my recent trip through the beautiful hills around Kinglake I felt an eeriness and a profound sadness. The bush is recovering. Blackened trees are bursting with life again. Green shoots and leaves are sprouting from the trunks, hugging the trunk like fuzzy woolly sweaters. There are no branches...just green woolly, fuzzy; blackened trunk hugging foliage.
It is this remarkable, beautiful new growth that reminded me of an artist, a sculptor and painter who made his home and gallery at Marysville, Bruno. Bruno spent most of his adult life creating his art and sculpture garden. There are many life size pieces of work and there are over 115 pieces. These works are beautiful, some whimsical, the fruits of life and the essence of being, stories told through expressions and a connectedness to the environment abound in Bruno's work.
Bruno lost his home and gallery in the fires. Marysville was nearly obliterated. Premier Brumby described: 'There's no activity, there's no people, there's no buildings, there's no birds, there's no animals, everything's just gone. So the fatality rate will be very high.' 34 fatalities were eventually confirmed in the Marysville area, with all but 14 of over 400 buildings destroyed.
Bruno and his family were so very lucky to have survived the fire.
Bruno took photos on the day him and his family were allowed to return to the sculpture garden.
These photos can be found here http://www.brunosart.com/aftermath.html
Unbelievably around 60% of Bruno's sculptures were intact and some were repairable.
On Bruno's web site you can find images of the gardens and his sculptures before the fires.
http://www.brunosart.com/index.html
He also writes of the aftermath and the rebuilding. There is one particular image of the aftermath of a sculpture of a man's head laying in the ashes with his mouth open in only what could be called a scream. Brings tear to my eyes.
Bruno with the support of family, friends and the community has reopened his gardens 10am-5pm, 7 days a week. A truly remarkable story of new growth.
Bruno's Art and Sculpture Garden
51 Falls Rd
Marysville VIC 3779, Australia
(03) 5963 3513
Pip, this is so sad about the fires. I had heard something about them but did not know it was that bad. Gene
ReplyDelete