Is All of Australia on Fire?!? What Australians Abroad are Worried About.

Hellooooo! Here we meet again, on the other side of New Year’s Eve! Happy New Year! Welcome to 2020 and your new decade 😊.

Last week I was so pumped up, so excited to think about the past year and write down some concrete plans for how I wanted my 2020 to look. I wrote all about how I’ll be having a great year here, do you remember? Now my questions for YOU: did you do that activity I recommended, about writing down 10 proud achievements from last year and 10 new goals for this year? If you did, well then *big hug* for you. What’s on your list? Are you excited about it too? If you didn’t, well don’t fret. There’s 51 weeks of the year left for you to work on your goals 😉.

I am absolutely serious about my intentions to have a brilliant 2020. But there is also a flip side to all celebrations and festivities at this time of year, despite me throwing around words like “brilliant” and “great” and “pumped up”.

I am Australian but have been living in Germany with my German Hubby for 14 years now. And Germany is a looooong way from Australia, right?…

That means every Christmas and New Year we can spend with only one half of our families and friends; either the Aussie ones or the German ones here. And of course, a hot, summery Australian Christmas spent outdoors is an entirely different thing to a cold German winter one!

I have written quite a few posts before about the internal conflicts experienced by most expats (including myself!), such as this one here, but this time of year can definitely be a bit tougher for us expats so far from “home”. Living in a foreign country may sounds glamorous and fascinating, but not every real life day is like that 😉. (Don’t let social media fool you 😉.) Even more than the usual fluctuating, mildy homesick, funk over Christmas and New Year has been affecting me these last weeks though.

Why? Because my “home” is burning. And I can’t be there.

Sounds odd, maybe? Why would I want to be where those fires are and not a million miles away?!?

I mean, have you SEEN those fires?!? On the TV, on social media, in the papers… The statistics are mind-boggling. At the time of me writing this, 27 people are confirmed dead, over 2000 homes destroyed, something like 6 million hectares already burned (FYI that equals approximately 6 million football fields), millions upon millions of animals lost, around 3000 Australian firefighters (almost all of whom are volunteers), plus members of the Navy and Army are also involved …. And the fires aren’t even close to being extinguished, with estimates ranging from “many weeks” to “could be months” before they finally are. If you have never been to Australia, it can be really hard to imagine how absurdly large the country is and in turn, how staggeringly large these fires currently are.

My heart just aches.

And I mean literally. When I see the latest news online or check what the current evacuation advice is, my chest tightens, my breathe catches, my heart races, my shoulders slump, I feel heavy, it’s all just… too much. Too much death, too much destruction, too much uncertainty.

I sit here, an Aussie expat all safe in wintery Germany, constantly worrying about my family and friends in Australia. See this photo below? It’s an image of the fire situation in the state of New South Wales one morning a few days ago. It shows part of the east coast of Australia, an approximately 1600 kilometre (1000 miles) stretch, covered in great swathes of fires. And pretty much every single human being whom I know in Australia, lives somewhere along that coastline. There are beaches and bushland that I have visited that aren’t there anymore.

Can I just say, how much that messes with your mind?!?

I know to some of you it probably sounds completely daft, me talking about this.Or perhaps even self-indulgent to talk about my perspective. I am not the one there, breathing in the smoke day after day, week after week. I am not the one there, packing in panic because I have been told my neighbourhood must evacuate. I am not the one there, worrying that my business is about to burn down. I am not the one there driving down roads littered with dead wildlife. I am not the one there volunteering my time to fight the bushfires. I know this. Me sitting here doesn’t even begin to compare to how people on the east coast of Australia are feeling right now.

But worry and stress I still do.

When my parents have left their house to travel for hours to stay in areas with fewer fires, only to watch the warnings to evacuate and fire fronts creeping ever closer to their suburb. What does it mean when my parents don’t answer my messages asking if they are OK? Are the phone lines down like they are in other areas? Are they swamped with a million other concerned messages? Or are they just plain stressed and exhausted? I look in shock at the photos my friends are sharing, of flames in the valley below them and the endless stream of aircraft dropping water and flame retardant from above. Some days I check the official fire updates page several times an hour, unsure whether what I discover next will be good news or bad. And what is my family supposed to do about the ash and burned leaves constantly raining down in their garden?

It’s all turning me into an insomniac ☹.

And do you know how else it feels to be any Australian currently so far removed from this devastation? HELPLESS.

If only I were there, I could DO.SOMETHING. Not stand on the front lines battling the raging infernos. Donate groceries to the food bank. Donate basic medical and hygiene supplies. Donate blood. Go to the local fire station and deliver snacks and water and cups of tea to the weary and overworked firefighters. Offer accommodation to those who have lost their own. Take photos to record this time, to add to the collective memory of such a terrible part of Australian history. Heck, even start sewing a batch of those animal pouches for orphaned babies , patterns for which are being shared online at the moment.

It is extremely easy to feel helpless at this time for those who are far away and unquestionably for many people located in Australia. But there is one more feeling I have been experiencing, like a little niggling, nudging sensation at the back of my mind…

HOPE.

I feel hope that the towns devastated by these bushfires will, over time and with help, rebuild. The bush, as razed and scorched as it is, will regrow and support life once again one day. I feel hope that the Australian “can do” spirit will prevail. I feel hope that there will be changes to public policy to reduce the chance of such extreme fires in the future while also compensating those who put their lives on the line to protect everyone else. I’ve always said us Australians are a tough lot who pull together in times like these; just look at our extreme landscapes and endless lists of animals that will kill you at first sight and you’ll understand that we can put up with a lot and still triumph 😉.

So, no matter where you are in the world, there is one small thing you can do to help with the recovery and rebuilding from these fires: make a small monetary donation. (I’ve already made mine!) There are so many opportunities for you to help the multitude of services working around the clock to support the people and animals affected by these catastrophic fires. I have included some links below, should you feel so inclined.

NSW Rural Fire Service: https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

Australian Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate#donate

St Vincent de Paul: https://donate.vinnies.org.au/appeals-nsw/vinnies-nsw-bushfire-appeal-nsw

The Salvation Army: https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/donate/make-a-donation/donate-online/?appeal=disasterappeal

WIRES: https://www.wires.org.au/

Port Macquarie Koala Hospital: https://www.koalahospital.org.au/

I realise this post was quite different to my usual upbeat, hilarious ones 😉 but it was one that I had to write and share now, while such an event is current and in the collective conscious of people (expats or not) worldwide. Thank you for making it all the way through to the end and accepting my offer to peek inside the mind of one Aussie girl, far away from “home”.

What are your thoughts when you read about and look at photos of the Australian bushfires? I’d love to hear your thoughts, no matter where you come from or where you now are. Share below>>>

P.S. I’d also like to shout out a big THANK YOU to all the friends and family on the ground there in NSW who agreed to share their photos with me for this post. An even bigger THANK YOU to the volunteer firefighter who agreed to share his photos from the front lines of the fires. You are a hero 😊.