With bushfires devastating the north-east Victorian town of Mallacoota, Merimbula went from a holiday destination to an evacuation centre.
The courtyard beneath the sprawling limbs of the jacaranda tree at Dulcie’s Cottage is usually bustling with customers this time of year.
With deadly bushfires engulfing the far south coast towns of Cobargo and Mogo, ravaging parts of the Bega Valley and devastating the north-east Victorian town of Mallacoota, Merimbula went from a holiday destination to an evacuation centre.Instead of celebrations, apocalyptic scenes descended upon the area on New Year’s Eve as the sky turned blood-orange and nervous out-of-towners queued for petrol and food supplies.
“We work with the seasons, and with our leading months gone, we're staring down the barrel of an apprehensive year. But we're still hopeful," she says. But now the easing of weather conditions has brought reprieve to the region, the caravans are leaving the evacuation centres to assess the damage to their own communities and people are turning their minds to recovery and to taking stock of what they’ve lost.
Mr Ayling says small business owners indirectly affected by the fires also face uncertainty about whether their insurance policies will cover them. Reports to the Australian Tourism Industry Council reveal cancelled bookings in some areas unaffected by the bushfires have hit more than 60 per cent, causing damage of up to $1 billion.
Destination NSW said in a statement last week it was auditing areas to work out how it could promote communities. Despite the trepidation, there is a hardiness about the area, which Mr Holden encapsulates reassuringly: “The people will come back.” The reopening of the Kings Highway, the lifeline between Canberra and the South Coast, is sparking some ambivalence in displaced residents. Their economy desperately needs the influx, but they fear gawkers eyeing the remnants of their homes at a time of great vulnerability.
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