[boxhead]

Hi Bernie,
I was in the area on the Shelbyfest weekend, I have a mate who lives at Strathewen, they lost 100 acres out of the 112 they own.
It is getting green again and some trees are starting to sprout leaves again.
Talking to my mate on the phone gave me a feel for what they went through on the day, but until I went there and saw just how close things where, it was very confronting to see.
They did lose a number of neighbours in the fires and they would have been in the same boat had the wind not changed directions less than 30 metres from the houses.
Adam described a wall of fire higher than he could look up (tops of trees are about 40 metres above ground level) and it was coming very quickly, hit the peak of the hill where there houses are and stopped in the wind, it stayed there burning for over 1 hour before dying down.