By Michael Doran
As a boy, Les Dovaston spent weekends in Healesville and rode the steam train from Lilydale to Healesville with his uncle, the train’s fireman. Fire was a source of fun in those days but little did he know it would return six decades later to do it’s best to destroy his life.
He was five when he first came to Healesville, where he met his future wife Jenny. “After we got married we had two children, Glenn and Leanne, and went around Australia for six months then settled in Healesville,” he said.
“We bought the fish farm in 1996 and the ponds were here but were unused, covered in blackberries. Glenn wanted to start a business so he took on the trout farm and me and Jenny worked on the holiday cabins.”
“Then Black Saturday came through and that was that.”
“When the fire came it went as dark as night and you couldn’t see anything except smoke and fire. Me and Jenny jumped in one of the ponds when it hit and although it was hot we stayed in the water for a couple of hours until the wind dropped.
“I just stood there looking around at everything burnt, everything gone after so many years of work. I was kicking through the ashes looking for something but I don’t know what I was looking for, hoping to find something but not knowing what I was hoping for.
“We had a houseboat up in Eildon so I brought it down and put it on stilts and that’s where we lived for a while. Glenn decided to head off to work in Western Australia so I built a new house up on the hill for us to live in and worked on getting the fish ponds going again.
“The fish survived but it rained after the fire so all the ash washed down and silted up the ponds and that’s what killed them. We had an MP come here and he said he would give me some fish eggs if he got a photo of me shaking his hand and thanking him, so I told him where to stick his fish eggs.
“We lost everything in the fire but we decided to carry on and do what we could to start again. But we didn’t know what insurance was until we went to claim, they kept half and we only got half.
“In the class action they got $500 million, my claim was for $2.2 million but we only got $50,000, so I don’t know how they worked that out. That was the end of the holiday park.”
Beyond all of the financial and work-related issues Les has faced, by far his biggest cost has been the human tragedy left behind in the wake of Black Saturday.
When he and Jenny set about reviving the fish farm, daughter Leanne offered to get involved in to help them out but in a cruel twist of fate she drowned in an accident on the farm in 2011. Leanne was well known in Healesville as an active member of the Rotary Club.
Ten years on the impact of Black Saturday still looms large over his life and leaves many questions unanswered for him.
“Jenny is now living at Aurrum Care in Healesville and I’m not sure she didn’t get crook because of what happened. Glenn is not here, we lost Leanne and I had a stroke last year, all after what happened on Black Saturday.”
Whilst the last ten years have not been kind to Les, now in his eighties, he has battled on, facing his adversity and remaining remarkably positive for a person in his position.
“Life has been good to me. It’s been a good life, great wife and kids and when we came here it was good for 10 years and then all of a sudden it went bang.”
