By Derek Schlennstedt
Chum Creek Primary School reopened its doors on Monday 16 February, more than a week after the Black Saturday Fires devastated much of the small community.
Even though the school was spared in the horrific Black Saturday blaze, it did not escape totally unscathed and as Principal Michael Corr retells, disasters don’t necessarily end when the debris is cleared and buildings rebuilt.
The trauma and disruption can leave lasting memories, and for children those memories and the fallout can be particularly pernicious.
“I remember a few years after the event I was watching out my office window and a truck drove up Cunningham’s Road, which is a dusty road … as it went up the road this big cloud of dust was left swirling.”
“It was a very hot, still day and the kids were all playing … as it went up they all stopped and watched, just watched, they didn’t say anything and the dust started to settle and they just went back to playing.
“They were all up on their toes, anxious, anticipating.”
While the school’s chook shed, wheelchair ramp, play equipment and many trees around the school grounds were all damaged by the fires, the main buildings were left intact.
Mr Corr remembered returning to the school on the Sunday, holding onto hope that the school had not been destroyed.
“It was just blackness.”
“You’re in the middle of all this blackness and right up until the school, the ferns the embankment all of it was gone.
“It was just burnt dirt and sticks and in the middle of all this was the cream weatherboard building and I just thought ‘thank god, it’s still there.’”
Following the fires the school not only become a safe haven for students but also a community centre for residents and parents who had no power, or water.
Mr Corr said the decision to return to school a little over a week after the fires was one of necessity to help students return to some form of normality.
“I think the best thing that worked for us was to just provide something for the kids each day.”
“They could come and if they didn’t have lunch we could give them lunch, if they just wanted to sit and read they could.
“It was about providing a place where they could come and be safe and secure.”
“As the only community building in the area we had people coming up here to have a shower so we kind of threw the school open a bit.”
“They attached a few taps to our water supply and made them available through the fence because there were plenty of houses that didn’t have water.
“We tried to support the families and students as best as we could.”
10 years later and the school has all but recovered, there are no signs of the charred edges that Mr Corr saw on the Sunday following the fire, and the enrolments have risen from 25 in 2009 to a healthy 65.
The sheds, play spaces and wheelchair ramps which were destroyed have all since been replaced and many of the dangerous trees removed.
“You have to look for a silver lining … no one wants a bushfire no one wants trauma, but if you have to have it and you have to come out of the other side you may as well make it as good as it can be.”
