By Derek Schlennstedt
The Steels Creek Community Centre is colloquially known as the heart of Steels Creek, and it’s actually the only ‘town’ building in Steels Creek.
When the Black Saturday bushfires threatened the town, the community came very close to losing its heart.
If it wasn’t for the efforts of Ivan Filsell and his family it very well might have.
On 7 February 2009, Ivan was living in Steels Creek on a 50 acre site backing onto Kinglake National Park.
The area was on high fire alert and Ivan had already taken precautions by filling his gutters with water and laying out a hose at each corner of his house.
“You just knew it was coming, you could just feel it,” he said.
“We had gutter plugs in and gutters full of water and we just waited…and then it came.”
Despite being prepared, Ivan had to use four hoses to fight flames surrounding his home after a change of wind caught residents unaware.
“We were watching it behind the hills over Mount Everard, and we watched it go past and thought it missed us,” he said.
“It went down all the way to the hills behind Yarra Glen, and then the wind changed and it swung it around in a big arc and came back towards us across the Yarra Flats.
“The spot fires were just starting everywhere; we were just watching them start all around us.”
Although the Filsell family managed to save their home, their fences, animals and shed were all destroyed.
It wasn’t until the fire had passed that they ventured out to see the changed and charred landscape.
On both sides, their neighbours’ houses had been razed to the ground but it was Ivan’s son, Mark, who suggested that they check on the smouldering community centre.
“All we could see of the centre was just a glow in the smoke at that time,“ he said.
“We came down to check and the gutters were all just starting to smoke.
“There was a water tank which had fallen down and was burning, but there was a broken pipe with hot water coming out.
“Mark had a plastic bowl in his car so we had a little bucket chain going from the tank.
“We had Mark on the roof, I stood on the tank stand and my grandson Jake collected the water and passed it to me, and I passed it to Mark.“
The historic building has since become an important and enduring part of the community.
Today, the centre is more popular than ever and Secretary Christine Tomlins told the Mail that various groups catered to all ages.
“It’s been a great gathering place for everyone and for 20-odd years we’ve been meeting there,“ she said.
“There’s an art group, sewing group, garden club, film group and there’s quite a few other things too.
“It really would’ve been a shame to see it go.”
