By Michael Doran
Anniversaries often stir up emotions, some good and some not so good. For the people of Marysville this is certainly the case but a strong message coming out of the town is one of wanting to say ‘thank you.’
For Christine Adams, a member of the team behind the Marysville 10 Years On commemoration, now is the right time for thankfulness but finding a way to do it is not so simple.
“We have often talked about how do you say thank you, that word is not big enough it and doesn’t stretch far enough but what word is there? As a town we would like to really thank the world for what they did so this is our time to say that thank you, have a commemoration and then move on.”
Around twelve months ago the state government started talking about the ten-year anniversary and organised some consultation processes in the town aimed at finding out what the town wanted.
“Before government came along we had already started talking about it, even two years back quiet conversations were starting to happen. We were aware that 10 years was coming up and we wanted to make sure we were controlling that and not the government.
“All the towns had the opportunity to do their own decision making on what they wanted to do, Taggerty, Chum Creek, Kinglake and the others. So for Marysville we picked up the tagline of ‘Marysville 10 Years On’ because we are looking at where we are now, not where we were.
“So we thought let’s go back to Alexandra, which is where most of us were for that first couple of days and Alexandra people just put themselves out there and gave us beds, fed us and watered us, as did Healesville and Yarra Glen. From that point it became a ripple effect of how the community, the state, Australia and the world started giving us donations.
“So this is just our way, little Marysville’s way of thanking all of those people for all that they did over that time.
“We know that we are always going to be known as the town that burnt down, we know that is going to happen and we can’t get rid of that. What we hope is that it becomes part of our history, it’s not the focus and we look at being the town that you want to come and visit because of the nature, the beauty of the falls, the walks and so on.
“We don’t want to talk about the new Marysville; Marysville is over 150 years old and for the people that come here now this is Marysville. What is out there is what Marysville is and we look forward to seeing more houses growing and more businesses coming in.
“I’m the president of the tourism association and what we should be doing as a town is bringing people in, that’s our focus, and once we bring them let them decide what they want to do.
“There are a whole lot of things that can make up a tourist town. MiRa is one, Vibe is one, trail-biking, Brunos sculpture park, the caravan park, the golf course and much more but without all of us we don’t have a tourism industry, we all need each other.
“I think the town is still struggling in how its moving forward. We desperately need more businesses in town but you can’t open a businesses unless you have the confidence the tourists are coming, it’s a Catch-22 situation.
As the owners of the Marysville Caravan and Holiday Park, Christine and husband Ken have a pretty good handle on what visitors to the area have in mind when they come. “I still get people who come here and say ‘well you didn’t affected by the fires’ or ‘how come there’s so many new houses around here’?
“There are people still walking into the town assuming they are going to see burnt out houses and burnt trees everywhere. So I am hoping the significance of this ten year anniversary will stop a lot of that.”
Ken and Christine lost their home and business, the Scenic Hotel, on Black Saturday and then faced the dilemma of rebuild or leave. “We were approached about re-building the caravan park, initially as a place for tradies to stay in as the town re-built itself,” she said.
In reflecting about how Marysville people have handled the ten years since the fires, Christine said that while everyone faced life-changing issues doing so in the spotlight has prolonged the pain.
“Ours is public but yours is private. We don’t stick a microphone in your face and ask how’s your ugly divorce, your child that died, etc. I am fierce about my privacy but I still think we don’t have a private life like most would do, the whole thing is that people assume they have the right to know everything about us.
“Thursday night will be a time for reflection and we will be doing something here as a community, as are all the individual communities. I will be very surprised if anybody does this again, on the day it might be something we talk about but I don’t think there will be the concentrated focus on commemorating it.
“Our message is a big thank to everyone who helped us get back on our feet and to come out, see our town and love it for what it is today.”
