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Topic:Disaster Reconstruction

Deua River Valley resident Clay Stafford wants more done to protect vital telecommunications infrastructure from the next fire. (ABC South East NSW: Toby Hemmings)

Communities along the NSW South Coast impacted by the Black Summer bushfires say they are still rebuilding six years later.

In the remote Deua River Valley, residents want measures completed to ensure key telecommunications infrastructure is more resilient.

Further south in Cobargo, efforts to open new buildings on the main street, including a bushfire resilience centre, have been repeatedly delayed.

Link copiedShareShare articleAs communities along the NSW South Coast continue to deal with the scars of Black Summer six years on, the smell and sight of smoke this summer brought back painful memories.

Residents on the NSW far south coast said they felt triggered when heatwave conditions led to a bushfire starting in the Wadbilliga National Park, 20 kilometres north-west of Cobargo, last month.

In December 2019, Cobargo's main street was gutted by a fire that became linked to the deaths of seven people.

The Wadbilliga fire was not extinguished until last week.

With the devastation of the 2019-20 fires — which claimed close to 1,000 homes and more than 1.5 million hectares in the region — still fresh, it has made many in its vicinity take stock of how prepared they are for the next big fire season.

A bushfire started in January in the Wadbilliga National Park, but was eventually brought under control by the RFS. (Supplied: NSW RFS)

In the remote Deua River Valley, south-west of Batemans Bay and to the north of the Wadbillinga NP, Clay Stafford gets emotional when recalling Black Summer.

He remembers being out with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) when his community's lifeline to the outside world — a telecommunications tower — went down.

"We had got used to updates from the fire app, and we'd also gotten used to looking at ABC News to see what was going on," Mr Stafford said.

"All that just ceased in one day, it just stopped."

On December 31, 2019, the Mount Wandera telecommunications tower was destroyed.

The access road to the Mount Wandera transmitter after the Currowan fire went through in January 2020. (Supplied: Clay Stafford)

Extreme heat from the fire melted cables and infrastructure and knocked out critical services including mobile phone and internet coverage, radio and television transmission and emergency communications.

It took five months for mobile phone reception to return in the valley, compounding the challenge of fighting the fires.

"It did make us go back to basics. We got our old CB radios just to communicate with other people in the RFS," Mr Stafford said.

The Mount Wandera transmitter is vital for internet, mobile and emergency communication, as well as radio and television across the NSW South Coast. (ABC South East NSW: Toby Hemmings)

While the tower was rebuilt in October 2020, the Eurobodalla Shire Council received federal government funding in 2023 to improve the resilience of its site.

But Mr Stafford said he was concerned about the lack of preparation in the lead up to summer, with access roads only cleared in the past few weeks.

In the middle of heatwaves and conditions reminiscent of Black Summer last month, Mr Stafford said he had been worried whether the site would be resilient enough to survive the next blaze.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Eurobodalla Shire Council said advice received from the NSW RFS was that clearing around the tower would offer limited bushfire protection.

"To improve access to the telecommunications site, dangerous or high-risk trees and vegetation along Knowles and Wandera Trig Road are being removed," the statement said.

"Due to restrictions to crown land approvals, ongoing maintenance costs and NSW RFS advice that clearing would offer limited bushfire protection, Council is instead focusing on improving access and strengthening the site itself.

"This includes installing fireproof lagging on the cables and replacing the existing chain-mesh fencing with Colorbond fencing."

Council said works would be completed later this year.

The Cobargo Historic Village sign was destroyed during the January 2020 bushfires.  (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

One hundred kilometres further south, and to the east of the Wadbillinga NP fire, the town of Cobargo is still trying to regain what was lost during Black Summer.

The main street of Cobargo was destroyed by fire during the January 2020 bushfires. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

In the aftermath of the destruction of many of the buildings in the main street, a group of volunteers set up the Cobargo Community Development Corporation (CCDC) to help the reconstruction of the town.

CCDC chairperson John Walters said without rebuilding the main street in a timely and coordinated fashion, Cobargo's future looked bleak.

"We faced relegation to being just a forgotten little whistle stop on the highway," he said.

John Walters heads the Cobargo Community Development Corportation, which was set up by volunteers. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

Using funding from the Bushfire Local Economy Recovery Fund (BLERF), co-funded by the federal and state governments, the CCDC has so far managed the construction of a new post office, village square and market hall.

Mr Walters believes it is the only BLERF project to receive funding to rebuild commercial infrastructure.

"To do that, we had to take the land out of private ownership and transfer it to community ownership as a not-for profit," he said.

Mr Walters said the projects have faced up to 18 months worth of external delays, but they now aim to be finished by March.

It is a similar story for the new Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre on the main street.

The Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre will honour the people who lost their lives during the Black Summer bushfires. (ABC South East: Jacinta Counihan)

The centre aims to be a space for commemoration for the people who lost their lives in Black Summer, plus a place to hold events, exhibitions and education programs.

The building is complete, but the open date is unknown due to bureaucratic complications with neighbouring construction.

Rhonda Ayliffe, whose family donated the land for the centre, said the bushfire in Wadbilliga NP last month was a reminder of how far the recovery still has to go.

Rhonda Ayliffe led the creation of the Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre on a site her family had owned for generations. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

"When you have a fire in the same spot where one was before, people think, 'Gosh, we haven't even recovered, we haven't even got the main street back operating again'."

Despite the setbacks, Ms Ayliffe said the small close-knit communities along the South Coast know that recovery and resilience is more than rebuilding physical structures.

"Our idea of resilience was not just bouncing back, it's bouncing forward," she said.

Jason Miles and his family moved to Cobargo after Black Summer. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

Jason Miles and his family moved to Cobargo in the aftermath of Black Summer and renovated the historic Cobargo bank building as a cafe.

He said his family had been embraced by the community in the continuing journey of recovery.

The rebuild of Cobargo's main street is close to completion. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

"There's still ones in the community who will never get back what they've lost," Mr Miles said.

"But the general hope of the area, that underlying positivity for the future, it's risen."

Topic:Community and Society

Topic:Wages and Benefits

Topic:Federal Government

Community Organisations

Disaster Reconstruction

Telecommunications Services Industry

Topic:Community and Society

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