Ann and Jamie Laherty-Hunt returned to the fire-ravaged hamlet of Ruffy to find their dream home had been destroyed. But there were little wins in the ruins.
After two sleepless nights, Ann and Jamie Laherty-Hunt finally returned to the blackened, scorched remains where their dream home once stood on the outskirts of the fire-ravaged hamlet of Ruffy.
The sprawling trees in the garden are still smouldering. The house is a pile of mangled and twisted tin and rubble.
Jamie and Ann Laherty-Hunt grapple with the aftermath of fire at their property in Ruffy.Credit: Eddie Jim
Ann races to check on her seven goslings. They flap their wings and chirp as she unlocks them out of their metal cage.
“My goosies, my babies,” she says, tears trickling down her cheeks. “Oh, thank goodness you are all right.”
Their four alpacas and two cows roam nearby in a burnt paddock.
“I am just so glad our animals have survived,” Ann says. “That was our main concern. Our house we can rebuild. We have our lives, and we have our animals.”
The Laherty-Hunts’ property was destroyed by the bushfire.Credit: Eddie Jim
The couple, who are both nurses, had intended to stay to defend their home.
They were able to extinguish a wild blaze that started on their back veranda and billowed black, thick smoke into the house.
But then the roof caught fire and began to cave in on them.
They bundled their golden retriever, Barry, and poodle, Millie, into their car and floored it with only the clothes on their back as bright, orange flames engulfed their entire property.
“Jamie just said, ‘We’ve got to go’,” Ann says.
“We were too stressed to be scared. He has worked so hard on this garden. He has put all of his life, love and soul into it. Driving out while watching it burn was so hard. There is just this absolute sadness it is all gone.”
A burning tree at Ann and Jamie Laherty-Hunt’s property on the outskirts of Ruffy.Credit: Eddie Jim
The couple were among several locals to return to the tiny hamlet of Ruffy on Saturday for the first time, following an anxious wait after their homes were caught in the fire’s path.
The charred, smouldering roads leading to Ruffy are scattered with dead cattle and kangaroos, and fallen powerlines.
Some locals, fed up waiting for authorities to come and clear the roads, were using chainsaws and bobcats with forestry cutters to clear the path home.
The Laherty-Hunts examine the damage at their property.Credit: Eddie Jim
Ann says there is a sense of feeling forgotten about as fires continue to roar across the state.
“You feel a bit abandoned and alone coming back here,” she says. “The numbness is starting to wear off, and I am starting to feel a bit. I actually prefer the numbness because the rest of the emotions are so overwhelming.”
Ruffy’s historic school building, built in the 1800s, burnt to the ground, along with the hamlet’s community centre, telephone exchange and at least 10 homes.
Th aftermath of the bushfire in Ruffy. Credit: Eddie Jim
Such was the devastation of the fire, CFA captain George Noye says it was like an atomic bomb going off.
Jamie describes it as “hell on earth.”
“We couldn’t see for hell, and that’s what I imagine being in the depths of hell feels like,” he says.
Across the road from the Laherty-Hunts, Mark Noye, his brother and his 86-year-old father, Henry, did not sleep for almost two days as they fought off a ring of fire swirling around them.
They managed to save their beloved family home on the edge of Ruffy, but on Saturday morning they were still putting out spot fires.
“It was hectic,” Mark says. “The winds were so intense. That was the scariest part. But from boundary line to boundary line across the property it was just fire everywhere. We were non-stop at it, until we finally got it.”
Fire damaged buildings in Ruffy. Credit: Eddie Jim
From the town of Ruffy devastating stories have emerged of farmers returning to blackened paddocks, dead livestock and perished homes.
“Ruffy is just shell-shocked in the aftermath,” Mark says. “Some people saved what they could, others lost absolutely everything, and it’s going to hit them the hardest. Nobody has had a real chance to process what has happened.”
Henry says he was shattered to hear of homes going up in flames just across the road from the local fire station.
Along the Longwood-Ruffy Road, farm owners Mark Noye and his father, Henry Noye, deal with the aftermath.Credit: Eddie Jim
But he says the locals who stayed behind banded together to protect everything they could.
“They were bloody amazing, what they all did,” he says. “I’ve been around for so long, I’ve seen a lot of fires. But this was the worst one I have ever seen.”
A little more than 20 kilometres away in Longwood, Shane Peterson is using a hose to put out glowing embers on a property owned by his boss.
All around him, the inferno has ravaged the bushland and obliterated the tiny town.
“Some people have had to fight to save their homes three times because the spot fires just won’t stop,” he says.
Peterson, who lives at the local pub in Longwood, says he and the publican opened the doors to everyone in town.
They gave away free beers and cooked pizzas and meals for the firefighters until the power went out. There is still no electricity in Longwood and surrounding areas are running out of food.
“Some people who live here have just come down to the pub to have somewhere that was quiet, so they could desensitise and stuff like that,” he says.
Peterson says he has been moved by tales of courage from the locals.
Shane Peterson mopping up on Saturday after fire swept through Longwood.Credit: Eddie Jim
“There were these two young blokes who stayed back and for hours helped battle fires at another bloke’s house,” he says.
“They managed to save it. When they came to the pub, they were pretty rattled.”
The next day the same two young men grabbed a chainsaw, chucked it in the back of a ute and cut their way to a property to save an old man, who was stuck inside his house, in a fire-stricken road.
Loading
For now, the Laherty-Hunts are staying with friends, but they intend to rebuild their home.
“We’ve had so many people offer to help us,” Jamie says. “When shit goes to shit around here, people always step into help. But it will be a long road to recovery. We’re all just pushing down a great big well of starting again.”
Two small clay statues – including one of a painted brown owl – Ann Laherty-Hunt made many years ago survived the fire.Credit: Eddie Jim
Ann spends her first moments back at her property rummaging through the debris. She finds a pair of metal goblets, an untouched canoe inside the garage and an oven dish with its lid, underneath a burnt piece of tin.
Then deep in the wreckage, a rare and precious treasure. Two small clay statues – including one of a painted owl – she made many years ago are perfectly intact.
“Oh my god,” she says. “This has made me so happy. My ugly clay work has survived. I didn’t think anything would make it at all.”
Jamie hugs his wife and kisses her on the forehead.
