CHINKAPOOK residents Ross and Carol Smith have experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the fires burning through Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
For four months of the year, the couple live on the island’s town of Kingscote, a place they’ve called home for 27 years.
The remaining eight months, they live in Chinkapook.
Mr Smith told The Guardian on Friday, the couple were “relatively” safe, but “the last couple of days have been hairy”.
“We’ve had ash fall around the place and last night I took photos from the backyard and you could see the red glow,” he said.
“The fire got reasonably close to where the Kingscote Airport is, where the army is about 15km from Kingscote.”
An emotional Mr Smith said many of the couple’s friends on the island were affected by the fires, losing their homes, businesses, farms and stock.
“Our next door neighbour is an elderly lady and her son and grandson have both lost their houses west of Parndana,” he said.
Mr Smith said the sportsground in Parndana, where the infrastructure was built by volunteers, was also lost to the fires.
“It’s all flattened and they’ve lost all their memorabilia and the building,” he said.
“It burnt before anyone could get there.”
“There’s another family, the Stantons, there’s three brothers, near Stokes Bay, they lost their houses, but their father’s house is still standing in Stokes Bay.”
Mr Smith said the brothers had lost not just their homes, but their stock.
“They’ve got at least 3000 head of sheep, then 100 head of cattle,” Mr Smith said.
“The last three days, them and another brother were burying the (dead) stock.”
He said another friend had lost their cafe to the fires, which Mr Smith believed could take them two years to “get back up and running”.
The bowls club Mr Smith is a member of have also had to postpone their pennant competition.
Mr Smith said prior to the fires, they had received warnings “all the time”.
“The island is 150 kilometres long, it was all in the west end so it was no real worry here in the town itself, it’s just devastating up the other end,” he said.
Mr Smith said they received 3 millimetres of rain at their property on Friday and said he believed the rain may calm down the fires.
“I think they had a little more where the fires are down there, but I think that’s calmed out,” he said.
Mr Smith said he and Carol were unable visit their friends to help, but “all you can do is offer your support”.
“We’ll still be here (on Kangaroo Island) a fair while and when the roads open we should be able to get up and help our friends with a few different things,” he said.
The couple have been on the island since before Christmas, where they will remain until April, before returning to Chinkapook.
“Even though we felt safe down here it just grabs at you,” Mr Smith said.
“You know what’s happened at the other end of the island, you see the pictures, and it’s just terrible.
“All the locals are very grateful that all the soldiers and that have been helping out here and that it’s helped boost them to see that they’re getting that support.”
Mr Smith also praised Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly for his efforts during the fires.
“The support they’ve been getting money-wise, the Lord Mayor’s appeal (Kangaroo Island Mayoral Relief and Recovery Bushfire Fund), over $1 million (raised) locally,” he said.
“Things like that is fantastic.
“You’re getting support from overseas and everywhere.”
The Smith’s daughter, Lyndal Taylor, who lives in Manangatang, is hoping to visit her parents on the island on Wednesday.
“Hopefully I’ll get there. We only organised it a few days ago, but we didn’t think things would pick up again,” she said.
“We knew it might, but we didn’t think it would get as bad as it is.”
Ms Taylor said the island needed as much support through tourism they could get.
“It’s just been crazy. They still want tourists to go once it’s opened back up to the public,” Ms Taylor said.
“They need tourists back there – the shops and that that are still opened there, the businesses and that, they need people to come, because the island’s lost all their tourism.
“And this is, of course, their peak season.”
Ms Taylor said there had also been at least 7-8 cruise ships planned to dock at the island, that were unable to stop at the island.
“That have been past and pulled up, but can’t come in,” she said.
“A lot of people are talking about the koala population getting burnt out, but over on the island, they’re saying ‘what about the other native animals’.
“It’s not just the koalas, because all you see on the television is the koalas.”
Ms Taylor said her parents were also on the island when during the December 2007 Kangaroo Island, which destroyed 95,000 hectares of land.
“The one in 2007 wiped a lot out but there was still some green (grass) but this time there’s not much green left at all,” she said.
