From The Embers

Four Emergency level bushfires burned over one weekend in Western Australia in February 2022. With roughly 30% of WA agricultural land, most farmers are prepared for fire at any time. But when one comes, they rely heavily on volunteer farmers and locals who form the Bush Fire Brigade.

On February 6, 2022 near the small farming town of Narrogin, extreme wind and heat, coupled with a powerline spark in a dry pasture paddock, resulted in a massive fire. Only one house was lost but the impact on livestock and farmland will affect farmers years into the future.  
Content warning this feature contains stories of animals in distress

Guests:
Angus Armstrong
Mike Burges
Tammy Freestone
Michael Lange

Credits:
Producer: Leith Alexander
Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman
Engineering: Tegan Nicholls
Theme music: Oliver Beard
Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions
Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knecevic

This episode was made on the Wiilman and Wadjuk Countries of the Nyoongar Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative – and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day after day of intense rainfall fell across south east Queensland In February 2022, breaking riverbanks, swamping roads and flooding homes.

The city of Brisbane experienced one of the worst floods on record. In three days alone, Brisbane received 80 per cent of its annual rainfall as people scrambled to find higher ground to shelter.

As people recover and start to rebuild, questions are being raised over where to live and how to prepare for the future.

Guests:
Milena Cifali
Richard Havernik
Carolyn Karafa
Councillor Johnathon Sri

Credits:
Producer: Maureen Mopio
Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman
Engineering: Tegan Nicholls
Theme music: Oliver Beard
Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions
Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knecevic

This episode was made on the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, and the land of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative – and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever increasing record high flood levels are marked on the side of Lismore’s flood levee. 
Lismore, a town in Northern New South Wales is dissected by two major rivers. When there’s heavy rainfall, water flows down from the surrounding hills, slowing at the bottom and spreading across the floodplain.

The town’s residents know floods, their houses are built high, some four metres off the ground in the canopies of trees. Many have flood plans, keeping kayaks and dinghies tethered to their homes in case of emergency.

On February 27 2022, water inundated the town, sweeping away cars, stranding residents on rooftops and filling houses with inches of mud.

In the weeks that followed volunteer hubs sprang up to feed and clothe locals forced to shelter in tents and cars as they struggle to recover with minimal support and start to clean out and rebuild their homes in the trees.

Guests:
Vicki Findlay
Naomi Moran
Aidan Ricketts
Lucy Wise
Freya Woodland

Production team:
Producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman
Engineer: Tegan Nichols
Theme composer: Oliver Beard
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

Roofs above water was made on Widjabul Wia-bal Country of the Bundjalung Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One and a half million hectares of Yuin Country was destroyed by the 2019/2020 mega fires in the South Coast of New South Wales. These fires killed countless animals, plants and insect species - some of which are now on the brink of extinction.

Many members of the South Coast Yuin Community call these mega fires, ‘Wrong Fire,’ fires that can’t be controlled and have the capacity to injure and kill. This type of fire is vastly different to Right Fire, often called Cultural Burning. Right Fire has been practised for thousands of years and has the capacity to heal and care for all.

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.

Guests: 
Andrew White
Uncle Nook
Vikki Parsley

Credits:
Producer: Alice Ansara
Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman
Engineer: Tegan Nicholls
Theme music by Oliver Beard
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
Minga-Yung - Your Mother by Jordan Nye
Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knecevic

This podcast was made on the lands of the Walbunga and the Yuin Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fires that tore through the South Coast of New South Wales in 2019/2020 hit towns on the coast and in the bush. Within the community, homes were lost, some experienced events that left them traumatised and all inhabited a devastated landscape.

Animal habitats were also affected and when both logging companies and urban developers began to encroach on the habitat of the critically endangered Swift Parrot, locals from the South Coast began to stand up and take action to save the home that this small bird needs in order to survive. 

Content warning: this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.

Guests:
Bill Eger
Nick Hopkins
Jordan Nye
Dr. Debbie Saunders

Credits:
Producer: Alice Ansara
Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman
Engineer: Tegan Nicholls
Theme music by Oliver Beard
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knecevic

This episode was made on the lands of the Walbunga and the Budawang people of the Yuin Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two years on from the massive fire that tore through Mallacoota, a tiny coastal town in Victoria, the camping grounds are full again, koalas can be spotted in the crowns of eucalypts and the landscape is green with epicormic growth.

But the town is dotted with empty lots where houses once stood and the new green growth only hides the blackened trunks.

Photojournalist Rachel Mounsey documented the approach of the bushfire and the aftermath, focusing her camera on the people who lost their homes amidst the devastation. 

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.

Guests:
Justin Brady
Brodie Cummingham
Kate Jackson
Rachel Mounsey
Jiya Rose Nation

Credits:
Producer and presenter: Sarah Mashman
Engineer: Tegan Nicholls
Theme music by Oliver Beard
Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions
Production management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

Framing Disaster was made on the lands of the Gunai Kurnai people and the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Residents in Lobethal fled their properties for safety in December 2019, not knowing if they’d return and find their houses still standing.

Adelaide’s Cudlee Creek fire filled the air with black smoke and destroyed 85 homes over 10 days. As the recovery rolled-out, the pandemic crept in - isolating people and leaving those who’d lost their homes feeling isolated and forgotten.

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.

Guests:
Belinda Broughton
Hana Broughton
Evan Edwards
Nicole McIntosh

Credits:
Producer: Lisa Burns
Executive producer and presenter: Sarah Mashman
Engineer: Tegan Nichols
Theme composer: Oliver Beard
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
Management: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

The house on the Hill was made on the lands of the Kaurna people and the Peramangk people and the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network”.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Severe storms and fire are a part of life on Kangaroo Island. But the firestorms that blasted across the Island’s landscape in January 2022 were unlike anything ever seen before, and forbode of a changing climate.

Two years on, birds and mammals are only just starting to return to fire-ravaged habitats, and a question looms over the community - what will come when the fire siren rings again?

When Lightning Strikes Twice is made in Tribute to Sarah Strong- Law.

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.

Guests:
Jayne Bates
Brenton Davis
Sabrina Davis
Margi Prideaux
Sarah Strong-Law
Alice Teasdale

Credits:
Producer: Lisa Burns
Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman
Engineer: Tegan Nichols
Theme composer: Oliver Beard
Management: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

This podcast was made on lands of significance to the Ngarrindjeri-Ramindjeri, Kaurna and Narungga peoples and the land of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2019, major fires surged across Australia lasting until rains and floods extinguished them in 2020. Most remember this as the worst season Australia had experienced.

From the Embers season 2: Phoenix revisits towns explored in the first series, taking listeners to the east Coast of Australia, to Mallacoota and Moruya and across to South Australia’s Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island, to explore how communities are contending with trauma and isolation as they recover- and even as some rebuild, severe flooding has inundated communities across New South Wales and Queensland with record high levels and people left calling from rooftops.

Across the series, the impact of COVID-19 is evident as we visit the people left isolated and struggling to be able to re-engage with their communities and maintain a sense of normalcy and creativity as they went through wave after wave of lockdowns.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The roads to Omeo were closed as fires surged towards the small East Gippsland town.
Locals retreated to the Recreation Reserve to camp in outbuildings and halls clustered around the football field. 

Then out of the heavy smoke, birds appeared, chinooks and blackhawks offering an escape to some of the community.

This is the final episode of season one of From the Embers, a nine part series sharing first hand accounts from Australia’s devastating summer of fire.

Guests:
Natalie O’Connell
Leonie Pendergast
Ann Peterson
Dennis and Jill Riethmiller
Graeme Symons

Credits:
Producer Anne Wall
Additional assistance Alice Ansara and Lisa Burns
Executive producer and sound design Sarah Mashman
Production management team Vicky Rouse and Abe Killian
Engineering Tegan Nichols
Script consultation Zoe Ferguson
Theme Oliver Beard

This podcast has been brought to you by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, and is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas and The Paul Ramsay Foundation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.