Adversity providing opportunities to rekindle hope

“I LOVE a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of drought and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, her beauty and her terror – the wide brown land for me!” – Dorothea Mackellar, 1906.

It seems that things don’t change much in 120 years. What we call home is indeed beautiful but equally terrifying, and coming into 2026, we are being reminded yet again that our untamed land will continue to test us. January 9 saw more than 36 fires start across Victoria, sparked by dry lightning, hot winds and wild conditions mimicking those of Black Saturday. And amazingly, at the same time, North East Queensland is hit with one of its worst floods on record, endless rain and water washing away houses, cattle, sheep. Then only days later, in the same Victorian mountains that were burning, flooding rains through the Otway’s washed away campers and cars in Lorne and Wye River. Then there has been the absolute terror, not from natural causes, of the massacre at Bondi.

While our country tests us with ravaging conditions, have we not also made a mess of things ourselves? We have lost something since COVID. Is nature telling us to get a grip? That our trivial worries do not matter? I reflect on this and what we might no longer have, what made us great … sadly I think we may have lost our Aussie spirit!

I attended the Meredith fires as a private person (not a CFA member), assisting in putting out embers on local property, including my parents’ farm. It was a scary experience, seeing nature’s wrath come within a short distance of the house and farm where I grew up. One thing that struck me was that many of the local lads I expected to be in the CFA are no longer volunteering. Veterans of 50 years choosing not to turn out to stay and protect their own homes and towns, have they lost trust in the CFA and our government leadership? Has the century old spirit of our CFA been lost? Post-fire reports suggest a 55 per cent decline in volunteers over the past five years, a telling sign that something that used to unite our rural communities has been eroded and now divides!

Sometimes, facing great adversity brings out the best in people. In 2026 can we find our spirit again and reset our shared values? As nature threw its wrath at us over recent weeks, I saw remarkable responses with people of all backgrounds clambering to help each other. As always, our first responders have been exceptional. But when it comes from places you don’t expect you realise that our Aussie spirit is alive and well, and perhaps just needs a hint of something to bring it to the fore. We have witnessed inspirational acts of bravery and selflessness:

An incredibly courageous man, a new immigrant to our shores, wrestles a rifle from a murderer

A group of young backpackers from who knows where, speaking very little English, rescuing people from flood waters

A local business, owned and operated by a family of Indian origins, opening its store to give away food to affected fire victims

People driving to areas they had never visited to help people they don’t know repair fences and feed livestock

Donations of hundreds of tons of hay, food, bedding, clothing and money

A young farmer evacuates his wife and three kids from his farm, then climbs on a truck defend other people’s homes, while his own house burned to the ground

An older man in abject despair and tears as he watched his only asset, an uninsured house, burn to the ground, only to be revived within days via an online donation page which raised over $200,000 – enough for him to rebuild

It is time we reclaimed hope and faith in our way of life and in each other. Maybe all it takes are little things to start us re-building that hope: helping a neighbour, volunteering at a sausage sizzle, turning off our devices and just getting out to a pub for a drink and socialising more? Let’s use 2026 to reset our core values, I think we have made a start already.

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