navada

Two friends reunited at the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter.

CFA volunteer David Tree - bless you.

Amid the burgeoning bushfire death toll, which is currently nearing 200, we find a little ray of hope in the midst of such terrible suffering.

We find it in the form of a big strong man, a firefighter, down on his knees in the blackened remains of the forest to offer a desperately-needed drink of water to a distressed koala.

"Hero" is a much-abused term, but our volunteer firefighters are the genuine article.

I hope Sam will be back in the forest munching contentedly on eucalyptus leaves as soon as possible.

Bushfires have literally exploded across the state of Victoria.

I consider myself extremely blessed today to be alive. My loved ones are all safe, my home is safe and my possessions are safe. Thousands of my fellow Victorians cannot say the same. So many people are either dead or displaced today.

We all think we know what flames look like, but shocked and stunned survivors of this unprecedented disaster are saying repeatedly that they have never seen anything like it. This was a perfect storm, preceded by a fortnight of extreme heat which sucked the last remnants of moisture from parched tinder-dry forests and fields. Temperatures across the state on Saturday reached up to 47 degrees Celsius, further exacerbated by scorching winds strong enough to knock grown men off their feet.

Pretty picture postcard holiday towns, places that I visited as recently as four weeks ago during my Christmas holidays, were razed in a matter of minutes. People who thought they were prepared for the arrival of the flames were overwhelmed by the speed, ferocity and terrifying roar of the flames. Many of them panicked and fled at the last minute, exposing themselves to the inferno and dying a horrible death in their cars or on the roadside.

Former residents have been transformed into refugees, camping out in hastily organised relief centres and local school halls. Tent cities have sprung up on school football ovals. People are lost, numb, crippled with anxiety as they try desperately to reconnect with missing relatives or friends, grieving for their lost loved ones and their lost homes. People are taking the first tentative steps down a terrifying road into an uncertain future, struggling to come to grips with the unimaginable, trying to heal, trying to gather their wits and begin to plan some kind of recovery.

God bless them all.

Never a truer word spoken!

It's disconcerting when you hear someone else expressing your personal ideology so clearly.

Here is your opportunity to send Dubya a message now that he has left the White House.

Vent away.

I respect world leaders who speak coherently, aren't arrogant enough to believe they have a direct line to God and don't plan to destroy other nations and millions of innocent civilians for bogus reasons. Therefore I am incredibly relieved that Bush is gone. As a non-American, I am also excited to see what Obama can achieve. The US presidency goes well beyond the leadership of one nation.

And it's all happening in my home state!