The Young and the Restless

The recovery and the return

By Bree Harding

Jan 27, 2026

The Halls Gap Zoo was under threat from fire just over a year ago. We returned last week and were happy to see the animals thriving. Photo by Bree Harding

Roughly one year ago, one of my favourite places to visit was on fire.

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The bushfire in the Grampians National Park raged for 21 days before it was declared contained, after burning 76,000 hectares of land.

This year, our neighbours in the Longwood and surrounding areas have experienced similar devastating conditions.

Fire, fuelled by sweltering temperatures, thirsty flora dried by hot summer conditions and chaotic swirling winds, wiped out homes and structures, killed and injured wildlife and livestock, and destroyed livelihoods.

What is consumed by greedy flames in just a few moments, takes years to rebuild.

Last week, we stopped for a couple of days in The Grampians en route to South Australia.

It felt right to visit this summer and spend some dollars there after the damage and loss the place endured last year.

It’s what I hope tourists will consider doing for our neighbours in the Strathbogie Shire when it’s safe to visit again.

I reckon I’ve been to The Grampians about 10 times in my lifetime.

It’s a popular place, always busy, no matter the season.

There were more kangaroos in the caravan park than there were people. Photo by Bree Harding

I was shocked to see it quite empty this time around.

I wondered if people weren’t yet confident to return; worried its beauty hadn’t regenerated, or concerned about the fire risk, which realistically exists there every summer.

Or maybe given the fires that are still burning in several parts of Victoria, people just weren’t moving around much at all.

Or perhaps, many people who might’ve been going to holiday there were caught up in fires in their own regions, whether that was affecting their own homes, fighting fires or helping with recovery efforts.

There are several more reasons that could have been cause for the lull.

I wasn’t sad for us – the smaller the crowd, the better; no line-ups in the amenities blocks, a shorter queue for ice-cream, less congested walking trails, all those things – but I was sad for the region’s operators who rely on the tourist dollar to survive.

It made me think about the places that don’t have a tourism trade that are wiped out.

It’s left to the locals to support their local businesses as they rebuild.

But what if they’re struggling through rebuilding themselves and just can’t support the getting back on the feet of others?

Is this when whole communities disintegrate? People move away, small businesses close, franchises and chains remove branches, abandoned towns become ghost towns?

At one point a couple of weeks ago it felt like most of Victoria was on fire.

The downside of less people in the caravan park for us, was that the cheeky cockatoos had less people to hassle for their food. The downside for the town was less tourism dollars being spent. Photo by Bree Harding

Like that if it wasn’t for our selfless and valiant firefighters battling the blazes, they might have all joined up and taken everything and everyone out.

But after driving from the Goulburn Valley to the Loddon Mallee region, through the Pyrenees, the Wimmera, the Grampians and off the map into another state, I took in the sights of the unburnt vast dry farmland, the crispy overgrown grass on the roadside, the densely forested areas and felt very small and vulnerable.

The fires were on our minds at all times throughout our short getaway. Photo by Bree Harding

While hiking in the hills surrounding Halls Gap, I looked at the terrain in a different light this side of last year’s fires.

It’s unforgiving for an out-of-shape hiker (such as myself), let alone for someone trying to mount a counter-attack on hungry flames.

The terrain is unforgiving at the best of times, let alone when it’s on fire. Photo by Bree Harding

I don’t know much about firefighting, but it looked in places that it would be near impossible to fight fires licking at steep inclines, deep chasms, and areas where no vehicle, not even an ATV, let alone a fire truck, could get to.

It was a reminder that no matter how much we humans think we can control, Mother Nature will always have the final say in what happens and where.

For all of Mother Nature’s fury, she produces some absolutely beautiful things, like this little blue wren in Halls Gap. Photo by Bree Harding

She showed us at Wye River, dumping an unprecedented amount of rain in a record amount of time on unsuspecting holidaymakers and residents just a stone’s throw over from a bushfire burning in the Otway Ranges.

It seems crazy that both fires and floods could wreak havoc in the same state at the same time, yet the extreme contrast of natural disasters happened less than 100km from each other.

We are at Mother Nature’s mercy 100 per cent of the time.

What we can control is how we respond in the wake of her wrath, wherever she’s directed it.

Locals swung quickly into action to donate money and goods to the victims and recovery efforts in the Strathbogies, and many teams are on the ground clearing mess and helping to rebuild, but many who don’t have the capacity to do either are feeling helpless.