The Black Saturday bushfires will forever be burnt in the Australian psyche as one of the most devastating events of our time. Marysville and Kinglake – two Victorian towns hailed for their beaut y and charm – are now remembered as places of tragedy rather than tranquillity.

Police Life’s Mark Tesoriero visited the iconic townships to follow their paths to recovery one year later.

It is like a ghost town in Marysville today.

Snaking through the scenic Black Spur Drive and down to the main street, it seems like we are the only motorists on the road.

Stopping for directions to the Marysville police station, it is difficult to find a business that is open along the once heavily populated Murchison Road.

After hot weather in the past week, this particular day in December has been declared a total fire ban.

While some remaining businesses have closed for summer, it is apparent after speaking to locals that many have heeded the weather warning and left town.

Bushfires had struck Marysville before, but it was the devastating inferno last year on 7 February that changed life in this popular tourist town.

Thirty-four people lost their lives that day, and most of the town’s 400 buildings were destroyed.

Bushland encompassing the town, including along the many popular walking tracks around Stevenson Falls, is no longer there.

The area is bereft of natural foliage, apart from the green ferns and shrubs that defiantly sprout up from the scorched earth.

The hillside resembles a thinning hairline with its natural cover of leaves removed, leaving only a scatter of burnt trunks.

Any search for the Marysville police station in town is fruitless – the site at the corner of Murchison and Pack roads was completely destroyed during the fires.

A temporary police station has been established about 10 kilometres down Buxton-Marysville Road in neighbouring Buxton.

Sharing a site with the local Country Fire Authority (CFA), the Marysville members work out of two portable sheds by the roadside.

One of the sheds, which is now used for storage, was used as a temporary police station on the former site in Marysville until the move to Buxton in May last year.

Plans are in place to build a police station at Marysville and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Despite the current location, Senior Constable Peter Collyer said it was “business as usual” in the quiet town.

“Apart from where we are, it is just a normal police station for us,” the Buxton resident said.

“None of the core general policing duties we’ve done in the past have changed.

“We still have the normal call-outs to situations such as domestic disputes, road accidents and the like.

“There’s just a bit more community work now.”

This type of community work has taken on all forms for the Marysville members since the fires.

Sen Const Collyer said members tried to attend meetings and lectures held in the town to stay informed of issues relating to the bushfires and its aftermath.

“We also try to liaise with the central hub and essential services that they have in the village,” he said.

“We liaise with the people there and talk about potential problems that may arise.”

These measures, in addition to the efforts of police during and after the Black Saturday fires, has endeared the townsfolk to its police.

The heroism of Marysville’s members, particularly in saving more than 200 people sheltering from flames at the local football oval, has been well documented.

“There was a strong respect between the people in the town and the police before, but I guess it’s a bit more now,” Sen Const Collyer, who has worked in Marysville for the past seven years, said.

“No one is going around the town and talking about what they did during the fires.

“It’s just accepted that everyone did what they had to and we’re all just moving on.”

Given the huge devastation to buildings and houses around town, some locals have chosen to move on.

“There are people scattered throughout the town now with some in the village and others that bought properties in peripheral cities,” Sen Const Collyer said.

“Some people have gone and will never come back, while there are others that will never leave.

“As a result of what has happened there has been a small influx of people who have bought and moved in to the area as well.”

The displacement of so many residents has also led to the creation of a temporary housing estate opposite the Marysville Golf Course.

Dubbed ‘The Village’ by locals, the site is a collection of about 50 portable housing units and caravans for those who lost their homes during the fires.

Senior Constable Frank McGowan, who started working at Marysville police station in May, said some issues had flared from living in such close quarters.

“Suddenly we’ve got a new little area to patrol for the potential problems that arise from having so many people living so close together. But, it hasn’t been too bad so far,” he said.

“You obviously have the potential there for noise complaints, alcohol-related offences and domestics and we’re just starting to see a few of these.”

But some normality is returning to the town. Construction has been slow over the winter months but is starting to progress with buildings springing up sporadically across town.

A supermarket was opened in December, while a petrol station was under construction when Police Life visited.

Similar progress is being made in Kinglake, another fire-affected town about 60 kilometres west of Marysville.

Forty-five people were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed in Kinglake and Kinglake West during the bushfires.

It was one of the hardest hit towns in the state and, along with Marysville, became synonymous with the grief and tragedy associated with Black Saturday.

Kinglake police station’s Constable Mark Williams said the official clean-up of the town and its surrounding areas finished in late August.

“We struggled to get builders up here during the winter months but we’re just starting to see places go up with the first house finished about a few weeks back,” he said in December.

The mood in town is festive with the Kinglake police station and other shops along Whittlesea-Kinglake Road decorated in Christmas tinsel.

But, memories of last February’s fires are never far away.

During Police Life’s visit, on another hot December afternoon, the shriek of the CFA’s sirens filled the air as two trucks raced east towards a grass fire out of town.

You could almost hear the town hold its breath.

“That’s something we haven’t really done since the bushfires, we try not to put the bells and whistles on,” Const Williams said.

“If we go out on a job we’ll put the lights on but rarely the sirens.”

There are other subtle changes that Kinglake members have introduced around town.

Leading Senior Constable Ron Brown said members had tried to make themselves more available to the community.

“We’ve made an effort to keep the door open as long as we can for people who need documents certified to access the various kinds of help and grants that are available,” he said.

“There’s been a lot more foot patrolling and just talking to people and guiding them through their disputes and issues.”

Although subtle, signs of regrowth are evident throughout the town.

The main street is reasonably vibrant with the local pub, post office, bakery, café and supermarket untouched by the fires.

Temporary fencing surrounds properties under construction as the noise of nail guns and power saws pierces the afternoon air.

In Pine Ridge Road, a thoroughfare along which many lives were lost, one man carefully lays a foundation of bricks at one building site.

A faint smell of burnt trees still hangs in the air – a constant reminder of the horror that engulfed this small road.

Const Williams said the town had showed remarkable resolve since Black Saturday and was confident it would remain throughout the rebuilding process.

“There have been times when naturally people have fallen down but the community has helped them get back on their feet,” he said.

“Everyone has been through a hell of a lot but they keep pulling themselves back up and getting on with life.”

See this story and others in Police Life, the official magazine of Victoria Police.

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