18 January 2023 marked the 20-year anniversary of the 2003 Canberra firestorm. In a memorial park in Stromlo Forest, politicians, firefighters, and families reflected on that grim day.
Four people died. Nearly 500 homes and 23 commercial premises were destroyed. 70 per cent of the ACT was burnt; for months afterwards, the ravaged, blackened hills of Canberra looked like a Western Front battlefield. Pets and wild animals were killed; farmers had to put down their livestock. The financial cost: $610 million; the emotional cost: ?
Nevertheless, the ACT Rural Fire Service and the ACT Emergency Services Agency believe that the agencies are better prepared for anything that might happen, and the community is much safer. While a prolonged dry period and catastrophic fire weather caused the bushfires, a report states, the crisis was fuelled by administrative shortcomings, including people without bushfire experience in key positions, inadequate resources, ineffective tactics, and poor communication. Since then, the ACT Government has invested in resourcing, better technology, better training for staff and volunteers, and better messaging for the community.
Australian of the Year awards
More than 50 ACT residents were recognised in the 2023 Australia Day honours, including Professor Tom Calma, the second consecutive Senior Australian of the Year from the ACT. Across Australia, millions of people watched the awards ceremony, celebrating the achievements of some of the most inspiring people in the country.
Canberra Weekly met the Canberran who makes the Australia Day awards: Canberra artist Cathy Newton, from the ANU School of Art and Design’s Glass Workshop.
For her, the event is the culmination of months of hard work. It takes her 10 hours to make each of the 32 awards: eight Australians of the Year, eight Senior Australians, eight Young Australians, and eight Local Heroes. She starts working on them in June, delivers the regional awards in October, and the major awards a fortnight before Australia Day. And the whole nation sees her work.
Summernats
Summernats, the annual car festival, was all but sold out for the first time ever. More than 125,000 people attended, including US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy; entrant numbers were at a record 2,700; and 500 cars made their way down Northbourne Avenue in the City Cruise.
However, it wasn’t all fun and games. ACT Policing issued 18 traffic infringement notices and two cautions, arrested several people for assault, breach of bail, and intoxicated and disorderly conduct, and seized seven vehicles for driving offences.
Community leaders leave
Dr Emma Campbell left the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) after three years as its CEO, and in many ways the social conscience of Canberra. She guided the organisation and vulnerable Canberrans through some of the most turbulent years in the ACT’s history – the COVID pandemic, the cost of living and housing crises – and left with pride in ACTCOSS’s achievements and frustration that ACTCOSS and its work are still needed. She believes that she has taken ACTCOSS (which turns 60 this year) back to its roots as a “brave, outspoken, uncompromising, social justice organisation”, and included everyone in Canberra in the debate about making the city better.
Canberra Daily also spoke to Martin Fisk OAM, who left Menslink, the leading mental health organisation for young men, at the end of 2022. In his 11 years as CEO, Mr Fisk and his dedicated staff and volunteers helped thousands of young men turn their lives around – which he considers an incredible honour and privilege. He estimates that Menslink has spoken to every young guy under 30 in Canberra. We caught up with Mr Fisk later in the year to talk about his new job as head of Project Independence, a charity that provides housing for intellectually disabled people.
The Year of the Rabbit
Canberra’s Asian communities celebrated the Lunar New Year on Sunday 22 January with a 12-hour street party the following weekend. Canberra Daily visited the preview, when Chinese lion dancers whirled and cavorted to the beat of drums; women danced immemorial dances, elegantly twirling umbrellas, flamboyantly waving red fans, and brandishing swords; and soloists thrilled the crowd with songs ancient and modern, Eastern and Western.
In other news
Elton, an assistance dog for seven-year-old Canberra boy Charlie Clode, who has autism, an intellectual disability, and a severe heart condition, won the Australian Dog of the Year people’s choice award.
And 11-year-old Jaya Hunn won over arguably Australia’s best gardener, Costa Georgiadis, with his submission to Landcare Australia’s ‘What’s in your backyard?’ photo competition: ‘Sticky sundews’, carnivorous plants, in Umbagong District Park.
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