Ash Wednesday Remembered

As an Australian I thought I knew a thing or two about bushfires.

But then over the course of ten months I sat down with thirty individuals who each survived the 1983 conflagration that consumed swathes of Victoria and South Australia, including their own little coastal town of Aireys Inlet.

They shared with me extraordinary first-hand accounts of bravery, terror, and stupefication in the face of a once in a generation firestorm.

Ash Wednesday Remembered is an oral history project which I developed into an audio and visual archive housed on a purpose-built website. For me it's a testament to the narrative potential of audio storytelling, and the efficacy of interview in capturing personal memory in a most powerful way.

My hope is that these recordings help to deepen our understanding of the impact that disasters – including bushfires like Ash Wednesday and those we are bound to experience in the future – can have on people, the culture of a place, and its living environment.

PROJECT LINK
https://ashwednesdayremembered.com.au/