Much About Melbourne
Most of you know I live in Melbourne, which is in the state of Victoria where we have suffered an immense heatwave and along with massive bushfires with devastating results. I know the news has been all over the world.
My husband and I live in a suburb 22kms southeast of Melbourne and our surrounding areas are safe from the fires, however the nearest grass fire was literally less than 15 mins away from our home only a couple of weeks ago. Two of our daughters live closer to the hills and have had fires only a few minutes away from where they live but they have been safe. We have another daughter 3 hours north in horse country and a major fire is burning only about 15 mins away from her. We keep in touch regularly to make sure she is ok. A friend of ours lives 90 mins further southeast from us and again, she has been in an area very close to a major bushfire and in fact, her small town had fires coming closer only a week ago. However her town is now safe although they were on alert for several days. We were in constant phone contact with her during that time.
So many have lost their homes, their lives, their livestock, crops, the list goes on. Massive efforts in fund raising and collecting clothing, food, toiletries, household items, etc is taking place all over the country. The funds raised are the highest I’ve ever known in a fund raising effort. And firemen have flown over from other states and countries to assist in the firefighting which will continue for some time to come.
If you’re interested in learning about our city of Melbourne and keeping in touch with what’s happening, I have a blog named “Much About Melbourne“. Until yesterday it was housed at Blogger but I’ve now purchased the domain for it and shifted it to my server. I invite you to come pay a visit from time to time. And the photo I’ve used in the header is one I took in December 2007 when my husband and I were staying at the Crown Towers on the edge of the CBD. It’s looking over the Yarra River and towards the famous Flinders Street Train Station (the long yellow building almost centre).
From the minute I heard the news about this I been concerned. Still praying that the fires will die down, and my friends down under will be safe.