'It was like Noah's Ark': trauma resurfaces for anxious Corryong evacuees

Corryong woman Sharon Hubbard, who cares for her four grandchildren, said she was left with no time to gather belongings before escaping without enough fuel to reach safety.

After the town lost power in the early hours of Friday, January 9, which meant no refuelling, she was left in an extremely vulnerable situation.

"We parked at the netball courts at the evacuation centre [and] when we got out of the car the police said, 'we're closing this evacuation centre, you have to keep going'," she said.

"I told him 'I've got no fuel left'."

Forced to leave behind the car, a cat and a dog, Ms Hubbard and her four grandchildren took what they could carry - including the teacup Pomeranian, Moxy - and boarded an evacuation bus for Wodonga Racecourse, where they have been ever since.

"We're safe, we're alive [but] it's extremely hard," she said.

"You just want to go home, you just want to see stuff, you want to make sure your pets are OK, your loved ones."

Ms Hubbard's father-in-law, 90, and mother-in-law, 85, refused to leave when police came knocking, and are still in Corryong despite the Leave Immediately alert, which at present, remains at Not Safe to Return.

On the other side of the Murray, Diana Torrens lives on a small property in Welaregang, where her family have been since 1884, standing the test of more than 140 years.

She said the house was still standing after receiving updates on the situation.

"I'd been in the 2019 fires, so I had a bit of experience," Ms Torrens said.

"But I was watching the fire and the power went off in Corryong and it was so hot - it was like 41 or something.

"So I took my dog [Dusty], took a few things out of the house - my mother's wedding album, pictures, family album of a hundred years ... and my skis."

Ms Torrens has spent time abroad teaching people to ski in Austria, and keeps her tools of the trade as a memory of that time.

On the drive out of Corryong, she also helped others fleeing the blaze.

"There was an elderly gentleman there, a Dutchman, Hank, and he was a bit bewildered and lost from Jingellic, so I took him with me," Ms Torrens said.

"When the bus came down from Corryong, people brought their pets and I thought, 'hello, this is Noah's Ark landing'," she said.

Sherwin Malenab, a leader of the Filipino community in Corryong, was on the front lines of the Black Summer fires in 2020 and defended Corryong Health hospital, where his wife works as a nurse.

Mr Malenab was one of two men, alongside CFA member Brian Smith, to defend the building before help could arrive, and had been a volunteer member of Corryong CFA ever since.

This time, when police knocked on his door at 2am on Friday, there was no time to pack anything other than himself, wife and children into two of their cars.

The family drove their cars in convoy to the relief shelter, with the trip, usually one hour and 45 minutes, taking four hours behind troves of caravans and those needing help.

"I try to sort out these people because [one had] flat tire, no water because of the stressful move," Mr Malenab said.

"So yeah, I'm trying to do my best in a way to help community, but it's very hard for us, especially because I already had experience, and then it came back again."

Although Black Summer was six years ago, the panic of the evacuation immediately brought many Corryong locals right back to that stressful time.

Mr Malenab said: "That time Corryong was a ghost town, and now it was a ghost town again.

"So yeah, I feel sorry with the community because we are all stressed.

"But I told to them, just pray to God - it's in God's hands now.

"As long as we save our life, we can rebuild things, but first, life should be saved."

Ms Hubbard remembered how sudden Black Summer was, igniting and arriving on Corryong's border as fast as the lightning that caused it.

"We had no time for preparation," she said. "This time, we've been notified for days that this was coming.

"Now we're waiting for it to hit, which is that angst we didn't have last time.

"You never get used to a natural disaster."

Ms Hubbard told The Border Mail just how grateful she was to the staff at the evacuation centre at Wodonga Racecourse.

"There's been so many services come in and we're surrounded by them - it's a little overwhelming," she said.

"You might see people walk around and they're sort of a little bit down in the mouth, but that's because everyone's got so much on their minds.

"The fears and concerns, the not knowing, and the miscommunication."

Ms Hubbard said some of the posts on social media only made her imagination run to the worst-case scenario.

"The images are terrifying, and they just bring up trauma," she said, having survived two cyclones and now four bushfires.

"It's hard mentally to go through something like this, let alone have the confusion on social media surrounding it as well."