Minjerribah means *Island in the sun * & it has been Brisbane's playground for 100 years. It is beautiful ~ but it has this odd little quirk. Each summer it burns. We watch the fire burn down one coast then turn around & burn up the other coast. It smoulders in the swamp for weeks on end. For days the drone of helicopters water bombing the fire permeates the hot smokey air. Some years the ash & ember falls on us in a dank cloud but this happens every year. We keep a weather eye out because our hill is all bracken & this year not only is everything incredibly dry, it is very, very windy ~ 30 knots plus most days.
This year though our council panicked early & called a meeting of all island residents ~ which we didn't attend. If the worst came to the worst ~ & sooo unlikely to actually happen~ we would load all the animals into the car & drive it onto the point from whence one of our boys would no doubt arrive in a tinny if needed.
We are *old island* ~ meaning we lived here when there was no postal delivery, no garbage pick~up, no rural fire brigade, no ambulance , no sealed roads. You think differently when you know in an emergency you have to rely on yourself [& if you are lucky enough to have them,your neighbours] because there is no~one else ~ & in all honesty I would take an old islander over some of our *volunteers* any day. The old timers could light a fire that never showed an open flame. Impressive.
So we are watching the *white out* as Minjerribah disappears again behind a haze of smoke. We can hear the helicopters but not see them as we turn the sprinklers on the garden keeping everything just that little bit wetter than usual.