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When Garry Morgan returned to his property on Friday afternoon, his home on the coastal fringe was surrounded by a “big plume of smoke”. Within twenty-four hours later, two houses on his street were consumed, and the adjacent bushland would be reduced to charred remnants.

A Town Grappling with Loss

The township of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has found itself at the heart of a devastating event after a experienced firefighter died on Sunday evening when he was hit by a collapsing tree. This marks a worrying commencement to the fire season.

Four properties have been destroyed in the broader Bulahdelah area, including two on Emu Creek Road, where Morgan lives, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.

“It's beyond description,” he said. “My dogs stayed right by me, the fear was palpable.”

Landscapes of Loss and Fortitude

Bulahdelah is a frequent rest stop on the Pacific Highway for travelers on their way up the coastal region to coastal destinations such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.

On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was shrouded in thick, orange smoke. Water-bombing helicopters hovered overhead, aiding firefighters on the ground who were attempting to quash a fire that had scorched 4,000 hectares since Friday.

Passing trucks reduced speed for traffic cones and warning signs, the scorched trees and charred grass on each side of the highway a stark reminder of how far the fire had swept through the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It remained at a watch and act level on Monday evening.

A Hub of Emergency Response

In Bulahdelah, though, it would appear as another ordinary day if not for the helicopters circling overhead and acrid odor lingering in the air.

A refuelling station for aircraft has been established at the town’s showground, transforming it into a central point for around 300 fire crews and volunteers who have travelled from across the state to help.

On Monday afternoon, water bottles were being unloaded from trucks and sweets were being packed into zip lock bags. One firefighter noted that they needed a water bottle every 20 minutes when on the fire line.

Personal Accounts from the Fireground

Plumes of smoke were still rising from glowing hotspots on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that hugs a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.

On a boundary post outside a destroyed home, a scorched stuffed toy remained pinned to the log, still wearing a Christmas hat.

Further along, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a little patch of grass surrounding his house the sole remnant of how the area once appeared. Miraculously, his property was saved, despite his neighbour’s burning to the ground.

He remembered receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, warning him “you have roughly 30 minutes and then a blaze will arrive”. His estimate was spot on.

“We hosed down the property and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “alarm”. “I thought, ‘what the hell have I got myself into’,” he said. “I decided to stay.”

Thankfully, firefighters surrounded the house, and managed to save it. The bushfire moved through in about half an hour, sounding like “a roaring inferno”.

A Landscape Transformed

Morgan, who has resided at the same house for around 30 years, has not witnessed the land in such a dry state.

“We used to get rain every week,” he said. “Fires of this magnitude are unprecedented. But you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

On the same street, Jeff Curley was looking after his friend’s property which had also largely survived Saturday’s blaze, other than a damaged light on a car and a barrel of firewood stored for winter that had been reduced to ashes.

“I am very familiar with this area,” he said. “A few years ago a fire almost reached a local ridge and that was quite frightening then, but the wind changed.

“The dryness is extreme now. The fire approached from all directions, and the firies pretty much saved it [the property].”

This was not a novel situation for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires swept through in 2019.

“You see people on the news say, ‘I can’t believe how fast it came’,” he said. “You think it’s over there, and suddenly it’s on top of you. I understand the feeling. I told my friend to just get out, and he did.”

Official Response and Ongoing Threat

Kirsty Channon, public information officer for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from multiple agencies had come from “right up and down the coast” to help with the firefighting operation and had done an “outstanding job” protecting houses from being destroyed.

She said all agencies had “united” after the tragic loss of one of their own.

“The firefighting community is a close-knit group,” she said. “But we’re definitely not out of the woods yet.

“There have been instances of the Pacific Highway open and close a few times, the fire spot across the road. It remains uncontained, it is expected to spread.”

Channon said work in the immediate future would focus on the small community of Nerong, which was expected to be hit by the Pacific Highway blaze on Monday evening. Residents had been urged to evacuate if unprepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.

“Little fires are popping up from lightning strikes a few days ago,” she said.

“The forecast is the mid-thirties with shifting winds, and that’s been challenge - wind swirls in the area.”