Mates Under Fire
Mates Under Fire
This Australian bush fire season has been unprecedented. In this podcast you will hear harrowing accounts of survival and the incredible acts of bravery and kindness which are helping the town of Malua Bay in southern New South Wales on the path to recovery. The town’s cast of heroes is a long one - the young surf life saver whose quick thinking spared hundreds of lives at the town beach, the RFS …Social links:
Follow the podcast:
Rebuilding
Has COVID-19 stopped the rebuilding after the bushfires? Dick Adams was a deputy police commissioner but he says he has never seen a disaster of this scale and it is his job to fix the coast. He is a recovery coordinator. His first job is to clear the remnants of razed homes and to rebuild communit…
16:11
Kindness
Heroes are easy to find in Malua Bay. Raj Gupta is a lifesaver. Too humble to talk about his own fire losses, he would rather talk about the patients who come to his Malua Bay pharmacy. He opened it in the wake of the fires and dispensed medicine in the dark for free. Ken Sloan is the man you would…
30:00
Trauma
Amid the horror, one thing is sure in Malua Bay. No one will be the same. We speak to Lifeline about how they are helping people come to terms with the trauma. Post traumatic stress is already apparent in many who stared down the flames and survived.
18:01
Heroes
Stoic fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons gave comfort to the people of Malua Bay 24 hours after the inferno. The toll of the dreadful fire season is never far when the commissioner recounts the toll of 25 deaths across the state, including six of his own men. The horror summer didn’t spare his volunteers…
36:58
Ashes
Former Wallaby Al Baxter was fearsome on a rugby field but on New Year’s Eve he joined more than 1000 people in a terrifying fight for life on Malua Bay beach. A whiskey in his beach bag settled his nerves to some degree after a frightening day. You will also hear from Jan Russell and how her extra…
35:36
Fear
Paradise is a fair description of Malua Bay before the Black Summer fires. Crystal waters lapped at pristine sand, tree lined green hills with narrow roads where hundreds of families lived in modest homes rising above the waterfront. Then, all hell broke loose on New Year’s Eve morning. In the hour…
32:04
Coming Soon
The Daily Telegraph takes you into the heart of a community at the epicentre of one of Australia's worst bushfires in recent years. Meet the cast of characters, the heroes and the true Aussies in this new podcast serial, Mates Under Fire
00:42