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.

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 extraordinary neighbours saved her home while she was sheltering at the beach. Herald Sun photographer Alex Coppel says he was torn, save his family’s home or take photos of the 1000-plus people sheltering from an inferno on the waterfront. 
 

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 volunteers whose houses burned while they were saving others and the now homeless pharmacist who dispensed free medicine in the dark. This podcast captures the best of Australians.

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 rec...

Mates Under Fire

In this podcast you will hear accounts of survival and the acts of bravery which are helping the town of Malua Bay on the path to recovery.

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 wi...

Ashes

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.

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 community infrastructure. Sir Peter Cosgrove is running the business council response to the blazes. The people he has met in the Malua Bay region are "temporal saints," he says. Find out from the people you have met in this podcast what their plans are now. Who will rebuild and who is planning to move on. 
 

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 ...

Rebuilding

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.

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 want to see if a devastating fire had just ripped through. He runs the South Coast's best opp shop near Malua Bay and on New Year's Eve morning he was following firetrucks into razed farms to give shattered survivors bottles of water. Emily Maguire has been busy giving haircuts and washes to women who have lost their homes. She sends them home with new makeup and hair products. 
 

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 th...

Kindness

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.

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&nbsp;trauma. Post&nbsp;traumatic&nbsp;stress is already apparent in many who stared down...

Ashes

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