Return to our region, plead fire survivors

by Ben Doherty, The Age

THERE is much in the Yarra Valley the fire left untouched. The smoke haze still hangs heavy, and from the air the blackened ridge that was Kinglake and the destruction of Steels Creek is too obvious and too awful. But all about the valley there are acres still of green vines criss-crossing the hills, there are cattle pastures, dairies and gardens.

Kiff Saunders knows first-hand the ferocity of the Black Saturday fires. He stayed and defended his Steels Creek house from the blaze that tore through that town, and won. Neighbours on both sides weren't so fortunate.

His business, Global Ballooning, didn't run for a week. It was Valentine's Day before he had a balloon in the air. But now, those businesses that survived Black Saturday, are finding a new struggle in their ongoing viability.

The number of visitors has plummeted across the region, up to an 80 per cent fall in some places, kept away by reports of the fires, and concerns the whole valley was gutted and remains shut off.

Anecdotally, international guests are still arriving, but Melburnians, understandably shocked by the images of the past week on their TV screens and in their newspapers, have, momentarily at least, spurned the valley, fearful it's been changed forever.

Mr Saunders says that's not the case: the Yarra Valley is open for business, and one of the best ways Victorians can support bushfire-affected regions is to return to them, and bring their custom with them.

"We would really ask the general public, at a time they feel is appropriate, to think about coming back to the Yarra Valley, and helping this region get going again," he says. "We want to keep ourselves going. It's the Australian way; you get up, you dust yourself off and keep on keeping on. If this place is just a crisis centre, there's no life here."

Mr Saunders said returning to work this week was important not only financially, but also in the emotional recovery of himself and his 20 staff.

Already the valley has lost a Simply Red concert planned for the Sunday after the fires, and Grape Grazing, planned for last weekend, was called off. A new date for that festival is being sought, likely to be some time in March or April.

The knock-on effects are already being felt. Casual staff all over the valley are losing shifts, because there simply aren't any visitors.

Having kept 170 wedding guests safe on Black Saturday, and the fire at bay with a hose and buckets, general manager of Chateau Yering Sue O'Brien says she is finding the return to normality just as hard: "We went from being completely full to being empty. Valentine's Day is always huge, absolutely enormous, especially when it's on a Saturday, but we were barely 50 per cent full last weekend. I would say 80 per cent of our business has been lost over the past week."

The Australian Wine Tour Company brings about 16,000 visitors through the Yarra Valley each year. The company's Matt Noble says he is getting between 10 and 15 emails a day asking if tours are continuing, if the valley is open at all.

But of 80 cellar doors which open daily across the valley, only one, Roundstone Winery in Steels Creek, which was destroyed by the fire, is not opening its doors.

"Wineries are telling me 'we need people back'," Mr Noble says. "I've no doubt that a few wineries will go under as a result of this, which will be very sad for the region."

Leanne De Bortoli at De Bortoli Wines says visitors to the cellar door have slowed to a trickle. The fires took five acres of her vines, but the vast majority of her property is open, and the weekend was spent furiously picking grapes.

Across the valley, she says, wineries have signs at their front gates proclaiming "Yes, we are open" to the handful of cars that pass by, but local tourist businesses are trying to spread the message further. And later this week, a website - yarravalleytoday.com.au - will be launched, detailing which tourism operators are open, replete with post-fires photos.

Mrs De Bortoli says there is a fraternity among the wineries and other tourism operators in the valley - those who are able are assisting those hardest hit - and she's confident the community will pull through.

"We are talking about some community-type festivals, for the local people who went through the fires, but also to let Melbourne know we're still out here, the Yarra Valley is still beautiful, and to come out here again."