Specular properties have been built in Callignee (left) and Marysville (right) following some of Victoria’s major bushfires. Photos: Jaccob McKay Photography, Stephen Henderson, Jason Edwards.
Incredible homes rising from the ashes of some of Victoria’s worst bushfires have revealed the extraordinary extents survivors are going to for their happily ever after.
A grand manor rebuilt after Black Saturday, a Gippsland house featured on TV’s Grand Designs, and an abode with a graffiti wall are among the residences reconstructed to give their owners hope for the future — and to encourage Victorians to come back to the tranquil townships.
When Black Saturday hit Marysville in February 2009, local GP Dr Lachlan Fraser’s house and clinic both burned down.
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Across Victoria, the fires claimed 173 lives and destroyed thousands of other homes.
Despite his losses, Dr Fraser, a keen runner, threw himself into the community recovery process and started the annual Marysville Marathon to bring people together.
He unexpectedly found love while organising the event, meeting his future wife nurse Cassandra Church from the town of Alexandra.
After Dr Fraser and Cassandra made their home in Alexandra, his plans for a new Marysville residence pivoted to instead building a five-bedroom house which serves as short-term rental accommodation.
CFA crews fighting flames on Black Saturday at Taggerty, near Marysville, in February 2009. Picture: Supplied/Stephen Henderson.
Dr Lachlan Fraser rebuilt his property in Marysville, Victoria, following the Black Saturday fires. Picture: Sharon Walker.
The ruins of Dr Fraser’s home following the blaze. Picture: Supplied.
The Greenlands Guest House features 180-degree mountain views and a garden sculpture Dr Fraser and his father-in-law created from items rescued from the GP’s home and clinic ruins.
The artwork, with a mouth made from a laryngoscope, a medical instrument for looking down throats, won a 2013 Marysville sculpture festival.
Dr Fraser said while bushfire survivors experienced different emotional responses, some had grappled with mental health issues for years.
He added that although it often involved extensive planning, financing and work, rebuilding homes following the fires had boosted many people’s optimism for the future.
“It was one arm of the recovery process, people would ask others if they were going to rebuild,” Dr Fraser said.
“It shows commitment to the town that you’re going to rebuild.”
Dr Fraser and his father-in-law Max made this sculpture from items found in the remains of the GP’s home and clinic following the fires. Picture: Supplied.
The doctor’s house as it looked in the years before Black Saturday hit. Picture: Supplied.
Dr Fraser’s Greenlands Guest House is named after a former guesthouse which stood on the property, in the 1950s. Picture: Supplied.
Also in Marysville, the Kerami Manor & Day Spa owner Phil White ploughed more than $2m into rebuilding the property after its 1920s-era predecessor was destroyed in the Black Saturday fires.
It was a labour of love for Mr White, also a therapist, who went back to his previous job in aged care for seven years to help fund the project.
“We lost everything, but we were always going to rebuild,” he said.
Phil White and the rebuild of his Marysville property, the Kerami Manor & Day Spa, that was burnt to the ground in the Black Saturday bushfires. Picture: Jason Edwards.
The rebuild may be modern but it still has a sense of old-world charm.
That process also involved its own challenges which included the builder going bankrupt and Mr White becoming an owner-builder to oversee the tradespeople who finished the project.
Nowadays, the Hamptons-style, five-bedroom guesthouse showcases 8m-high ceilings, wooden timber panelling and Italian chandeliers marvel.
There’s also a bar in the new manor whereas it was previously in the old coach house.
“Originally, when the architect asked me, ‘Phil, what do you want? I said, ‘I want people to walk in, look up and go, wow,” Mr White said.
“And we got the wow factor.”
The Hamptons-style manor lit up at night.
Owner Phil White ploughed more than $2m into rebuilding the manor following the fires.
Another house resurrected after being almost completely razed by Black Saturday’s blazes sits among 2.02ha of Gippsland bushland.
Known as the Callignee II Eco Bush House, original owner Chris Clarke’s rebuild featured on television show Grand Designs Australia.
The innovative, off-grid home incorporates timbers recycled from a pier, a suspension bridge to the top level and exterior materials designed to withstand extreme weather.
A collaboration between Berwick Drafting and Swale Constructions, it won nine gongs at the 2011 Building Designers Association of Victoria’s awards.
The regional retreat is now owned by wife and husband Linda Vydra and Josh O’Meara who run it as luxury short-term accommodation.
The Callignee II Eco Bush House, in Gippsland, was rebuilt following Black Saturday. Picture: Jaccob McKay Photography.
The house won nine gongs at the 2011 Building Designers Association of Victoria’s awards. Picture: Jaccob McKay Photography.
Ms Vydra said the remnants from the first home’s build, such as the stairs, still retained marks from the fire as a nod to its history.
“The kitchen table has an area that was burnt out, so you can still see little bits of where the fire was, and even outside there’s like some timber pieces like a retaining wall that are still charred,” she said.
“So just is a really interesting story that really captured for sure.”
Visitors in the living room can see directly into the pool. Picture: Jaccob McKay Photography.
The bush retreat combines Japanese inspiration with an Australian aesthetic, including the rustic corten steel and Australian timbers. Picture: Jaccob McKay Photography.
The couple’s future plans for the bush house include adding a sauna, a third bedroom to the carport and activating the rooftop with an outdoor setting such as pizza oven or entertainment area.
“And we want to also redo the pond, and there’s like a glass floor and glass walls in the master bedroom, we want to open that back up and show the pond and have, like, a bit of a Japanese garden,” she said.
They have already planted two large grass trees from Western Australia, with Mr O’Meara adding that his favourite part of the house was where the grass tree hangs over the pool.
The home, set on 2.03ha, features polished concrete, natural hardwoods which add to its Scandinavian industrial aesthetic, and a graffiti wall.
Less than 10km away, a Scandinavian-inspired eight-bedroom house in Koornalla was rebuilt after Black Saturday and is currently for sale with a $1.59 price tag through Wilson Property’s Ben Britten.
Previous owners, bespoke builders Cheney Building Services, included a graffiti wall painted by local artists.
According to PropTrack, median house prices in some Victorian towns impacted by past bushfires have increased significantly.
Since February 2022, Marysville’s typical house value has risen from $477,500 to $610,000 and Kinglake’s from $610,000 to $767,500.
The East Gippsland town of Mallacoota’s median house price has grown from $420,000 to $605,000 in the same time span.
SES volunteer Alex Ziolkowski cuts up fallen trees on the Genoa-Mallacoota Rd, near Mallacoota, following the Black Summer fires of 2019 and 2020. Picture: David Caird.
Mallacoota Real Estate’s Kerri Warren assisted residents who lost homes in the 2019 and 2020 Black Summer bushfires to find temporary accommodation in the disaster’s aftermath.
She said demand for homes in the area had surged since then especially after many rentals were damaged by fire.
Ms Warren said some homes had been rebuilt with owners going above and beyond fire safety compliance requirements.
“We’ve also got quite a few earth homes that are being built, which is great to see,” she added.
“I think Mallacoota is now on the map for the bushfires, but to a certain extent we want to move on from that, we want people to come to the area and just see how beautiful it is.”
The Great Alpine Rd in and around Sarsfield, in East Gippsland, following the Black Summer fires. Picture: Jason Edwards.
Clinical psychologist and author Sally-Anne McCormack, who has a practice in the Melbourne suburb of Blackburn, said although people had different reactions to trauma, bushfire survivors could experience unpredictable and intense emotions such as denial, shock and anxiety.
Ms McCormack said losing a home could make someone feel as if their “whole world is tossed upside down”.
“A house isn’t just about the bricks and mortar for most of us, it’s a home where all our memories are, our experiences and our memorabilia as well,” she said.
The clinical psychologist said crankiness and mood swings could also develop, in addition to physical symptoms of stress.
The Milawa CFA tanker silhouetted against the Black Saturday fires at Taggerty, near Marysville, during February 2009. Picture: Supplied/Stephen Henderson.
Being hyper-aware of future dates related to the fire and its anniversary might be another outcome, or having strong responses to flames and smoke.
“I do recall people saying they’ll smell an open fire, or even a like a like an open fire in a house, and those things will just trigger memories,” she said.
Ms McCormack advised that bushfire survivors could benefit from a period where they avoided TV coverage of fires, as watching it could potentially lead to being re-traumatised.
She said it was important for people feeling acute emotions or not like their usual selves following a bushfire to seek help.
While mental health professionals are one option, speaking to a loved one or someone who has been through a similar experience could also be useful, she noted.
Only a handful of buildings in Marysville remained standing after the Black Saturday fires. Picture: Mark Smith.
Ms McCormack warned against using online artificial intelligence platforms to assist with mental health, unless they were platforms overseen by qualified medical professionals.
Ms McCormack cited the world-first tech platform she has developed for mental health care as one such example.
Her ANTSA platform offers between-session support, practitioner-assigned AI, clinical documentation and other tools within a single system, with the patient giving their clinician permission to read the conversations with a chatbot on the platform outside of appointments – such as if they were feeling in need of support late at night.
For assistance contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or see beyondblue.org.au/
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