Survivors of Australia's 2019-2020 bushfires share their experiences of living through the disaster and call on the Federal Government of Australia to commit to climate and energy policy reform.

Master version without subtitles.

TRANSCRIPT:
Title: [00:03] Climate Changed.

Bunja Smith: [00:11] Fire is a living thing…and when it moved through the suburb that I live in… [0:20] it destroyed whatever was in its path…[0:28] No one can really understand what it’s like to stand and watch such devastation, to stand and watch such a monster…[0:39] 20 metres high, this wall of fire…[0:46] and I’m standing there with a garden hose?

Ruth Meyers: [00:52] When the fire came to our house and we called triple zero and we asked for help, nobody came.

Sheree Bastock: [01:01] We are watching clouds come towards us and knowing, knowing that people we know are dying.

Judith Smith: [01:14] I never dreamt that the house that we lived in would be in any danger, we considered it to be suburbia.

Dan McMath: [01:25] I can see one house that was up in flames, another house where it was obvious that the fire had been and gone and eaten the house…And I knew there and then that there was no way my house was…was going to survive that.

Bunja Smith: [01:45] It’s very hard to comprehend the loss of everything and to see your country burn.

Rodney Hayes: [01:56] Climate change is real, we already know that it’s going to get hotter and drier, and climatic events are going to become much worse.

Woman: [02:15] This is what 1 degree looks like, how many more experts does the government need to explain that we are facing a disaster of unimaginable proportions.

Sheree Bastock: [02:27] It feels like everything’s changed and we need to stop the business as usual model and it feels hard to put the brakes on that.

Lucy Marshall: [02:43] When people go through something, when they feel what it’s like to have your belly slit open, when they feel…that feeling of losing everything, I think then you would be in a position to make change.

Dan McMath: [03:02] But what I am hopeful for is that the younger generation that we’re seeing at the moment, who are standing up, who are born into the age of information, hopefully their voice will be stronger, and the older generation will start listening to them because the future is theirs.

Man: [03:18] If you’ve got kids or grandchildren, then you have to change otherwise they don’t get the lovely life you’ve had.

Text: [03:27] Climate Changed. How Will We?

Bunja Smith: [3:35] There is only one day that I stopped allowing myself to be strong since New Year’s Day and on that day I sat down and I cried for about an hour…and then I put it behind me, and I went back to work for the community… ‘cos that’s a leader.