On Somerset Street, Neighbours Welcome Visitors To A Parlour That Isn't There
The Age
Tuesday January 21, 2003
They have lost so much, yet the residents of Somerset Street, Duffy, remained defiant yesterday as they sifted through the ashen rubble of their homes.
``This house will rise again, and when it does we'll rename it The Phoenix," said nurse Judy Forsyth, surveying the wreckage of No. 64, which she shared with taxi-driver husband Malcolm and two teenage children.
But the treasures of the street are gone: a famous painting, a cellar of fine wines and a shelf groaning with basketball trophies.
Mrs Forsyth cracks a pained smile as she invites visitors to step into her lounge room. Quite simply, it isn't there.
Her husband talks wistfully about the 1987 Grange Hermitage that had been in his cellar.
He still can't get Saturday's rushing fireball out of his mind. ``It just came so fast. It was really scary," he said. ``You heard a roar and you tried to stop it, but you knew there was just nothing you could do."
Across the road at No. 79, John Templeton wades and stumbles through the sooty wreck of his house, deep in discussion with an insurance assessor.
A year-long project to extend his home had been completed just eight weeks before at a cost of $150,000. A few insolent columns and some twisted roofing are all that remain of the rumpus room.
The Templetons were in Sydney at a funeral on Saturday and have lost everything, except Nirvana the tabby cat, saved by thoughtful neighbours. ``My wife passed away five years ago after a long illness," Mr Templeton says. ``All of my son's memories of his mum and her personal effects were in that house."
Jonette and John McDonnell, next door at No. 77, were also out of town, picking up daughter Siobhan, 27, from Sydney Airport after a holiday. When they got back, their home was razed. Siobhan McDonnell said all they could do was laugh when they first saw the damage, but tears soon followed. She picked half-heartedly through the ruins of her bedroom.
``In my mind I can walk myself through every one of these houses and every inch of our place. Now I look at this scorched earth and I just can't equate it. It's surreal," she said.
The family has lost the fruits of three lives spent wandering the world. Chinese jewellery, Turkish carpets, New Guinean tribal masks and valuable artworks, including an abstract pop-art original by Roy Liechtenstein, are ashen memories. ``I always thought it looked like a pair of big pink thighs," Jonette McDonnell said.
At No. 81, Carmel Jarvis sits with husband David in their darkened house. When they evacuated, they expected to lose it all, but their home remains absurdly pristine amid the abject destruction. ``You just have so much survivor guilt," she said. ``You still have your house, but you are consumed by grief for other people."
No. 60 - Mark Walker
No. 60 Somerset Drive was the realisation of a dream for 29-year-old Mark Walker. Now it is a steaming heap of twisted metal and broken roof tiles. The information technology worker bought his first house two years ago after saving hard and using money left to him by his grandparents. A keen bushwalker, he loved the bushland feel of the street and says he will stay and rebuild. Mr Walker tried to fight the blaze but fled what he described as ``a 20-foot wall of fire," leaving behind his basketball trophies, much-loved CDs and photos of his grandparents. The two cars he had recently bought are now twisted inside the ruins of his garage. All that survives is a single coffee mug.
No. 64 - The Forsyths
All that remains at the Forsyths' house is an untouched wheelbarrow, a favourite 50th birthday present of Malcolm Forsyth, miraculously preserved when the rest of his family's belonging were burnt. Mr Forsyth lost his prized wine cellar and his valuable collection of coins. ``There was a bicentennial coin that was worth $800 alone," the taxi driver says. The family of four grabbed their photographs and fled with such haste that Mr Forsyth did not even take his wallet. His wife Judy says she feels sorry for the people whose houses survived. ``They'll be living in the middle of a construction site for a few years," she says. Both say they have been overwhelmed by the offers of help they have received.
No. 79 - The Templetons
John Templeton, 51, had spent a year and $150,000 extending his house to provide more space for his teenage son. The new garage and rumpus room, finished just eight weeks ago, are destroyed. The new jarrah floorboards Mr Templeton loved lasted seconds in the onslaught of flames. His son's sound system has simply vapourised. The parliamentary worker and his music-crazy son had lived in the home for about five years with their tabby cat Nirvana. They lost everything they owned, including precious reminders of Mr Templeton's wife, who died five years ago after a long illness. ``We'll rebuild it, pretty much the same as it was," he said yesterday.
© 2003 The Age
