The death toll following bush fired is nearing 300. The event has been called the single most tragic peace-time event in our country’s history. Fires are still burning close to my home, but far away enough for me to feel safe for my family. I have an office in Seymour, about an hour drive’s south of home, and it is closed, as staff are either protecting their own home or helping out survivors in community centres.

The helplessness I feel has not debilitated me yet, but is a low constant hum in my daily thoughts. I have offered my counselling skills to the Red Cross in Bendigo, through a friend who has been overworking at centres in Bendigo and Redesdale. She says she may call on me once the fires are over and people start rebuilding. Since I’m working in the state’s far north right now, I have an empty house in Shepparton and have offered it to any seeking refuge – painfully ironic that there are thousands of refugees living in Shepparton who have come from foreign lands, and now we must open up the town to refugees from neighbouring communities – and a great opportunity for considering “Who is a refugee?”

Not a lot more I can do. But I can feel.

Click here if you’d like to help those affected by the 2009 Victorian bushfires.