The Morning After
View from Tascott Railway Bridge
There's a particular quiet that follows a disaster — not peaceful, just emptied out. On the morning of Sunday 7 December 2025, I went down to Tascott train station and stood on the railway bridge to try and make sense of what had happened the day before, so close to home. The smoke was still there. The helicopters were already working.
Brisbane Water supplying Helicopters with an endless supply of water
From the Bridge
The view from the bridge was the first coherent picture of the scale of it. Scorched hillside where there had been bush. Helicopters buzzing round, moving in slow, purposeful arcs above Brisbane Water. I stayed a while and watched before heading down to the waterfront — the kind of watching that isn't quite photography yet, just trying to take it in.
Going Around Again
Down at the Water
At Brisbane Water the mood was quiet but alive. Locals stood at the shore watching the helicopters bank and dip. Firefighters on the ground moved with the same steady focus as the night before — still at it, hours later. I talked to a few people. There was a sense of disbelief at what had happened. The fire had taken sixteen homes and everyone seemed to be doing the same thing: standing close to where it happened, as if proximity might make it make sense.
Firefighting Helicopter
Two Minutes from Home
Mid-morning I went back to get my wife and kids. We drove down together — barely two minutes from our front door. That proximity still felt strange: the helicopters, the scorched ridge line, the displaced families, all of it sitting right on the edge of our ordinary Sunday.
Another step closer to putting out the fires
My kids were quiet in a way they usually aren't, not quite believing what they were seeing — helicopters on a continual circuit, filling up, dumping, going round again in a matter of minutes. We went home feeling humbled, and very grateful that the direction of the wind had spared our home this time. Unfortunately, others were not so lucky.
Close Up of the Water Bombing