Deaf Australian family shares story of evacuating from Mallacoota vacation due to bushfires
Here are more stories of how the Australian bushfires have impacted deaf individuals and the deaf community.
I will show you a video from a deaf couple from Melbourne, Trisha and Gavin Balharrie, who had to evacuate from a beach vacation in Mallacoota before New Year’s Eve. This is the same area where thousands of people had to evacuate from boats when fires approached the area.
The couple already evacuated the area by road before it was “too late,” but they will describe the anxiety and stress of being in that situation.
GAVIN:
We left Melbourne driving about 500 km to Mallacoota.
[Image of a map showing the locations of Melbourne and Mallacoota and an image of the beach]
TEXT:
The couple went camping with their 10-year-old daughter and a dog. They arrived on Saturday. The next day there was a new fire 50 km away from lightning strike.
GAVIN:
We knew it was very hot and windy.
TRISHA:
Emergency Victoria app shows where the fires are in any area, same as the Facebook page, with information from the fire brigade, police, and others, usually with Auslan interpreters on screen.
TEXT:
There was a Country Fire Association (CFA) meeting that provided updates on the bushfires. Gavin recorded the audio with his phone and sent it to an interpreter friend to translate.
[Image of CFA meeting]
Text:
They decided to pair up with a buddy at the next campsite to keep them updated through the night as they did not want to depend on their CODA daughter.
The morning after, they saw an increase in fire trucks coming and going. There was another CFA meeting with over 500 people. They again sent the audio to an interpreter.
TRISHA:
We could smell plenty of smoke coming from a distance.
At the same time, the buddy lady we had from the next site, was saying the advice was ‘should evacuate’ and we were only given a 2 hour window to evacuate by 2 p.m. So we didn’t have a lot of time.
GAVIN:
The message was ‘should’ not ‘must’ evacuate. During this time we were considering our decision.
TRISHA:
The lady also said if the fire was coming, that would need to stay at the relief centre, which would be safe, but dark with no power or phone communications. Obviously this would be difficult for us being deaf with too many barriers. We made the decision to pack up and evacuate.
[Image of a road with smoke in the distance]
TEXT:
The couple said they couldn’t drive back to Melbourne because the highway was closed due to fires. They drove to Canberra and saw bushfires in the distance that caused smoke and hazy weather.
[Image of a road with very hazy air]
GAVIN:
We saw many bushfires on our way to Canberra, not close by, they were around.
TRISHA:
There was smoke and hazy weather.
TEXT:
The couple eventually went back home to Melbourne. They drove 1500 km in 5 days. The roads they used to leave Mallacoota were closed shortly after they drove through.
GAVIN:
Unfortunately a lot of the roads and regions were closed for access due to the bushfires, and sadly lots of people lost their homes and had to evacuate by plane, helicopter and sea. We feel for all of those people as they suffered more than us.
Our advantage was that we got information, updates on the app, had interpreters on screen and a buddy lady next door, all this information and a strong community feeling helped us to make a decision to evacuate.
TRISHA:
It is also important to note our holiday place didn’t have a TV but there may be holiday homes in Vic and NSW which have a TV so it's important to have an interpreter on screen. Many news shows cut off the interpreter so deaf people don’t know this critical information to evacuate.
Remember captions are good, but don’t show the emotion of the situation so it's really important, and we rely on the interpreter more.
Thank you Trisha and Gavin for sharing your story.
[Video of Trisha and Gavin waving]