How Mallacoota locals banded together through adversity

With its wild coastline, peaceful estuary and surrounding bushland, Mallacoota has long been a sanctuary for visitors and locals alike. But during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019 to 2020, this remote Victorian town was pushed to its limits. Homes were lost, power was cut and the road out was closed, with hundreds stranded. What followed was a story of resilience. From firefighters to evacuees, community leaders to volunteers, the people of Mallacoota banded together to protect what they could—then rebuild what they’d lost.

Connecting through sport

Callista Cooper is a philanthropy and grants manager for Reclink Australia, a not-for-profit encouraging social inclusion through sport and recreation.

When Callista Cooper reflects on the immediate aftermath of the fires, the thing she remembers most is what was missing. “The bush was just so silent,” she recalls. Having evacuated Mallacoota on 30 December 2019 with her young family, she returned a month later with the army greeting them on the road into town. “It was such a bizarre experience, coming back to that.” Fortunately, she was able to take her kids home thanks to the bravery of a neighbour. “He managed to save all but two on our block.”

In 2021, she joined Reclink Australia, an organisation that brings sports and recreation to marginalised communities. Reclink funds ongoing community-led programs designed to bring joy, build resilience and get locals taking part in healthy group activities. One was a stand-up paddleboard group. “We’d get a group together each week and paddle along the river together,” says Callista. “We’d do it in every kind of weather. It was amazing, because as the weeks went on, you could see the pops of green growing back through the blackened bushland along the river. Everyone would close their eyes and we could hear the birds coming back or the sound of the ocean. It was meditative.”

“Everyone would close their eyes and we could hear the birds coming back.” 

Whether it’s a surfing or yoga program, Reclink’s opportunities for connection have been a lifeline, says Callista. “We also do linedancing, basketball, pilates, toddler dance. We all have a million worries but to stop thinking about all that for just an hour, to focus on yourself and the people around you—that’s what it’s about. That’s where we see progress.”

Protecting the community

Rod Lewis was captain of the Mallacoota Fire Brigade when the flames roared through.

For months before the fires, Rod Lewis couldn’t shake the notion that something big was coming. Everywhere he looked, conditions were primed for a big burn. As a volunteer member of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) for more than 40 years, he would know.

When that feeling settled into his gut as summer approached, the captain and his team worked on getting the town ready. “We spent at least six months in the lead-up to fire season doing everything we could to prepare people and their homes, which included a lot of community education.”

After Christmas, a lightning strike set off a blaze. “Then the wind shifted and we had a 14-kilometre wall of fire headed towards us. I got a phone call about 36 hours before it was due to arrive and I immediately got the ball rolling. I called everyone in and we had a briefing with all the emergency services. Some of the members had to protect their homes but as soon as the immediate threat passed they were right back with the team, for days afterwards, on barely any sleep. Not a single one said no. Everyone showed up.”

While Rod was at the fire’s front—a place he describes as “literal hell on earth”—he had his own family in the fire station. “I knew the station had to hold; it had to survive. So I took my wife and our children inside and told them not to come out until I was back.”

In spite of the horrors Rod and his team faced, it is a point of immense pride and gratitude for him that no-one died in the inferno. “That, and the resilience of the community afterwards, are what have stuck with me,” he says. “We were completely shut off. We had to find fuel for the generators. I had locals getting word to me day and night, directing me to where their boats were moored, telling me to siphon their tanks to help the town. Everyone pitched in.”

Five years on, “I still have nightmares and I’m dealing with PTSD,” says Rod. “But I’ve found that opening up about it is powerful and it helps others in town, too.”

Providing information and support

As branch manager at CommBank Lakes Entrance, Lauren Barlow facilitated practical support for affected residents.

Lauren Barlow has told the story of the 2019-2020 fire season a hundred times. But the one point that chokes her up is recalling how she had to leave her animals behind as she fled her property in Toorloo Arm, about two hours’ drive west of Mallacoota. “I just had to leave the internal gates open and hope they’d survive if the fire came through,” she says, her voice breaking. “The cows and chickens were just looking at me. I knew they could sense something was going on.”

Thankfully, the animals survived, as did Lauren’s home. She was evacuated twice over that fateful summer but it was after the devastating New Year’s Eve fire in Mallacoota that the real recovery work began. For Lauren, her role at the bank as well as her strong ties in town meant she often served as an information conduit between people and services. “Once the phone lines came back on, I was getting a lot of calls from people in town, asking me, ‘What do I do? What’s next?’”

Lauren’s main priority was to streamline the process for as many people as she could. “I’d give them the warm handover and connect them with as many services as I could,” she says. “We had the Gippsland Emergency Fire Relief Fund so I was giving them phone numbers for that, getting people connected with the Red Cross and just doing what I could to make things simple and easy for them. They’d already gone through enough. My mission was to try to make it flow as effortlessly as possible for them, to try to reduce a tiny bit of the stress they were under.”

Pulling together as a community

Gail Sands is the treasurer of Mallacoota Halls & Rec, a volunteer organisation that manages recreational facilities on behalf of the town and East Gippsland Shire Council.

Originally, Gail Sands was going to stay put. “You have all these conflicting ideas about whether it’s better to stay behind and defend your home or pack up and leave,” she says. “It was about midnight and the fire was due to hit around 4am. My son from Western Australia called me. I could see the glow outside of the window and he said, ‘Mum, what are you still doing there? Get out.’”

After packing the car and heading to the Mallacoota Main Hall, which served as the evacuation centre, Gail spent a sleepless night inside the centre, which also housed cats, dogs and too much smoke for comfort. Her husband, Peter, had stayed behind to protect their home.

“That was the hardest part because I didn’t know what my husband was doing, whether he was still alive, whether the house was still there,” says Gail. “I finally got word late afternoon because they had quite a team going with our son-in-law and other neighbours. They were all keeping in contact and looking after each other, looking after their properties as well as other properties.”

Gail and Peter were lucky—their home survived but many on their street did not. And once the hall had served its purpose as an evacuation centre, Gail and others got to work transforming it into a relief centre. “There were still buildings burning but everyone just pulled together to do what they could,” she recalls. “I’ve worked in the local church shop for maybe 20 years and we got it open and up and running straightaway. It was wonderful to see people’s generosity. For people who lost their houses, they had absolutely nothing, nothing at all, and to be able to give them supplies, even just a blanket—to know that the community was rallying around them was a good feeling.”

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Published: 30 October 2025