When a bushfire threatened my home, I had to choose what to save. The feeling never left me

July 11, 2026 — 1:30pm

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In the summer of 2017-18, a bushfire burning just a few kilometres north of our home suddenly intensified. When the ash drifting down from the darkened sky grew thicker and began to glow, we knew it was time to leave.

While my partner loaded the car, I ran back upstairs to take one last series of photographs. It felt both practical and emotional: documenting the possessions we might later need to claim through insurance, while allowing me one final moment to say goodbye to a home I was sure I would never see again.

Standing alone in the living room, my body awash with adrenaline, I experienced a moment of profound clarity. We had packed everything emergency planners tell us to save: passports, laptops, medication, important documents, a change of clothes, and I had grabbed a handful of family photographs and a few pieces of artwork. Yet almost all the belongings that I truly cared about, and that made our house a home, were still inside.

The folder of family archives my dad spent more than a decade compiling, printing and posting to me a few pages at a time. My........

© The Sydney Morning Herald