Mogo risen from the ashes of Black Summer

It's difficult to fathom that five years ago the tragedy of Black Summer had torched much of the main street.

Tourists travelling through the Eurobodalla can sometimes be oblivious to the sheer damage the bushfires had on the landscape.

But the scars within the hearts and minds of Far South Coast residents are stark reminders that things are a little different now.

It's evident when you chat with Mogo business owners and "locals" like stalwarts Peter and Vanessa Williams.

"If you smell people burning off their leaves next door, you still run outside to have a quick look. If you see smoke in the distance, you look it up straight away to see where the fire is," Peter said.

His eyes began to well with tears, lips quivered with emotion, as it was evident the scars ran deeper than his surface-level demeanour.

As the fire swept through the Far South Coast village, a patchwork of businesses and homes were destroyed, including Peter and Vanessa's Mogo Painting and Pottery Gallery, a place they had called home since 1980.

"We didn't see it. I think it was 6am in the morning. We were given a couple of hours warning, and by 9am it had gone," the couple simultaneously shared.

"The fire brigade really tried hard to save it. Couldn't save the house and they knew that, couldn't save the old house across the road and knew that, but this [church] building they really wanted to save and spend a long time on it.

"They doused the interior, but the heat was so intense it reignited when they were walking down the hill to another place."

In 1979, Peter, an art teacher at Echuca Technical School, and Vanessa, who worked at the Echuca Hospital, decided on a lifestyle change and moved to the Batemans Bay area with their three-year-old daughter, Jessica.

They found their ideal site at Mogo: St Marys, a decommissioned church on the hill in the heart of the village, and purchased it from Father Stack in 1980.

The couple had celebrated 40 Christmases at their pottery business, until the fateful day in 2019 when the Clyde Mountain Fire roared through Mogo.

"We had a home poked up in the bush at the back and it was very dicey whether the firies could save that, they knew that and we knew that," Peter recalled.

"So we put all our valuables in the church because they thought they could probably save this.

"We put $90,000 worth of paintings, a lot of precious stuff and furniture, thinking it was going to be a safe house, but it went before the house at the back.

"You lose all your history, your family heirlooms, kids' stuff from their childhood, cameras with all your photos in them, degrees, everything.

"Lost all the work I'd done at art school, all my drawings, drawers of my daughter's work that I was so proud of, gone."

Since the previous church was built in 1915, no plans were available to help with the rebuilding.

However, the neighbour across the road during the '80s and '90s just happened to be a plan drawer.

"He had looked at the church for 15 years and knew how many weatherboards it went up and what the angle of the roof was, so he offered to do it because he couldn't bear not to have the church back," Vanessa said.

The church building was rebuilt using the same timber as the original cladding, spotted gum hardwood milled from Eden Saw Mill that was renowned for its high bush fire resistance, termite resistance and durability rating.

They replaced the interior pressed metal with designs that honoured the original, ensured the build was tighter and was without gaps in the eaves, one of the main reasons the iconic building went up in flames.

"Once we built this, we felt really positive again because this is our jewel," Peter said.

"We built this before we considered building a home for ourselves. We instead lived in a shed for a year or two, had a shower put in the church and ate on the back deck."

While some residents had left and packed up due to the trauma surrounding the fires, most people stayed, with most of the town still rebuilding through 'replicas' and restorations of previous stores.

"People stopped in the street to donate, old customers, kids and teachers I taught with when I was a high school art teacher, all the charities, and a lot of money from GoFundMe from people overseas," Peter said through a gentle and heartwrenching smile.

"That's why it's here."

Most people looking to evacuate as a catastrophic bushfire bears down have to prioritise what's important and what you take with you.

What about if you have a family of giraffes, a rhino or two, several hungry lions and countless monkeys?

For Chad Staples and the team at Mogo Wildlife Park, leaving in the face of Black Summer was never an option.

However, their efforts in saving the popular tourist attraction and all its denizens were well rewarded as the zoo continued to contribute to the village's positive rebirth.

For managing director Chad, looking back to that awful summer five years ago was bittersweet.

There's the significant trauma that came with the devastating fires and their aftermath, but also a huge sense of pride in his team for stepping up to the fight and prevailing.

"We all sat through the threat of the fires for so long. Everyone knew it was coming, it was just a question of when," Chad said.

"Then, that week in the lead-up to Christmas, it became fairly certain it was heading our way, and the day it hit us was New Year's Eve.

"Once it was imminent you really knew - the colour of the sky changed, it was so hot with a wall of heat coming towards us.

"From that morning, as people were getting alerts to leave the area, we knew we were about to be fighting at some point that day."

Chad said it really kicked off about mid-morning on December 31 as embers began to land around the wildlife park.

"We don't have that option to move everybody out," he said.

"We have to stay and fight. All you can do is hope when it kicks off you have enough of everything in order to do so."

Chad said he and his team of just 14 were fighting fires around the park from midday to midnight, with the only reprieve coming in the late evening following a wind change.

"We didn't stop putting out spot fires for another week. The whole treeline surrounding the park was on fire at some point.

"We just kept sending water and bodies to where they were needed.

"If we weren't there it would have burnt to the ground."

Chad said one thing all their plans had assumed was that firefighters would be there to help - but that didn't happen.

"We had anticipated some sort of assistance from the fire brigade, which we never got," he said.

"There were a lot of people around Mogo who stayed and that meant so many resources were needed everywhere to save the village.

"I made two emergency calls that day but we never got a single truck to the property.

"It's no-one's fault - there was just not enough [to go around]. It was a fire no-one anticipated being as big as it was and how much of Australia was being damaged."

Once the fires were out, Mogo Wildlife Park remained closed for around two months as the rebuild and clean-up started.

"We didn't have power, no phones, we had to get generators in," Chad said.

"And we had to be able to get food for all the animals in with all the roads closed.

"It wasn't just the day of the fire. For me it was more stressful getting that stuff in, getting people home and whether they had homes to go to.

"You know, you didn't see the colour green except for our little pocket at Mogo. You would drive all the way to Batemans Bay and not see a tree that wasn't burnt."

Just as things began looking a little more positive, COVID struck and tourist attractions were boarded up - not that the team could leave their animals during lockdown any more than they could during the fires.

Enter "Zookeeper Chad" and his incredibly popular social media videos and photos.

"It was a very valuable way for people to learn about the zoo and what happened here," he said.

"We have had people all over the world watching those videos and commenting.

"Mogo could've been an international destination if it weren't for COVID!"

Five years on and Chad said the "ebb and flow" of trying to get back to some semblance of "normal" looked like it was finally seeing results.

"Last year in particular it was a very quiet summer on the coast. But hopefully it's a normal summer again - what it was like before the fires.

"Certainly that's what it sounds like from accommodation providers, they've got solid bookings, and it looks like people are coming back.

"And we're hopeful that also includes coming to see Mogo Wildlife Park.

"We just got hit with a lot, and it changed people's behaviours.

"The whole world is trying to get tourism back post-COVID. It looks like five years is the amount of time needed.

"There's a lot of positivity [in Mogo] at the moment.

"All the shops have been rebuilt and the mountain bike track is looking to be a long-term drawcard."

As for Mogo Wildlife Park?

"We're a living breathing organism," Chad said.

"We have new babies and new attractions - we're doing our bit."