black-christmas-bushfires-The-Elliotts-Jan2002
Elliottâs, Wallacia
Photo taken 11/01/2002
Story: their block was adjacent to the Sheehanâs (also photographed for this series). Ray and Carole Elliott. Carole had a catering business - for weddings and the like - and so had a work-shed and freezer unit separate from the house. The fire swept indiscriminately through, melting and burning all. Even the pool, as pictured in the photo, anything on the waterâs surface (foam noodles etc.) melted. I remember seeing lumps of melted aluminium on black scared ground that had been the tray of a ute. Strangely, when Ray and his sons went back on Boxing Day to see if anything was salvageable, they found an undamaged case of beer in the freezer.