{"id":516373,"date":"2026-01-14T21:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/516373\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T21:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:24:12","slug":"amid-scenes-of-destruction-in-harcourt-some-bushfire-survivors-plan-to-rebuild-others-may-have-lost-too-much-victoria-bushfires-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/516373\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid scenes of destruction in Harcourt, some bushfire survivors plan to rebuild. Others may have lost too much | Victoria bushfires 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking out over the charred remains of Jess and John Bell\u2019s garden in Harcourt, all you can see of their closest neighbours\u2019 houses are brick chimneys, standing among tangles of corrugated iron.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s with mixed emotions the young couple, both Country Fire Authority volunteers, describe the \u201cmiracle\u201d in which their Victorian weatherboard \u2013 a fixer-upper they were \u201cliterally about to start renovating\u201d \u2013 was saved while many homes on their street were destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see one house burnt and one standing strong, basically untouched. It\u2019s just bizarre,\u201d Jess says. \u201cWe were very close to losing our house. We should have lost it. It is just a tinderbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA home just saved, a cafe in ashes: residents return to find destruction by Victoria fires \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Harcourt lies about 130km north-west of Melbourne and is best known for apple growing. The town, combined with nearby Ravenswood, lost 54 homes and several businesses on Friday, with the area among the worst hit by bushfires which started on 7 January amid a heatwave<\/a> that saw temperatures soar past 40C.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Harcourt residents, who were told to evacuate on Friday as the fire spread south from Ravenswood, have been sporadically allowed in to check on their properties. Some have almost nothing left.<\/p>\n

The bushfires have burned more than 400,000 hectares (990,000 acres) across Victoria and destroyed more than 700 structures. Twelve major fires were still burning on Wednesday, including the Harcourt fire at Mount Alexander.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Harcourt was quiet. People were using generators and relying on bottled water. Some were waiting to meet insurance assessors to quantify the damage. Those who could go inside, had done so.<\/p>\n

John and Jess Bell\u2019s weatherboard house survived. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Dark channels of burnt trees have been cut into the landscape, as though rivers of fire had run through the town. At one house, burnt to the ground, socks left hanging on the washing line gave a sense of how quickly people were forced to leave.<\/p>\n

People spoke of the \u201crandomness\u201d of the fire \u2013 that its erratic nature made it very difficult to fight and the indiscriminate way in which it destroyed some homes and not others.<\/p>\n

Two doors up from the Bell\u2019s place on Coolstore Road, a brick veneer house that belonged to veteran CFA members was destroyed.<\/p>\n

Harcourt CFA captain Andrew Wilson. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThey raised their kids in that house and [it\u2019s] rubble,\u201d John says. \u201cI was expecting my place to be on the ground, but ours is fully standing and the guy sitting next to me, his house is on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

As locals take stock, a massive community-led recovery effort is under way across the wider Castlemaine area and in Harcourt itself, where the miniature railway has been transformed into a relief centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started out just as a small barbecue for people to gather and it\u2019s turned into quite an incredible operation,\u201d Remy Sowman, a Harcourt resident, says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the community coming together, first and foremost; giving each other hugs and connecting and sharing stories, and then a place for resources to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He owns the Coolstore cafe with his wife, Bonnie, which they opened only 15 months ago. It was completely destroyed. Their house, a street away, is safe.<\/p>\n

All that remains of the Coolstore cafe. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Outside the ashen remains of their cafe, remnants of the glass windows crunch underfoot.<\/p>\n

Bonnie says it still doesn\u2019t feel real.<\/p>\n

The couple, who\u2019ve lived in Harcourt for four years, say they love the community and are planning to reopen the cafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really was an awesome, special little place and we\u2019re keen to rebuild it in that sense,\u201d Remy says.<\/p>\n

The Sowmans say they\u2019ve been overwhelmed by people\u2019s generosity and offers to help.<\/p>\n

The cool store cooperative on Coolstore Road was completely destroyed<\/a>, and walking past the massive, warped structure, which provided essential storage for about 85 customers, feels surreal.<\/p>\n

From the road, the glint of thousands of wine bottles is visible amid the stacks of burnt pallets.<\/p>\n

Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns, who co-owns the Shedshaker Brewing Company in Castlemaine, lost 90% of her stock and says many local brewers, winemakers and fruit growers have been terribly affected.<\/p>\n

Bonnie and Remy Sowman intend to rebuild. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just bigger than anyone imagines,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople are battered. There are a number of winemakers who will not come back from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locals have rallied behind the affected businesses. A quickly organised fundraiser at Boomtown bar in Castlemaine raised more than $130,000. Thomas Cuming, who works at Boomtown, says the response was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a quiet little soft moment to take in how wonderful this town is,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Businesses donated \u201canything they could\u201d including gift vouchers, paintings, sculptures and furniture. Barb Stanley, who runs nearby Ice-cream Republic and had to evacuate her home last Friday, donated about 450 scoops. \u201cThis town\u2019s amazing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The local CFA captain, Andrew Wilson, was one of the first to attend the bushfire when it started in Foggarty\u2019s Gap Road on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"FootageFootage shows smoke and fire in the Otways, one of dozens of bushfires across Victoria \u2013 video <\/p>\n

Wilson, who has lived in Harcourt his whole life and served as a volunteer firefighter for 44 years, reckons this fire \u201cran harder\u201d than the one he fought on black Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard. We\u2019ve had three members of ours who\u2019ve lost their houses,\u201d he says \u201cAnother guy\u2019s lost his business. Everyone knows someone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking out over the charred remains of Jess and John Bell\u2019s garden in Harcourt, all you can see…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":516374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-516373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115895565081681203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}