The Journey to Rebuild After Devastating Bushfire
Potters Croft at a GlanceWho lives here: Tim and Tammy HolmesLocation: Dunalley, TasmaniaSize: 9.7ha (24 acres)Year built: The land was bought in 1985 and the original accommodation built in 1988Number of years since the fire and rebuild began: Three years, with some healthy time off in between. A total of one year of dedicated rebuildingBuilder: Tim Holmes
Potters Croft was in the bushfire’s direct path. Tim Holmes and his wife, Tammy, escaped with the grandchildren they were looking after to their jetty on the bay.“We found a thin lens of air just above the surface of the water, which itself took on an oily sheen,” says Tim. “A couple of times the jetty caught fire but, thanks to my Akubra hat, I was able to use it as a bucket and put the fire out.” Later, when Akubra heard that story, they sent Tim three new hats.
“We don’t talk about the fire much these days,” says Tim. “Most people prefer not to think about it but in the days and weeks after the fire, the most common questions I was asked were ‘will you go back?’ and ‘will you stay in Dunalley?’. There was never any doubt for me. The answer was always ‘yes’. Where else would I want to be? I have travelled to many countries and stayed in many beautiful places but I have never found a place where I would prefer to live.”
For Tim and Tammy, the wake of the destruction left them temporarily without a home. Despite valiant efforts from fire crews and many hours of firefighting with buckets after the couple’s firefighting pump was burned, the main house of Potters Croft was lost, along with numerous outbuildings and all of the couple’s belongings. The guest accommodation (seen restored here) was the only building spared – a five-bedroom, four-bathroom lodge built by Tim from reclaimed convict brick collected over the years from the Derwent valley and nearby Tasman peninsula.In the years since that day, the couple – along with their son Joe, his wife and their four children who live on the adjacent block (the five children that were present on the day of the fire are Tammy and Tim’s daughter’s kids, who now reside in Perth) – have returned to the property and are continuously rebuilding and reimagining the land.
Whether travelling by road or by sea, seeing the Potters Croft property appear from around the bend is the first indication that you’re approaching the small township of Dunalley. By road it’s a little under an hour’s drive south-east of Hobart. By sea, the sight of the cottage and its now famous jetty is a beacon for watercraft navigating out of the narrows of Blackman Bay and into the waterside hamlet of just 300 permanent residents.
The trip up the property’s front drive is a lengthy one. Young olive trees and eucalypts line the long avenue. It will still be a few years yet before they’re mature enough to provide a canopy, but for now they’re a promise of things to come. On the right is a bare paddock which years ago, long before the Holmes’ family was here, once held the original 1924 farmhouse known as ‘Brynmoor’, Welsh for ‘moor by the sea’. It’s a fitting name considering Tim’s birth country is Wales and the home’s location.
The driveway curves off to the right in front of an arched doorway cut into a thick pittosporum hedge. It’s behind this verdant hedge that the view unfolds. And the sight is breathtaking. What you see is not a barren, burnt out block of land, but a lush sweeping garden. The borders are filled with a mix of head-high natives and cottage garden plants. There’s leucadendrons, lavender bushes covered with purple blooms, red callistemons, grevilleas, acacias and tall kangaroo paws. “A friend and I bought identical grevillea plants two years ago,” says Tammy. “When she sees mine she always comments on how robust it looks. It has a lot to do with the soil. I think the potash from the fires has improved it.”
The 24-acre block commands an entire headland, providing the family with impressive views up and down the channel. The only visible clue that this tranquil place once saw a destructive bushfire are the piles and piles of logged timber, cut from the extensive number of dead trees that didn’t survive the blaze. Looking around, there’s enough to last through the next five years of cold Tasmanian winters.
Despite the fact it was built in just a week (to house a band of musicians for a party the couple was holding) it showcases Tim’s exceptional building skills. The studio was constructed nearly entirely from scrap: the four rusty wheels were salvaged from an insitu piece of agricultural machinery and the timber panelling is reclaimed. Eventually the untreated boards will weather to a dull grey, adding to the building’s rustic character.
Probably the best example of Tim’s sustainable building style is the new barn. The two north-facing walls are constructed from 300 millimetre-thick rammed earth, an ancient building method that uses compacted natural raw materials – in Tim’s case local gravel and sand – that results in a structurally strong framework with excellent thermal qualities, no toxic off-gassing and importantly, will act as a heat shield in a fire. In keeping with his environmentally responsible build, Tim incorporated reclaimed macrocarpa timber (a type of eucalypt) sheeting from a chicken farm in Ulverstone, and beams sourced from the nearby Eaglehawk neck jetty that in their day would have been crown-select logs. The overall result is an aesthetically pleasing and enduring structure that uses minimal material resources and is fire resistant.
For Australians living near the bush, the daily possibility of bushfire is very real, so in the case of building fire-preventative homes, what can be done? Associate Professor Gregory Nolan, the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood at the University of Tasmania explains, “Major bushfires may be a 1 in 50-year event, even in a bushfire-prone area.” New homes in the high-risk areas are required to meet strict regulations, which include choosing fire-resistant construction materials. In Tim’s case, his perfect/ imperfect rammed earth walls more than fit the bill. As Nolan says of the race by designers to find appealing solutions to the new provisions, “Architectural discussion now focuses on ways to meet the Standard’s requirements and still look ‘natural’… People obviously don’t want to live in a building that resembles a bunker in anticipation of an event that may not happen in their lifetimes.”
As well as the barn, the couple also have a series of outbuildings. There’s a repurposed hay shed, a kiln room for Tim to fire up his ceramics, and a potting shed for Tammy, who loves to garden. After the bushfire, the community came together to support Tammy because they know how much she loves to garden – many donated vouchers for the local garden centre. For Tim, the keen potter, a legion of past clients returned the mugs they had bought from him, so his work wasn’t completely lost and he could still be surrounded by his own handmade pieces.
While transporting some of the nutrient-rich soil from the old vegie garden to the site of the new one, a half a dozen 80-year-old asparagus crowns that had been given to Tammy by a friend were uncovered hiding under the charred soil. It was a fantastic discovery and they are now flourishing in their new home.
And that’s not the only surprise in the vegetable patch. The low pickets surrounding the garden are actually the boards from the now famous jetty (see below). It was an ideal solution as the tired boards were in need of replacing at the same time the vegie garden needed a low fence that wouldn’t obscure the sun. The couple carefully removed the timbers and painstakingly reassembled them as the kitchen garden’s front fence. The effect is of a jetty turned on its side, as though on display at a museum. The old boards have kept the scars of that blazing day, amidst the grey-green lichen can be seen small black pockmarks, from burns sustained as the jetty caught alight from the affronting ember attack.
Along the southern perimeter of the property is a stand of young blue gums. As well as being the floral emblem of Tasmania, blue gums are an important summer breeding ground for the endangered Swift parrot, who use this area as a migratory corridor to their winter feeding grounds across the Bass Strait. Sadly, most of the mature eucalypts had to be cut down after the fire, but thankfully for the parrots a healthy forest of young blue gums is already taking hold. As luck would have it, even the dying trees weren’t wasted. A keeper from a local wildlife park who was passing by saw the piled-up branches of undamaged leaves and soon afterwards hauled them away to feed the park’s resident koalas.
For Tim and Tammy, the scorched fence and the now defunct jetty is a daily reminder of the day that their lives were spared. And along with the other salvaged relics incorporated into the new builds, their work is a tribute to a rejuvenation and a renewed sense of purpose. It seems that all things have the chance of a new life at the Holmes’s place. TELL USDo you remember the story of the Holmes’ family and the Tasmanian bushfires of 2013? What would be your reaction to your home being destroyed by natural forces? Would you rebuild or move away? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
Brad Westcott, the then Brigade Chief of the Dunalley volunteer fire brigade recalls, “It was horrible… The fire itself was uncontrollable. I remember the briefing at the Dunalley station beforehand and you could see the fire coming down the hills – and it was hot. It changed from warm and balmy to intense within the space of 15 minutes. I’d never experienced weather like that before.”
Q