'Everything is gone'

I LOST MY HOME in the Aussie fires

- Julie Jacobson

It was supposed to be Patty Chinnock’s forever home. Echoing with the laughter of kids and grandkids, it was meant to see the expat Kiwi through a happy retirement.

It’s now little more than ash, incinerated in the 1000-degree New Year’s Eve inferno that ripped through the tiny township of Conjola Park, a close-knit community on the south coast of New South Wales.

The fire also consumed the house next door, belonging to her late husband’s Keith’s brother, destroying a cherished family stronghold.

Patty feels like she has lost Keith all over again, with all the memories and mementos of their life together now little more than ashes.

“Everything is gone,” Patty says through tears. “Thinking of all the things that are lost – the sentimental things that you just can’t replace – that’s the most heartbreaking.”

Patty and Keith adored their life in the little house, with his brother Stephen as their neighbour. Until Keith’s untimely death 11 years ago, the brothers were like peas in a pod, says the couple’s son Jesse.

“When my father first moved over to Australia, they lived together in my uncle’s house,” Jesse says. “Then the house next door came up for sale and my father bought it. It’s been pretty special having the two family homes there. It was a real beautiful family place.”