Flowerdale.  Sunday February 7, 2010.  Anniversary of Black Saturday.

Kinglake.  February 7, 2010.  Anniversary of Black Saturday.

Seven days' time marks the anniversary of the worst disaster Victorians have faced.

February 7 a year ago was Black Saturday...the hottest day not only of last year, but of all time since records started.  It became six weeks of hell for almost everyone.  If not especially for those in the disaster areas, for those who knew someone who was.  Very few Victorians could not be unaffected as they knew friends or relatives who had either died or who were in the displaced.

In one way, it brought about an incredible community spirit as Victorians and even non-Victorians struggled to find any way they could to help.

Social media especially was utilized to provide ways to keep expatriate Victorians informed, to take some of the pressure off over-burdened CFA systems, or simply just to get as much timely information out as possible of any new fire danger.

We'd already seen how Twitter was utilized in other situations around the world, but with the Victorian bushfires, Australians worked to make it even more effective as an information system.  Mashups with Google maps and other satellite mapping systems were brought into play and even Twitpics sent from some areas close to fires helped provide what was needed.

One name cropped up on Twitter showing a huge concern for one little town...@rexster.  When I first saw his tweets on the situation in Flowerdale, I didn't know if he was a country bumpkin or a CEO, but he kept tweeting of what was happening in Flowerdale and how he was trying to get some supplies into the place to help them save what they had left.  I remember putting out a tweet on the relevant hashtag that said:  "How can we help this guy do something for Flowerdale?"

The guy was actually Pete Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital, as I found out a week or two later.

What Flowerdale went through is best described here.

Of course, Kinglake was also amongst the worst towns hit by the fires.

A few weeks after the fires were no longer a danger, I took a near-dusk trip to Kinglake with my family, travelling along the St. Andrews road.  It's a narrow, meandering road, not really much trouble for the driving skills of someone who was taught in the hills of East Gippsland.  It wasn't the driving that bothered me.  It was the sight of the burnt trees against the fading light.

The St. Andrews to Kinglake road had no lights on it once we left St. Andrews.  Not one.  Against what little light there was, we could see blackened, broken trees.  It's a sight that no tweet or news report can really, truly describe.  Needless to say, after we got to Kinglake and stopped for some fish-and-chips, we took the better, safer road out the other side, via Whittlesea.

However, that was in dark.  A few months later I saw the Whittlesea road in daylight.

In July, Pete Williams got me to film the Sustainable Housing workshop in Kinglake.

Sure, grass had regrown on the floor of that bushland.  There were new leaves on the trees.

But the trees themselves were still black.  And they still are, as seen a few weeks ago on the last drive I took to the area.

You leave Whittlesea and for a couple of kilometres you still see untouched road.  Then you cross one particular hill and then the wrecked trees start.

You see the blackened trees on the hills underneath the new foliage.

However, on the last trip there a few weeks ago, I saw the rebuilding.  New houses popping up on places that were flattened or empty back in July.

My favorite thing this last visit to Kinglake was seeing one impromptu sign that read:  "Welcome to Kinglake...the town that STILL refuses to die."

I especially pointed that out to the nine-year-old...explaining to him that no matter what disaster there is in life, the most important thing is to bounce back from it.

Next weekend, I want to visit both Flowerdale and Kinglake on the anniversary of Black Saturday.  As all of us in Victoria remember the lifes lost.

One year later, let's hope we've learned something.