Hello everyone. I'm James aka "contrabourdon" on Steem. Fellow Aussie @jackmiller reached out to me with his crypto community initiative to help support those affected in Australia due to the bushfires decimating our country. @leysa and I live on the border of NSW and Victoria in the Border town of Albury/Wodonga. For reference, here are two maps from the respective fire authority websites (CFA/RFS) showing our location.
South of the Border
North of the Border
Things appear to be less severe at the moment due to milder conditions but you can see the devastation that has reaped our surrounding areas. The black areas are already burnt and the icons indicate the active fires still going. Whilst there were a few close fires to us, none have directly impacted our twin city. However, this is not to say that we have not experienced any hardship. The smoke is phenomenally bad—the kids have been saying that outside has "lost its colours". It has been quite some time since we have seen clear blue skies. It's a health hazard to be outside and all the stores have sold out of P2 masks (these are the type that filter out smoke). There are people out there wearing surgical masks, but sadly, these will not help at all. Our township has become an area of respite from the bushfires in our surrounding areas and this has caused chaos on our roads and panic buying in stores. It's amazing to realise that society can really crumble when essential and basic human needs are scarce.
Being in between fires has made us realise that anything, literally anything, can burn (unless you live in an area that is made entirely of concrete...). Our house is surrounded by beautiful hills lined with trees and it's very common to see kangaroos grazing and jumping around our neighbourhood at dusk. Living in a semi-rural suburb means that it's quiet but still close to amenities. Lucky for us, the fire station is just around the corner too! Our local roads have been busy of late due to the influx of donations from our community. If there is one positive thing about these bushfires, it's the coming together as a community to help one another. And this @bushfires initiative is just another way to help, on an international crypto scale. I invite you to keep up-to-date with this blog and support in any way you can—every little bit helps.
Yours truly,
@contrabourdon
Congratulations @bushfires! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
@untersatz curate 2
The @untersatz witness and manual curation is under the guidance of @contrabourdon and @organduo.
@alliedforces curate 2
Keep up the great work and join us in The Castle sometime!
The #spreadlovenotwar curation campaign is under the guidance of witnesses @enginewitty and @untersatz.
A free manual !trendovoter gift from @rycharde via MAPR for your participation in #PYPT.
Enjoy!
Congratulations @accelerator, 25.1% upvote has been shared with your successful call on the post that shared by @bushfires!
Support @trendotoken projects by delegating : 100SP , 200SP , 500SP , 1000SP , 2000SP