The risks and rewards of living in the bush

We live on Melbourne’s urban fringe. Upwey. The old signs coming up the mountain near us used to say “Welcome to the Blue Dandenongs”. We are first home buyers who, having moved to Melbourne almost 7 years ago, having lived in various city and urban areas in NSW and VIC, felt we had discovered a eucalyptus el dorado when we happened upon the area in real estate pages.

It’s leafy and almost semi-rural and certainly low density urban. We have a tree in our backyard that is about 10 storeys high and would take three of my arm spans to hug … if I was so inclined.

We love it here. People are friendly and down to earth, and public transport and other services are at our backdoor; just a short walk through our back gate to the park and schools. The ‘villages’ up here: Upwey, Tecoma, Belgrave, Sassafras, Monbulk, Kallista and Olinda have a bit of everything that we like and need and we are very happy here, as are our two dogs and two cats, chooks and toddler daughter (I think I can speak for her though she knows nothing else!).

And it’s so affordable to live here. Even taking into account a possible commute into the city on the train, owning your own home in this area is within reach of most families’ budget.

Like anyone who’s passionate about where we live we can’t believe everyone doesn’t want to live here.

We live on a sloping 1300m2 bush block and guests commonly refer to our house as the treehouse. And unlike our friends in the middle and inner suburbs of Melbourne, we feel a connection to the bush that both astounds with its beauty and confounds with its awesome power.

More often though, it’s not nearly as dramatic: we get home from the bustle of work and the city, and step onto the deck and feel a slow peace come back into our lives: the squawk of cockatoos, the laughter of kookaburras and king parrots sitting on our deck railing waiting for some seed. The majesty of the trees all around us. Like I said we love it.

Yet the recent bushfires here in Victoria are a stark reminder that we live in a wildfire zone. Fire is the worst risk we face. Although we are lucky enough to have a fire refuge in the park behind our home, we did get a wake-up call with a recent small fire near us the day that Victoria burned (Feb 7 2009).

The other threat is trees falling on our house or property. Yeah I know what you’re thinking. “Not another urban dweller who moves to the fringes only to want all the beautiful trees around her cleared because she’s paranoid about them falling on her”. That’s not quite it.

We bought this place because we love the trees, but we were a bit green. ‘Scuse the pun. Yeah we are a bit environmentally aware but I actually mean naïve! It was only when an arborist report of a fungal body compromising the same said huge 10 storey high mountain grey in our backyard that we began to realise the risks you face in this place. The tree is beautifully dangerous: it “could completely fail” according to an arborist. If it fails, it will most likely fall on our house, and if that happens our one year old daughter’s bedroom will be the first port of call.

On windy nights, it is the possibility of this tree crashing through our house and the threat of bushfires, that keeps me awake. And it’s the thought that I might not be able to protect my daughter that really does my head in.

How do you ever really plan for either awful possibility? We have unfortunately had to apply to our Council through all the usual avenues to have the tree removed, costing us a small fortune in the process. And fingers crossed the Council approves it (no small feat I hear from locals who think the Yarra Ranges Council is more likely to protect native trees than people), so that we can just worry about the threat of bushfires. Speaking of which, our fire plan is a lot more water tight now after our recent revision. Hopefully we won’t have to put it to the test soon.

So to those of you who recently voted that less building should be allowed in bush areas in The Age’s polling pages, I get where you’re coming from. At the same time, if you don’t live in the bush yourself, you don’t quite get it.