Under a towering canopy of eucalyptus trees, families splash in the Yarra River. Others meditate in the shade, and some plunge into the cool, calm water to be baptised.
The bushland around Millgrove is a sanctuary for many in the rural Victorian community, but a sense of dread lingers in the air.
“We live in one of the most bushfire-prone areas in Australia,” local Maureen Halit told AAP.
“I’ve lived through three fires. I heard my family talk of the 1939 fires and what they did to survive; it impacts your mental health, and it can ruin your life.”
So Halit got to work. The 75-year-old president of the Millgrove Community Action Group last week led volunteers in clearing exits through the bush and removing fire fuels like bark, leaves and noxious weeds.
“The big concern out here is so many people walk through the bush to cool off in summer,” she said. “If that were to go up, we would lose so many lives.
“Now it’s just so much safer. It’s a comforting thought.”
The three-day project is one of several Australian Resilience Corps musters to be held in disaster-prone areas as regional communities recover from floods and prepare for what could be a dangerous summer bushfire season.
The corps was founded by the philanthropic Minderoo Foundation after Black Summer to deploy volunteers to high-risk regions before disaster strikes.
Matthew Chesnais, head of the foundation’s Resilient Communities arm, said there was much more to musters like that in Millgrove than just removing fire risks.
“If you listen to the stories from the community, some of whom have been there for four or five generations, that’s their meeting place,” Chesnais said.
“In the long term, you need a connected and cohesive community to build preparedness. Otherwise, you’ve just got a lot of individuals trying to go at it alone.
“That’s never going to yield results when you’re thinking about the challenges of climate change.”
The foundation hopes to have a national network of 125,000 volunteers by 2025 through partnering with corporations and universities that will pay employees for days out of the office to do community work.
Musters will be held in Gympie, Queensland and the NSW Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands in May, while volunteers will work in parts of Western Australia and South Australia through June and July.
Halit said the work on the banks of the Yarra had only just begun.
“It’s going to be a lifetime job,” she said.
“It’s a very special place for our community, and now it will be a safe place.”
