LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
Spring has come to Betoota as hazard reduction fires have brought a rare off-season hay fever to the town’s residents most in-tune to nature.
Hazard reduction burning is a land stewardship practice older than Australia where bushlands are strategically burnt to minimise the impact of uncontrollable fires in the subsequent summer.
However, for Betoota French Quarter resident and Black Summer survivor Myriad Kilby, the nasal clogging smell of the smoke in the air is just a bit too much, even if it is good for that environment she loves.
“Like shit, do we even have anything left to burn?” asked Kilby in between handfuls of saturated tissues.
“Didn’t a billion animals burn to death a few years ago? I hope they did, what the fuck did I donate to otherwise?”
MORE TO COME.
