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rebuilding after bushfire at Wheoh in the Warrumbungles

Wheoh - rebuilding

memorypainting
Wheoh stories over 40 years repainted - original version burnt in 2013 bushfire memory painting
Wheoh is one of the territorial calls of the ever-vigilant currawong; an eponymous energy flowing through the remote Warrumbungle mountains in Australia's north-western N.S.W.

Most recent video: Easter gatheriing (3:25 mins) April 2025

On Sunday, 12th January 2013, a bushfire (named Wambelong) escaped from the Warrumbungle National Park. It swept through Wheoh, killing wildlife, burning the canopy, and the 38 year old hand-made house built on a small sandstone rise among scribbly gums (E. rossii). The event is most eloquently expressed by my daughter, Bonnie, In Memoriam (15th January 2013) and The Lonely Bones (19th January 2013).

Our family, as well as ocassional visitors, were accustomed to recording their observations in hand-written journals (dating back to 1975). The volume covering the years 2011-2013 was lost in the fire as well as a memory painting (repainted above). In July 2013, the process of rebuilding began. This, more fire-proof, publicly accessible repository, consists of an ongoing series of 3 minute 25 second videos (with occasional written posts) in an attempt to capture the resilience of a fire ecology. It is intended to delight anyone attracted to the serenity of reclusion, and the process of making things out of what comes to hand. If there is a guiding principle: it is a sense of gratitude that nothing lasts, is finished, or is perfect.

Time passes. For me Wheoh continues to be a place of enchantment. Thoughts on my own sense of belonging are here: In Place and also in The Story of the Stone. Global Warming is changing the landscape. In 2019, drought records were broken with a mere 167.6 mm annual rainfall (average 600 mm). See 134 years of data 1886-2020.

On the 12th January 2013, we were burnt out by a bushfire and my daughter, Bonnie, wrote In Memoriam and The Lonely Bones. Here you will find an ongoing series of 3 minute 25 second videos (occasional written posts) about the rebuilding process...

Twelve years of 3 minute rebuilding videos

  1. Easter gatheriing (3:25 mins) April 2025
  2. Blue sky (3:25 mins) November 2024
  3. Out of the ground (3:25 mins) July 2024
  4. Pottering (3:25 mins) May 2024
  5. A mountain shrine (3:25 mins) November 2023
  6. Ash (3:25 mins) August 2023
  7. Highlanders (3:25 mins) April 2023
  8. Consolidation (3:25 mins) March 2023
  9. Shedding (3:25 mins) February 2023
  10. A shed of one's own #4 (3:25 mins) December 2022
  11. A shed of one's own #3 (3:25 mins) October 2022
  12. A shed of one's own #2 (3:25 mins) September 2022
  13. A shed of one's own (3:25 mins) July 2022
  14. Steps (3:25 mins) April 2022
  15. Visits (3:25 mins) November - December 2021
  16. Space in place (3:25 mins) August 2021
  17. Ideas (3:25 mins) July 2021
  18. Rain and rats (3:25 mins) March 2021
  19. Vale Peter Thompson (3:25 mins) December 2020
  20. Metal work (3:25 mins) June 2020
  21. Self-isolating (3:25 mins) March 2020
  22. Jack's ironbark bed (3:25 mins) December 2019
  23. Framing up a making place (3:25 mins) September 2019
  24. Sights and sounds (3:25 mins) July 2019
  25. Pouring a slab (3:25 mins) May 2019
  26. Stainless tank with Jim and Tao (3:25 mins) March 2019
  27. Falling aquifers and tanks (3:25 mins) December 2018
  28. Drought - water for wildlife (3:25 mins) September 2018
  29. Bed with kurrajong coffee (3:25 mins) May 2018
  30. Hopes & dreams (3:25 mins) January 2018
  31. Walls and fences (3:25 mins) November 2017
  32. Track making (3:25 mins) August 2017
  33. Walling and painting (3:25 mins) May 2017
  34. Termites and bookshelves (3:25 mins) April 2017
  35. Doors and drawers (3:25 mins) March 2017
  36. Rain, mist and a day bed (3:25 mins) September 2016
  37. Composting toilet (3:25 mins) April 2016
  38. Bookshelves and columns (3:25 mins) February 2016
  39. Spring tank and steps (3:25 mins) August 2015
  40. House Warming (3:25 mins) May 2015
  41. Family Easter (3:25 mins) April 2015
  42. Mixing bowl basin (3:25 mins) March 2015
  43. Water tank (3:23 mins) 4th February 2015
  44. Ends and edges (3:25 mins) 27th December 2014
  45. Verandah (3:23 mins) 30th September 2014
  46. Timor Valley community declares itself Gasfield Free (3:36 mins) 17th September 2014
  47. How to make a wood-fired oven with a hot water system (collated guide) (3:25 mins) 5th August 2014
  48. Shelter before snow (3:24 mins) 29th July 2014
  49. Wallaroos released into the Warrumbungle wilds (3:26 mins) 18th June 2014
  50. Windows and doors (3:25 mins) 30th May 2014
  51. Father and son (3:26 mins) 30th April 2014
  52. Workshop-studio (3:25 mins) 30th March 2014
  53. Confederacy of birds (3:25 mins) 13th February 2014
  54. Drought and heat (3:25 mins) 30th January 2014
  55. Oven warming (3:25 mins) 15th December 2013
  56. Oven dome (3:27 mins) 18th November 2013
  57. Oven base (3:25 mins) November 2013
  58. Stone wall (3:25 mins) October 2013
  59. Spring resilience (3:20 mins) September 2013
  60. Settling in (3:25 mins) August 2013
  61. Arriving (3:21 mins) August 2013
  62. Never take a tap for granted (3:16 mins) April 2013
  63. Burnt out by bush fire (3:25 mins) January 2013
  64. Wheoh dawn before the fire (3:24 mins) November 2012
  65. Replacing the top casement window (3:51 mins) April 2012

Links to written pieces

  1. Bushfire-ravaged communities take future into own hands - 28th January 2020 [published in Independent Australia (IA)]
  2. In Place 21st September 2018 [published in Dark Sky Dreamings ed. Merrill Findlay 2019]
  3. How Barnaby Joyce contaminates my drinking water - 12th February 2018 [published in Independent Australia (IA)]
  4. Anniversary 12 months - 12th January 2014
  5. oven base (26th September - 8th November 2013)
  6. workshop (6th - 26th September 2013)
  7. level (27th August 2013 - 6th September 2013)
  8. mail box (22th - 27th August 2013)
  9. shelter and stillness (12th - 22nd August 2013)
  10. arriving (5th - 12th August 2013)
(CC) reserved by Simon Pockley [comments welcome] simonpockley@gmail.com (CC) simonpockley@gmail.com