Dimboola Fire Brigade member Melinda Heatley and her painting.
As the Little Desert bushfire reached its zenith on the evening of 27 January 2025, it cast a scene that Dimboola Fire Brigade member Melinda Heatley had only ever heard in stories.
A life-long Dimboola resident, she'd grown up hearing generations past talk about the 1981 fires but had never witnessed anything like it herself.
"It was very surreal. It was the first time I'd truly felt we weren't a match for Mother Nature," Melinda said.
As a long-time volunteer firefighter alongside her husband, Melinda is no stranger to emergencies.
"Other callouts have been urgent, but they still felt controllable," she said.
"This one had its own agenda. All we could do was asset protect and hold our ground."
A scene that was hard to put into words eventually found its way onto a canvas, a decision that would later earn her first prize at the Dimboola A & P Society Inc. Show.
She describes the painting as her way of giving those feelings a place to land.
"I'm a big believer that it's better on a canvas than in your head," she said.
"There's only so much talking you can do before you need somewhere to put that visual memory, somewhere to record it."
Rather than depict a single moment, she built a composite of scenes from the fireground.
"I wanted to acknowledge the wildlife we live alongside, because when it all went bad, everything was running," she said.
"The kangaroos, the birds, everyone was trying to escape the same thing. It affected all of us, just in different ways."
One detail carries particular meaning, the golden shimmer through the wheat crops, symbolising the prosperity of the Wimmera and how quickly it can be threatened.
"That's our gold and it means everything out here," she said.
"It's our farms, our livelihoods. But it can be taken away in an instant."
Threads of the community's shared experience also run through the work, the long days, the uncertainty, and the collective effort that carried everyone through.
"It wasn't about making a statement," she said.
"It was about capturing what it felt like to be there, all of us trying to manage something that was bigger than any one person."
"I wasn't really expecting to win.
"There are a lot of good painters around here. But I'm glad I entered.
"The award is secondary. What matters most is that the story has been recorded."
