This is worth a look through. Thanks to Sophie Cunningham for drawing my attention to this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/may/26/firestorm-bushfire-dunalley-holmes-family

It is a Guardian newspaper project that documents the journey, thus far of the family whose image was captured sheltering in the water at the jetty at Dunalley in Tasmania during the fires earlier in the year. It has some very poignant insights, although it does veer a little onto the “Australians are a practical, no nonsense lot” playing to a national stereotype. It seems to me to present a relatively simplistic view of recovery, summed up by the final image of the kids playing cricket on the beach. It’s why I like Then the wind changed as a great depiction of the recovery process.

It appears to give a message that, given the family have rebuilt after six months, that the recovery is done with. I wonder how the kids are doing at school, and relationships are faring. I wonder how they will be feeling on the first high fire danger day of the coming summer.

Interestingly, looking at the credits, while they have talked to Bushfire specialists, it appears that they haven’t talked to recovery specialists. Rob Gordon, the clinical psychologist,  says that many people who rebuilt early after the Black Saturday Bushfire, many came to regret doing it too quickly.

Having said all that, I’m not that close to it. Maybe it is simple. Perhaps I tend to over complicate things.

It would be interesting to see if the Guardian team revisit the family in another six months or 12 months to see how they are tracking.

Still, it tells a story, and storytelling is very powerful.