WARBURTON resident Mikey Schama took refuge at the Lilydale Relief Centre last Tuesday 3 March.By Monique Ebrington
UPPER Yarra residents are returning to their homes, their lives and, in their own way, a sense of normality.
Warburton Water Wheel and Information Centre has been closed for around five days and closed early on countless occasions, due to the fire threat, since Black Saturday.
Information centre worker Rhonda Steller said all they wanted now, however, was for tourists to come back into the Yarra Valley.
“We’ve had next to no-one during the fire period. We’ve had to close early a lot of times because there is just nobody in town,” Mrs Steller said.
Mrs Steller said that day trippers were returning to Warburton with the centre recording 114 visitors on Saturday and 230 on Sunday of the Labour Day weekend.
“It has been up, after being absolutely quiet. It’s been busy compared to the last four weeks. People are wandering through the streets, the sun is shining and Warburton is starting to get back to normal,” she said.
Warburton Police Sergeant Paul Bell said it was back to business as usual after three weeks of community meetings and operating patrol cars out of Warburton 24 hours a day.
Sgt Bell said the station aimed to have a police member available to answer any concerns people might have.
While there were still road closures beyond Warburton, Sgt Bell said it was safe to come back for residents, businesses and tourists.
“It’s back to business for the traders. We want people to come back and support local businesses. Warburton’s a lovely place to visit,” Sgt Bell said.
Harmony Festival organiser Dhanesh Trimmer left his Warburton home on each day that was considered to be a threat.
While the festival will go on Mr Trimmer said that the back and forth because of fire threats set back his work on the festival and other artists.
“I felt quite displaced being away from town and from my office,” Mr Trimmer said.
“We had a few artists drop out of the festival because they weren’t able to prepare or rehearse properly.”
Mr Trimmer said he hoped his year’s festival would be used to bring people back together as a community.
“I think it’ll be quite a timely event. We hope it will be used to bring people together. Particularly after the disruption of people coming and going from town and each other,” he said.
