On the road to recovery

By Monique Ebrington
A YEAR ago Healesville and Chum Creek residents lost an iconic member of their communities to the Black Saturday fires.
While Chum Creek resident Russell Clements’s cream 1953 53/215 FX Holden didn’t come up on any official bushfire toll, the community still lamented the loss of The Gap Mobile.
While the car hasn’t been replaced, yet, Russell and his wife Faye are certainly on the road to recovery.
On 7 February 2009 the pair were visiting friends in Badger Creek when they got a call from their son saying he could see fire from his house down the road, and he was leaving.
Russell tried to get back home but with fire on either side of the road and drivers flashing their car lights to turn around, he turned back.
On return, once the fire front had gone through, the couple quickly realised that while they didn’t lose their home many trees on the property were burnt and their caravan, work shed, family car, two FX Holden Utes and The Gap Mobile were destroyed.
Russell said The Gap Mobile, named after the number plates, had a great sentimental value to his family and the community.
He said he would drive the car from his home in Chum Creek to Healesville High School where he worked as a teacher for more than 30 years.
“I’ve had the car since I started university in 1966. I courted my wife in that car. It was more than a car, it’s a part of my family’s history,” Russell said.
He said after the fires many people would stop him in the street to ask if the car had survived the fires.
While Russell was quick to reorder his number plates, the Monday after the Black Saturday fires, the recovery process took months longer.
While a lot of work has been done to the property Russell said Black Saturday still feels like it was “bloody yesterday”.
“We’ve been busy the whole time rectifying the damages,” he said.
Russell said the pair never felt isolated or neglected during their recovery process and were not victims of the fires.
“I don’t like the term victim,” he said.
“We’re not victims – we are survivors.”
Faye Clements said one of the hardest parts of their recovery process was learning to accept things from other people.
“It was hard being on the receiving end of people giving things, even though we needed them,” Faye said.
“I think no matter what situation people were in, they were really resistant to accept things.
“We realised, eventually, that they were being offered in good faith and really should be taken that way.”
Russell said he was touched that many residents, from the Yarra Valley and as far away as Shepparton, to offer the couple car parts.
A year on and the original Gap Mobile is sitting at the bottom of their property and its replacement is in Russell’s new work shed.
Russell said his sons Rion, Ebon and Casey are now helping him restore another 1953 53/215 FX Holden to mirror the car they grew up with.
“When we got the car (to restore) I had the best night’s sleep in months,” he said.
“I don’t get too emotional about it any more.
“I think when we have the new car completed we’ll move on.”
He said while a lot of the original Holden is unsalvageable the boys will hopefully transplant a part of the original Gap Mobile into its replacement.
“We pulled out a wheel brace from the burnt out shed and tried to get a nut off one of the wheels,” he said.
“The brace just twisted like a piece of liquorice.
“The fire has made the metal of the old car really weak, but we’ll take one part of the original car – the stone guard.”
The local paint store also became involved in the restoration process, having to create a colour cream to replicate the Gap Mobiles original paint job – they named it Russell Cream.
While Russell and his sons haven’t put a finish date on the restoration, Faye said its completion will mean a lot to the family.
“It will be a great day when Russell drives it out all done up,” she said.
“It will be full circle then.”