A photographer from Bristol has lost his home in Australia to the fires roaring through New South Wales, with precious photographs of Paul McCartney and Queen Elizabeth among the treasures destroyed.
Bristol City supporter David Wallace, 74, forged a successful career as a photographer after emigrating in his 20s, following a five-year spell at the Bristol Post.
But Mr Wallace says the house he lived in with his partner Leah Milston has been wrecked, along with Ms Milston’s ground-floor shop.
The grandfather told Bristol Live: “Our two-storey house had been reduced to almost nothing… It was like an atom bomb being dropped on us.”
Bushfires have been ripping through Australia since September, but they have intensified in the past week or so, killing at least 24 people in New South Wales at the time of writing (January 6, 2020) and forcing the evacuation of some towns.
Mr Wallace and his partner were instructed to leave their home in Mogo, around three hours south of Sydney, at 6am on New Year’s Eve.
That night they lodged with a kind stranger, based 10 minutes away, who also welcomed another dozen evacuees.
Mr Wallace recalled: “She said, ‘You’ve not got anywhere to go - we’ve got loads of beds in the house’. She fed and watered us and got out lots of bottles of wine.”
Meanwhile, a quick look outside was enough to estimate the likely scale of the damage being caused to trees, wildlife and houses just a short drive away.
Reflecting on the scenes, Mr Wallace said: “All around us was just this big red fire - it pretty well surrounded us completely.
“The sky was red and there was so much smoke. We could see great big flames shooting out. We knew straight away that our place would have gone.”
Mr Wallace’s assessment proved correct the following day, when he returned to the site of his house and found charred rubble.
“It wasn’t like anything we knew before,” said Mr Wallace, whose partner ran a toy and book shop from the wooden building.
“We had lots and lots of books and we’d pick up the books and they’d turn to dust,” Mr Wallace said.
The father-of-two said that the destruction put in his mind pictures of Hiroshima after an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city during the Second World War.
“You see pictures of Hiroshima where everything was just left black and bare - it’s so eerie,” he said.
The house was built up to 40 years ago, said Mr Wallace, with an estimated value of around £250,000.
Mr Wallace said Ms Milston had lived in the building for around 14 years and he joined her approximately eight years ago.
The items lost in the blaze included pictures Mr Wallace had taken of celebrities during his career as a magazine photographer.
Snaps of the Queen and the Rolling Stones were among those which perished, but Mr Wallace does still possess many photos as a result of storing digital copies.
His partner was less fortunate, though - she lost scores of cherished family heirlooms.
“Leah had collected loads of memorabilia of her family and loads of that is gone completely, which is so sad because she says now she doesn’t have anything to pass on to her children,” said Mr Wallace.
The couple are currently staying in Canberra, but plan to move to Sydney for a month or so until they decide where to live full-time, with the help of their home insurance.
Over the course of Mr Wallace’s working life, he met members of the Royal Family a number of times, as well as six Australian prime ministers.
During one memorable encounter with former Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Wallace said the Liberal Party leader generously offered to carry his heavy camera bag for him.
Summing up his view of his adopted country, Mr Wallace said: “I love the freedom of Australia. It was a good place to ‘get on’. It was so free and easy.”
Despite living on the other side of the world, however, Mr Wallace still tries to follow the results of Bristol City Football Club, whose stadium he grew up beside.
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