'Exhausting, scary and daunting' are the words Eungella resident Shane Robinson uses to describe the bushfires that ravaged his town in late 2018.
Pristine rainforest was reduced to blackened stumps and ash around the mountaintop town west of Mackay.
"I was out at work so by the time I got [to Eungella] I couldn't get home," Mr Robinson said.
"My wife was up there, luckily my kids were at my parent's place, but it's pretty scary not being able to get home."
Eungella residents have started work on a series of community art projects designed to help them recover by learning the centuries-old trade of blacksmithing.
Their goal is to build their own forges, a type of blacksmithing hearth, to be able to continue practicing the trade.
"It'll be a good way to meet more of the locals up there," Mr Robinson said.
Wanda Bennett from the Central Queensland Regional Arts Support Network (CQ-RASN), who has helped to coordinate the project, said it was designed to give residents long-term facilities.
"Sometimes we do these art projects … [to] learn new skills, and it's great, but you don't have the tools or facilities to keep putting those newly-learned skills into practice," Ms Bennett said.
"Hopefully [we will] have a new generation of blacksmiths and forgers happening up in our Eungella region.
"[It is] a positive use of fire, to make something positive out of what had been really damaging up there."
The town received a total of $51,000 in funding, from the State Government, Mackay Regional Council Regional Arts Development Fund and CQ-RASN, to go towards the establishment and fitout of a Men's Shed in Eungella, a printed publication and short documentary about the fires.
Why blacksmithing?
Residents saw blacksmithing as a way to foster opportunities to collaborate on projects and run ongoing workshops.
The forges will be housed at the local Men's Shed to help breathe new life into an old craft, promote social interaction and turn fire into a positive outlet.
Noel 'Gilesy' Giles has been helping the residents build the forges from his work shed in Balnagowan, in the nearby Pioneer Valley.
"To do workshops we need the forges — it's the first thing we need," he said.
"There's a lot of people around Mackay that are still interested in [blacksmithing]."
Mr Robinson and about a dozen other residents have been involved so far.
"I'd love to learn something you don't see getting done too often these days," he said.
"I know a handful of blokes up there but there are a lot more up there to meet.
"Just mingle and get to know some tricks that they might have to pass on to me.
"With young people moving up there and the older people moving away, if we can have a focus point to get people there and mingle … it'd be good."
