Nestled between the natural splendour of the Blue Mountains and the rural New South Wales hub of Bathurst lies a small hamlet named Little Hartley.
Passing through, a city driver might miss the quaint village, but ask any child who’s made the trek over the mountains and they’ll tell you the highlight of their trip: the lolly shop flanked by yellow VW beetles.
The Lolly Bug has stood as a road trip institution since 2006, providing tens of thousands of day trip lovers and rural tourists travelling in both directions with coffee, a friendly chat, and the chance to browse their array of sweet treats.
The roadside confectionery shop has suffered through bushfires and Covid health emergencies, and the management had been looking forward to starting the new year afresh.
But less than a week into 2022, a lightning bolt set ablaze the roof of their pride and joy.
“There was a crown of lightning all around the valley, and when I saw all this smoke coming from the Lolly Bug, my heart sank,” says a Hartley Rural Fire Service volunteer, Christina Allen.
Before emergency services from Hartley, South Bowenfels, Mount Victoria and Lithgow could extinguish the blaze, it had gutted the heritage building, reducing mountains of confectionery to wads of molten sugar.
First on the scene was senior deputy John Wilkinson of Hartley RFS.
“When we got there it was really going,” he says. “Flames licking out of the doors, the windows, the roof. When we got inside, the ceiling started collapsing.
A volunteer advanced firefighter, Corey Gurney, says: “The more we put out, the more smoke there was – the lollies and plastic from the packaging made it really toxic.
“And we were short on crew because of the holidays.”
The fire was contained in less than an hour before a new complication arose – the building was insulated with what appeared to be asbestos.
“I knew when I saw the roof, and then the hazmat truck turned up – I knew if we didn’t get hosed down, we could be in trouble,” Wilkinson says.
The combined fire services were able to avoid a chemical disaster and finished structurally salvaging the store by 4am on Saturday.
The owner of the Lolly Bug, Sharon Tofler, got the call at 11.30pm on Friday night, a call no business owner ever expects to get: that their livelihood, the business their family have poured their souls into, was gone.
“The firefighters said lightning hit the tree next to the place and then the whirlybird on top of the roof,” Tofler says.
“Just pure disbelief. That’s what went through my head. How could this happen? We’re absolutely gutted.”
In less than two hours, the candy cornucopia that had stood at the centre of Hartley’s community was reduced to ashes. Even as the firefighters worked to subdue the flames, they knew that inside the old milk bar, nothing had survived.
“It’s an old building and there are no water mains here like there are in town,” the Lithgow RFS operational officer, Brett Taylor, told reporters.
The Lolly Bug’s owners prided themselves on their selection, boasting at least 1,500 varieties of English sweets, US candies and Dutch liquorice, sold alongside chocolate and soft drink from across the globe, as well as a range of local fudges, baked goods and succulent oddities.
“Every customer who walked through the door – young or old – would be surprised at the size of the shop and the range,” Tofler recounts with a smile. “I remember one person saying, ‘I think we’ve fallen down the rabbit hole!’”
Hundreds of heartfelt posts began to flow online on Saturday morning as word filtered out.
“My sons were there with friends a couple of days ago, absolutely loved it!” wrote a local business owner, Tarona Jones, of the Black Barn.
“It was probably the highlight of their holiday. Our teenager purchased a kilo bag of chocolate bananas!”
Now, where those goodies once lay on proud display, there remain only piles of sugary sludge and charred packaging.
“We are awed by the response from everyone, the support and encouragement to get back up has made it that little bit easier to handle,” Tofler says of the community’s response.
Roger Byrom is a freelance journalist from Oberon, NSW
