General News
8 December, 2025
Artwork inspired by Little Desert bushfire
The Little Desert bushfires will be etched into the memories and minds of many, if not all, emergency services personnel and volunteers who battled the blaze in January this year, along with the community at large.
According to Dimboola Fire Brigade member Melinda Heatley, it was a vision she had ever only heard of in stories.
A lifelong Dimboola resident, she’d grown up hearing her grandparents talk about the 1981 fires but had never witnessed anything like it herself.
“It was very surreal," she recalled.
"It was the first time I’d truly felt we weren’t a match for Mother Nature."
Describing the fire as having an agenda of its own, Ms Heatley said all brigade members could do was asset protection and hold their position.
It was a scene that was a challenge to put into words, and so Ms Heatley opted to create the vision on canvas instead.
Ms Heatley said she is a believer in "it's better being on canvas than in your head", and in creating the artwork with her vision, she earned herself first prize at the Dimboola A & P Society Inc. Show.
"There’s only so much talking you can do before you need somewhere to put that visual memory, somewhere to record it," explained Ms Heatley.
The artwork consists of composite scenes from the fireground, rather than any individual moment in time.
"I wanted to acknowledge the wildlife we live alongside, because when it all went bad, everything was running,” she said.
“The kangaroos, the birds, everyone was trying to escape the same thing.
"It affected all of us, just in different ways.”
Carrying a lot of meaning in the painting is the golden shimmer through the crops, symbolising the prosperity of the Wimmera and how quickly it can be threatened.
“That’s our gold and it means everything out here,” Ms Heatley said.
"It’s our farms, our livelihoods.
"But it can be taken away in an instant.”
Ms Heatley said the artwork wasn't just about making a statement - it was about capturing what it was like to be there.
"All of us trying to manage something that was bigger than any one person," she explained.
While proud of her first-place achievement, Ms Heatley said the artwork has a larger purpose.
"What matters most is that the story has been recorded," she said.
Read More: Dimboola