After we'd been talking for a while the man told us how his water tank had been melted:
the fire had come down the ridge, he saw a Lyrebird running through his farm, but then he had to go inside because he couldnt breathe the air was thick with smoke, he had to push through.
'...the tank was only a quarter full with water, so it melted from the top down to where the water was.'
This all comes back, maybe we should never have evolved. the air was rich with the stench of animals caught by the flames for a month after. The man had not seen butterflies or birds for a long time, but after some rain they appeared on the wind one morning, coming to reclaim their country bend down the new flowers as they clung to them.