I went to Melbourne on the train yesterday – well, by train as far as Gisborne, where we all had to troop off and catch buses in to Southern Cross. The bus trip enabled us to see where the weekend’s fires had been. Right along the freeway, close to homes, jumping roads. The train was back in service for the trip home; that journey showed that the grass-fire had roared right up to Riddell’s Creek station. The paddocks were blackened, still smouldering; everything seemed very still and the acrid smoke smell infiltrated the train. Tonight, too, the air here is full of bushfire smell.