A couple's long-awaited wedding day was transformed into a mission of community support as devastating bushfires forced them to postpone their nuptials and instead aid emergency relief efforts.
‘Another Week’s All Right’: A Wedding Deferred
Lana Wolstencroft and Todd Byrnes, high school sweethearts from Sawmill, should have been celebrating their marriage this Saturday at the Kevington Hotel on the banks of the Goulburn River. Instead, they found themselves at the Mansfield showgrounds, watching a smoke haze lift after a heatwave saw temperatures hit 46C on Friday.
"The fire just kept developing," Wolstencroft explained. With about 120 guests planned, including family who had travelled from Cairns, the couple made the difficult decision to call off the celebration at 6pm on Friday. "It was not worth the risk of all our friends and family," she said. After 22 years together, Todd Byrnes offered a resilient perspective: "Another week’s all right."
From Celebration to Community Support
Rather than dancing into the night, the pair spent their wedding day turning flowers into bouquets for Country Fire Authority (CFA) stations and boxing up surplus wedding food for relief centres. Their disappointment was tempered by the scale of the disaster surrounding them.
"So many are way worse off than us," Wolstencroft stated. More than 100 buildings have been reported destroyed and over 300,000 hectares burned across the state. The couple spoke of friends evacuated from nearby towns, unsure if their properties still stood, and a woman at the shelter who had lost everything in Bonnie Doon.
A State on Edge: Loss and Anxiety
The fires, which authorities warn could burn for weeks, have left a trail of destruction and anxious uncertainty. At the Mansfield recovery centre, evacuees slept in cars or on camping mattresses. Many face an agonising wait to discover the fate of their homes.
CFA volunteer Lisa Reynolds experienced the fire's cruel duality firsthand. While her husband managed to save their main house near Longwood—where the bushfire of greatest concern started—they lost another house on their property, a shed, and a car. "I feel really guilty that our main house is still there," she said through tears, after informing friends their home was gone.
Reynolds described heartbreaking scenes of wildlife casualties, including kangaroos caught in power lines and birds overcome by smoke. The damage is so extensive that many residents are learning of their losses through neighbours or patchy text messages, as phone reception remains unreliable.
Long Road to Recovery
Despite slightly cooler conditions on Saturday, CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan warned that fires continue to rage and a total fire ban remains for Victoria. "Conditions have eased, but we have a long way to go to get the current fire situation under control," he said.
For Wolstencroft and Byrnes, their postponed wedding is a minor setback in a much larger tragedy. Their story underscores the community spirit emerging from the ashes, as personal plans are set aside to support neighbours and emergency services facing a prolonged and devastating crisis.
