Thankfully the lights turn on, marking the first time since late 2019 that there has been electricity on the property.

For Mick, it means being one step closer to finally moving back home.

“Nearly there,” he says, visibly relieved.

“Just a few more things to sort out at this stage, there's just no hurry. It happens when it happens and I'd sooner it happened that way and be finished and done than move in prematurely.”

In late December 2019, after several sleepless nights tracking the erratically moving bushfires, Mick and his father Maurice fled their farm, seeking shelter in the nearby township of Buchan some 20 kilometers away.

Most structures on the property, including the home and shed, were lost to the Black Summer bushfires.

“Just devastation. Everything was black… We had the insurance assessor come out and I think by the time we got back into Buchan, the poor guy was in tears. It was horrendous.”

It was during this period that Mick came into contact with Flying Doctor Wellbeing.

“There it is,” Royal Flying Doctor Service Bushfire Recovery Mental Health Clinician Robyn Smith says pointing out the weatherboard rebuild.  

Robyn has come to tour Mick’s house after their routine ‘cuppa’ at the Buchan roadhouse.

While the two often meet, this is actually the first time Robyn has set foot on Mick’s property after a years long connection hearing about it.

“I started coming out to Buchan in the lead up to the first anniversary. And that's when Mick reached out and said, ‘I thought I was travelling okay, but coming up to the first anniversary, I’m not’. Some of it he was just overwhelmed by the practicalities of trying to get permits and moving the house and things. But there was also that layer underneath the practicalities, about the loss and the change and what that meant for him.”

RFDS Victoria launched its dedicated Bushfire Recovery Counselling and Support service to provide people affected by the fires in East Gippsland access to locally based clinical mental health and wellbeing support. This service is delivered in partnership with Relationships Australia Victoria (RAV) with funding from the Gippsland Primary Heath Network (Gippsland PHN), and more recently State of Victoria through Emergency Recovery Victoria, facilitated by East Gippsland Shire Council.

Since then, Mick has developed a strong connection to Flying Doctor Wellbeing, first through clinician Campbell and later, Robyn. He says the work of Flying Doctor has sustained him through a difficult few years, going beyond the impact of the fire.

“Particularly the last time when I was in hospital for well over a month. Not in a good way and [they] really helped me get through that," says Mick.

“Throughout those issues and the hospitalisation there’s been support all the way through, which has been wonderful. I'm very, very, very grateful.

“Otherwise... I don’t think I would’ve made it to be honest.”

“[Robyn shared] little tools that I could use to basically almost distract myself from the thoughts that were going on and then which gives you the time to just stop and then go maybe it's not so bad, we can work through that one.”

“This is the thing I’m hanging out for,” exclaims Mick gesturing Robyn to a small room towards the back of the home. It’s a white room anchored by a large window looking out onto the property. Inside, it is filled with cords, synthesizers, electric keyboards and various instruments, half unboxed.

This is Mick’s long awaited music studio.

“It's somewhere where I can go, it's my little space. I'm quite happy in that space, making those sounds,” says Mick.  

“Really, really therapeutic.”

In many ways music has become an important part of Mick’s journey post-fire but it wasn’t a relationship that came easily in the initial weeks and months after the horrific event.

“He still had a flute but he hadn't played it since the fires,” reveals Robyn.

“So, I sent him home with homework, which is to play some music. And he came back and he said, ‘I lost track at the time, Robyn. I think I played for about six hours’.”

And just like that, a lifelong passion edged its way back into Mick’s life… one note at a time, with the support of Robyn.

“When I've been stressed, I go right, that's it, stop. Let’s go turn everything on and make some noise,” says Mick.

More recently, Robyn has been encouraging Mick to channel his musical flair as a way to reconnect with his home ahead of the move and explore the complex feelings around what had happened and what was next.

“The other bit of work,” Robyn explains, “is really playing around with the idea of what a bushfire symphony would sound like to him, what the story of the fires - and his story - would sound like.”

It’s a brief Mick had been working hard on and earlier, while catching up in town, he took the opportunity to debut a sample to Robyn for the first time.  

Now, standing together at Mick’s near-ready to move in home, it was time for an encore.  

An ethereal synth sound erupts from the portable speaker connected to Mick’s phone as his acoustic Bushfire Symphony plays out into the serene quiet that only comes when deep in the bush.

The composition is inspired by the land and pays homage to the once pristine, vibrant green forest that existed before the bushfires. As the sound carries into the surrounding hills, each note, like a brushstroke, paints a wistful picture of Mick’s memory of how things were.

It's a powerful experience for both.

“This is the first time I've been out here, but I could see it, and I could see it how it was before the fires from that piece of music,” Robyn, a Gippsland local herself, says, touched by the experience.

“Sometimes we don't need words to understand.”

Three years on from the fires and Mick says the moving in process will be “fairly soon”. There’s a feeling of hope as he shows Robyn around the near fully furnished house.

“Feels like home, which it is. And I'll be very, very glad to move in.”

Joining Mick in the move is his energetic 18-week-old golden retriever puppy, a new addition he concedes has provided companionship and joy in equal measures.

“I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm nearly there,” he says.

However, among the anticipation, there is a bittersweet undercurrent to the upcoming move. Mick’s father Maurice won’t be there to celebrate the milestone.

“My father… never made it to come and stay here which was a real shame. He’d been here and seen all the building that we’d been doing. But he never got the opportunity to come and stay. So that’s a bit sad.”

As for the music, while the writing block may be long gone, Mick jokes he still tends to get stuck on specific chord patterns but, “will never get over that one”.

To find out more about the Flying Doctor Bushfire Recovery Counselling and Support, visit our website.

Photography and writing by Maddison Langley, RFDS Victoria Content Advisor