All weekend, I have heard the phrase “the most traumatic week in Victorian history”. At least the most traumatic during the pandemic. The newsreaders roll off their ages, males in their 90s, females in their 80s – like their age and gender matter. Victorians have lost their lives – that’s all there is to it, right?

But then I think, 80s and 90s… these are the children of the Great Depression. They followed their parents and queued for hours for food stamps and morsels of bread and milk. In their 20s, they laid down their tools and stood up for country during WWII. They saw Australia enter the United Nations and go on to host Olympics and Commonwealth Games. They lived through the Nuclear Crisis, superstorms, and endless droughts.

They faced the fires: Black Friday, Black Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Black Saturday and last summer, where fires raged across every state and territory in Australia.

Essentially, they were Victorians who survived a lot of Australia’s darkest days..

I think we should pay homage to that.

They survived, so we could live.

So, I say thank you and farewell.