When we were in Melbourne over Christmas, Ishani and I went to Marysville for a couple of days. We wanted to get out of the city for a little, and spend a little time in the bush and in a pretty country town. It was very pleasant there, especially staying at “Rendezvous Cottages”:http://www.rendezvouscottages.com.au/, which was incredibly pretty. It was especially nice to see so many birds flying around happily – not least because they were so well fed by the hosts at Rendezvous.

And now it is, as far as we can tell, “all gone”:http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485378.htm. There are a handful of buildings, at best, standing in the town of Marysville. On the main street (which I think doesn’t quite include Rendezvous, though the terminology is ambiguous) apparently the only building standing is, of all things, the bakery. At least 12 people, in a very small town, have died.

There’s very little we can do from a distance to help, but there are several ways to contribute financially to the immediate aid, and to reconstruction. The “Australian Red Cross”:http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485378.htm seems to be the primary donation source. But you might also want to support “Wildlife Victoria”:http://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/cms/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=43, which is looking after a lot of displaced and distressed animals. “John Quiggin”:http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2009/02/10/fire-disaster-appeal/ is running one of his many successful blog-based fundraising appeals, and you can donate through that if you want to help show how much blog readers help out in times of need.