DON MATHIAS

There was a huge amount of liquefaction, but we were really lucky! If people can think back to that September day, it was a beautiful day. It turned into a beautiful day, and we had friends come from all over who brought shovels and wheelbarrows and got stuck into it. After four or five days, we had most of it gone. We must have barrowed out 120 metres of liquefaction–biggest pile in the street. Strangely, with all this horrendous damage around you, it gave you a sense of regaining some control over your life. Actually, we were about to put some signs on it for a BMX track when the Council came and took it away.

After that, after September, there were discussions about zonings, A, B and C. They were due to be releasing them at the end of February sometime, but of course, all that became redundant on the 22nd when the terror started. One of those days when nobody will ever forget where they were. I was busy in my workshop down in Sydenham when it went off. Just unbelievable–the horrendous noise. I have mezzanine floors that surround my workshop and stuff just rained down out of the roof. I had machinery jumping across the floor and one door to get out. I did this circuit around my machines, ducking and dodging and headed out into the alleyway. As I went to go through the door, the building moved sideways and I ran into the end of the handrail of the stairs. Fortunately, I don’t leave sharp edges on things, but I still managed to bury it so far into my shoulder that it totally dropped me.  By the time I got myself up and staggered out it was just madness in the car park. There were cars sliding backwards and forwards knocking into each other and power poles wiggling and the noise was just like… well, it was crazy.

Information got out pretty quickly. I heard that the CTV Building had collapsed and there were some serious problems; this from one of the panel beaters next door who had just driven in. Hell, you knew the city had been hit hard because all around was just buggered.  I started walking then and after a little while I could see the fire in the CTV Building.  Smoke all over, rising above the damage that seemed to be everywhere and so now I’m starting to think, what are we going to find at home; how bad is it going to be? Yeah, time to find the family. Time to round them up.