Join BookitisSave favorites, build lists, and follow creators.

Undefendable

Work detail

Bookitis Pick
Cover for Undefendable
U
Image source: Open Library
Sarah KynastonSulari Gentill2 editions

During Australia's catastrophic Black Summer bushfires, a little town in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains found itself in the path of a megafront. Between November 2019 and February 2020, shocking bushfires burnt 18.6 million hectares of land and forests in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. These megablazes killed 34 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and claimed three billion mammals, birds and reptiles pushing some to extinction as their habitats were annihilated. On January 2nd 2022, the township Batlow, population 1313, on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, was declared 'undefendable' and its citizens advised to flee. While most evacuated, many stayed to fight for their beloved community. And in the end, the undefendable town was saved by volunteers - by farmers, teachers, electricians, retirees, and boys barely out of high school. A great deal was lost, but much was saved, including Batlow's sense of itself. During and after the fires, the world's media descended upon Batlow. They told the story of the battle for the town, or the parts of it they saw. The townspeople didn't object to that, but later felt the need to tell their story in their own words; if for no other reason than to have a record for history before memories faded and legend and rumour expanded into the gaps. Undefendable is a collection of stories, poems, and photographs from the people of Batlow about those terrible days. Curated, by Sulari Gentill and Sarah Kynaston, to form a memoir of a town under fire, the stories and oral recollections have been only lightly edited to preserve the voice of each person and the community as a whole.

Overview

Shared work-level identity and catalog context.

2 credited authorsSearch language english

Bookitis keeps work pages focused on the shared book identity and the editions that actually belong to it. Unrelated books should not appear here as primary content.

Contributors

People credited with this work in the active catalog.

  • Sarah Kynaston

    Author profile in the active Bookitis catalog

    Open Author
  • Sulari Gentill

    Author profile in the active Bookitis catalog

    Open Author

Editions

Publication-specific versions linked to this work only.