Black Summer bushfire survivors on NSW Far South Coast rebuild 12 months on from disaster

For the past year, Liz Lacey has been living in a converted shipping container.

Her home was lost in the Black Summer bushfires that devastated the NSW Far South Coast, claiming seven lives, destroying 974 homes and burning 95 per cent of the region’s forests.

This week, one year since the New Year’s Eve bushfires tore through her 12-acre Quamma property, Ms Lacey is moving into her new kit home.

While feelings across the community remain raw, Ms Lacey says she’s moving forward.

“I decided on a kit home because it was easier for me as a woman on my own,” she said.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” she said, after the horror summer that almost claimed her own life.

‘The fire was almost on us’

It was a phone call from a neighbour…