Drought, bushfires, COVID: East Gippsland reflects on a year of unprecedented challenges

It has been 12 months since a lightning strike sparked the first flames of a catastrophic summer of fires across drought-affected East Gippsland.

With two deaths, hundreds of homes lost, millions of animals killed, and 1.2 million hectares destroyed, a blanket of thick smoke would continue to choke local businesses and the tourism industry well into February 2020.

But just as communities were regrouping in March, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought restrictions…