The secrets Cate’s family kept to make it through the Black Summer bushfires in Mallacoota

To make it through the toughest night of their lives, Cate Tregellas and her family decided secrets had to be kept from each other.

I’m a mad keen gardener, and I’ve found you can grow just about anything in this corner of the country.

But as last year’s spring wore on, I started to get a creeping feeling that the months ahead were going to be different.

I knew by the way my garden was growing that it was going to be a very hot, very dry summer.