Not one, but two.

A common catchphrase heard in marketing campaigns promoting special sales.

Not associated with bushfires and the loss of houses.

Unfortunately that’s was the case for Susan Peterson, of Sarsfield. She lost her house and the home of her parents, on the same property, on the fateful December 30 evening. What remained was the shell of a man cave and strangely a wooden bench seat, but that was it – 11 acres and that was it.

The two houses: gone, destroyed. Along with it were boats, caravans and sheds. The pile of rubble is yet to be cleared.

Almost four months on, Susan, who has also lost income due to the coronavirus, wants the mess gone so she and her family can get on with their lives.

However, that process has been more difficult than anticipated - a similar case for many bushfire-affected local residents. Clean up contractor, Gro-con, has since confirmed with the State Government it will have all properties cleared by August.

“I was number 10 in the registration of my property, but that means nothing because they’re (Gro-con) cleaning up number 337,” Susan said.

“My place has been a headache from the start because they say the images don’t match up – they don’t understand there were two houses on my property.

“I said to Grocon they needed to come to my property specifically because it is a little bit different to most. They see a brick house destroyed and a shed and another shed, then they see a timber house destroyed and a shed and they think they are two different properties, they think it’s a mistake.

“I went and visited them in the office. I needed to put a face to the number, because I was just a number. You’d ring and you wouldn’t get an answer, so I had to go to the office.

“I walked in and they had someone sitting at the front desk. I said ‘there’s a lot of people in the same boat as me, but you guys need to be a little more transparent on what’s actually going on, just let me know what’s going on’.

“If I’m not going to be cleaned up until August, I just need to know.

“Some people have got homes, some don’t. I think there needs to be a bit of triage with it that people with nothing to live in are higher on the list.

“When you go up there and you ask questions you do get answers. I asked who’s next in line to be cleaned, I know for a fact there are some that have no intention to rebuild, yet I’m behind them on the list.

“I’ve got my property ready to go, a builder ready to go, the site assessed, I’m ready to rock and roll, I’m just stuck.

“You get roadblocks everywhere.”

Susan’s elderly parents lived in one of the houses on the property.

“I need to get mum and dad home. They want to go home, they are out there now cleaning the garden, it’s normal, it makes them feel better,” Susan said.

NAÏVE, BUT SAFE

Susan was determined to stay and protect her property on Monday, December 30.

She believed she was prepared, however was luckily forced out by her sons.

“I live on Duncan Road. We had the Eleven Mile fire over the back and Old Man Hill fire, which basically crossed on our property. The house next door lived, sitting on top of the hill surrounded by trees,” she said.

“I wasn’t leaving, I was going to stay, because we’d had fires come before.

“I did receive a phone call from friends working on the Ensay line on the Saturday night that said ‘we’re not going to stop it here, it’s going to come straight out the Eleven Mile and jump the flower farm and jump in your backyard - you should not be there’.

“All the Apps weren’t telling me that, the authorities weren’t telling me that, nothing was telling me that.

“I thought it was a bit dramatic, but I packed mum and dad up, because they couldn’t stay because they couldn’t really defend anything.

“I had my buckets, my mops, the sprinklers on. My sons Ryan and Jack said ‘you’re not staying’.

“I said ‘c’mon’, and they said ‘well we’re not helping you’. They said ‘you have to leave’.

Susan’s sons started to pack.

“They disconnected the gas bottles, Jack grabbed a picture of the wall. I said ‘what are you doing?’, he said ‘can you replace this?’, and I said ‘no’,” Susan said.

“He went to grab another one and I said ‘stop, you’re being ridiculous’.

That one photo is all she has left.

“So I’ve got one photo of the kids, that’s all I’ve got. I didn’t pack a bag, I didn’t pack a toilet bag,” she said.

“I was going home. I was leaving just to shut them up because they were kicking me out of the house, and I was going back the next day, but I never got back.”

A couple of days later Susan found out she had lost her homes.

“New Year’s Day I found out we’d been burnt out the night before. I also found out someone had looted dad’s shed after we evacuated – that almost made me angrier than the fire,” she said.

“We went back out a couple of days later. I needed to see my house. I’d already seen photos, but I needed to see for myself, I needed to see what was left.

“A stupid chair underneath a tree didn’t burn, but the tree itself and everything around it was burnt to bits.”

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

Susan is a former racquetball player and it was her connections with local associations that saw her become the recipient of a bushfire fundraising donation.

The Mountain District Squash and Racquetball Club and the Eastern Suburbs Racquetball Association (ESRA), both based in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in late January and February decided to raise funds to support someone in the squash and racquetball community impacted by the fires.

Mountain District ran a raffle supported by players at their local squash tournament and ESRA dedicated the entire proceeds of their racquetball tournament to the cause.

They then decided to pool their funds and raised$1000 and $2000 respectively.

Susan was chosen as the recipient.

Chris Fuhrmeister, from Lakes Entrance Squash and Racquetball Association, and Carl Freshwater, from Bairnsdale Squash and Racquetball Association, assisted in directing this donation to Susan and her family.

“Cheltenham Golf Club also gave me a donation that I had no idea about,” Susan said.

“It was mental, really out of the blue. An amazing surprise.

“The squash money is going towards a shed to get power back to the property to begin the rebuild, and the Cheltenham Golf Club money is going to a dining table so when we have dinner we think of them.”

IMAGE: There was very little that remained in tact at Susan Peterson’s Sarsfield property after bushfires blazed through two houses and multiples sheds on December 30