Language, loss and time: 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria

This narrative inquiry has grappled with loss and grief in the wake of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. Primary material obtained from men and women of the Latrobe Valley revealed the fragilities of home and the complexities of both negative and positive emotions associated with re-establishing intimate domestic spaces. This research has explored the complicated ‘emotional work’ and the sometimes difficult decision-making triggered by sudden and profound loss. It suggests that failing to acknowledge or validate the less apparent losses can confuse or prolong the processing of grief that fire-affected people contend with in the aftermath of bushfire