Silence of the bush: Mallacoota residents look back over a year of loss and regrowth after fire devastation

Photographer Rachel Mounsey has documented the year after the blazes tore through her home region

Standing in my backyard under a searing midday sun, the bricklayer's sinewy arms are splayed out, rollie in one hand, trowel in the other. Bart the brickie reenacts the moment he thought might have been his last.

He is reliving putting out embers with his flannelette shirt and driving over flames in his old Holden Commodore. He throws the trowel down and with his finger draws a fire map in the wet cement. His fingers dash and dot to signify embers falling from the sky, and a looming fire front creeping down from the ridge.