Bushfire emergency relief: 'People shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get help'

First came the disaster, then the trauma and then the endless paperwork. Surely we can do something about the paperwork, one homeowner tells the royal commission

The house burned down on New Year's Eve. And at least once a month, for the past five months, Prof Sue Townsend has been asked to show proof.

Proof that the house has indeed burned, swallowed up in the 300,000-hectare Dunns Road fire that flowed down the mountain toward the small town of Tumbarumba on the western slopes of the Snowy Mountains.