OUR STORY

In the dark hours of the night on NYE 2019, a small blaze that had ignited some days early in remote bushland some 50kms to the west of the township of Cobargo, exploded into a pyroclastic firestorm that raced through Yowrie and Wandella, Verona, Upper Brogo, Quaama and Cobargo. In a handful of hours, the Badja Forest Rd fire devastated the entire region: destroying more than 300 homes and razing a large section of the main street of Cobargo village. Tragically the Badja Fire took the lives of 6 people, 4 from the Cobargo district.

The Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre Inc. was established in the aftermath of the Badja Forest Rd Fire as the keystone rebuild and recovery project for the main street of Cobargo after Brian and Mary Ayliffe, owners of one of the destroyed buildings on the main street, elected to donate their land to the community to kickstart the recovery process.

Following months of community engagement, and with financial assistance from the Cobargo Community Recovery Fund, CBRC Inc. appointed TAKT Studio to create a concept design for the Centre. In June 2021 Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre successfully secured $4.8M in funding from the BLER (Bushfire Local Economic Recovery) Fund to undertake construction of the Centre on 70-72 Princes Hwy Cobargo.


The story of the Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre has featured on:

ABC’s Big Weather

Ray Martin’s : The Forgotten Australians


Architect’s Impression of the future Cobargo Bushfire Resilience Centre


Resilience Cobargo acknowledges the Yuin people as the traditional custodians of the land and waters on which our building will stand and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.