The story behind our Hillville blend.

This is the first spot fire to reach our property

Why we Named our most popular blend Hillville

On the afternoon of the 7th of November 2019, a fire started at Hillville, in the hills approximately 18km west of our property and the roastery. When this fire started I was in Sydney meeting with some coffee importers, while my wife was at home alone. After coming out of my last meeting of the day I received notifications on my phone from the “fires Near Me” app that the fire had started. I immediately checked the weather forecast and discovered that the winds were forecast to stay blowing the fire toward our property overnight. After looking at the terrain between our property and the fire and the expected wind and weather it looked like we would be impacted by fire around lunchtime the next day. I quickly got on the phone to my father (who has 36 years’ experience in the RFS, surpassing my 20 years!) and he offered to make the trip down from Uralla in case I was unable to make it home from Sydney. Both he and I made it home late that night.

The location of the fire on the morning of the 8th of November.

The next morning we set about preparing our property for the fire. We set up our fire pump on the water tank, moved the cars and tractor into clear area and did a final grocery shop knowing that we could be stuck at home due to closed roads in the coming days.

We filled buckets, eskies and bins with water and got all our hoses in position. By lunchtime we were starting to get charred leaves falling and could see the smoke column getting more intense and closer. A couple of hours later we heard a whooshing like a freight train and then the first spot fire started just below our tractor shed. Due to the drought conditions that we had been experiencing the fire quickly took hold form there. At first it was just travelling down one side of the property, then suddenly it started coming from two directions, and before we knew it, we, the house and the sheds were completely surrounded by fire. For the next hour we fought tooth and nail to save the house and the shed.

Eventually the fire passed and all we could hear were the crashing of massive trees in the bush as they fell. We were all exhausted but on a high, having worked so hard to save the house. We sat down to have the best tasting beer I have ever had and surveyed the damage. Miraculously, the only casualties of the fire our 30 acres of bush, our fencing and some of our garden including the coffee tree that we had planted for the roastery!

 Through a lot of hard work from my wife Alex, my mum Annette and my dad Vince we managed to protect our property and future Roastery from the Hillville Fire.  While we were very relieved to have save our property, our joy was short lived as we learnt in the coming days the devastation to the wider community. We feel very lucky to have survived but share the pain of our family and neighbours who lost everything. It was very much a time of mixed emotions.

Vince, Annette, Alex and Christopher. the crew that saved our property!

The fires set us a long way back with setting up the roastery and played a large role in our lives at the very start of the road to create JourneyMade, therefore we thought it was fitting to name our most popular blend Hillville after the fire that shaped the beginning of our journey.

An aerial view the morning after, you can see smoke rising from logs that continue to burn.