When Prospect Hill was devastated by the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983, the community found refuge in their cultural heritage. Memories of the 1983 disaster still resonate in the lives of the inhabitants of Prospect Hill, highlighting what they lost and what they saved and their responses to a fire that wrought havoc on their lives. The landscapes around Prospect Hill are inscribed with romance, adventure and tragedy. The stories in this book provide insights into a world that was more stable, more predictable and seemingly more enduring than that which we inhabit today. They allow us to identify major changes in society and to lay the shape of our lives today over the contours of the challenges faced by people in the past. Prospect Hill is in many ways a typical small rural community, but its memories are important for every Australian because they show that ordinary towns can contain extraordinary stories.