Imagine facing not one, but several of nature's most destructive forces in your lifetime bushfires, floods, and cyclones. Now imagine surviving them all, carrying the memories into adulthood, and only later realising the emotional scars they left behind.
In Surviving Nature's Fury - My Journey through Fire, Flood and Cyclone, author Karen Feldbauer shares her deeply personal and extraordinary story of living through some of Australia's most devastating natural events. From the 1969 bushfires in Victoria to the 1973/74 Queensland floods on the Burdekin River, catastrophic 1974 Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, and later the 2010-2011 Queensland floods, Karen's journey is one of resilience, fear, courage, and ultimately, gratitude.
Told in a warm, conversational style, Karen invites readers into her childhood world a yellow-brick home built by her father in the bush outside Melbourne, where gum trees and wildlife shaped her adventurous spirit. She recalls the terror of watching her mother fight a raging bushfire alone while protecting her daughters, and seeing a blackened, silent landscape where life once thrived. These early experiences planted the seeds of resilience, even if their full meaning only became clear many decades later.
Her story continues as her family travelled across Australia in a caravan, making homes in camp sites and small towns, meeting extraordinary people, and discovering both the beauty and the dangers of living close to nature. Karen shares memories of childhood pranks, friendships, and the simple joys of growing up in a time when resilience wasn't a word people used it was simply a way of life.
But the heart of this book lies in her account of Cyclone Tracy, the Christmas Eve storm that changed Darwin forever. With honesty and emotion, Karen recalls the deafening roar of the wind, the terrifying hours huddled with her siblings in a concrete shower block, and the eerie silence when the eye passed overhead. She writes not only of fear and survival but also of the strange, unforgettable details: the refrigerator bouncing inside their caravan, the tarp that shielded them as they ran through sideways rain, and the miracle of a circus tent still standing the next morning. Her recollections are vivid, raw, and powerful - a child's-eye view of one of Australia's darkest nights.
Decades later, Karen again found herself facing rising floodwaters in Brisbane. This time, as an adult, she saw first-hand the heartbreak of neighbours and friends who lost everything. She joined the thousands of volunteers who became known as the Mud Army, shovelling mud, clearing debris, and offering comfort to strangers who could only watch their memories pile up on the roadside in ruined heaps. These experiences deepened her understanding not only of loss, but of the emotional weight we attach to our belongings - the meaning behind the "stuff" we hold onto.
Throughout the book, Karen balances these harrowing accounts with humour, warmth, and a deep appreciation for the communities who came together in times of crisis. From mischievous frog pranks in a Darwin caravan park to the shock of a huntsman spider leaping from flood-damaged shoes, she reminds us that even in the darkest times, there is room for laughter and humanity.
Surviving Nature's Fury is not a story of devastation, but of survival, resilience, and the quiet courage of ordinary people. It is a tribute to parents who acted instinctively, neighbours who stood shoulder to shoulder, and strangers who became heroes. It is also a reflection on the lessons these events leave behind: that "home" is not always a place, but where our heart lies; that belongings may be lost, but love and connection endure; and that even in the fiercest storms, there is always a way forward.
