Sydney Opera House Thanked Bushfire Firefighters on Its Sails

Originally published 2020-01-14.

On the evening of Saturday 11 January 2020, the white sails of the Sydney Opera House became a giant screen of gratitude. From 8.30pm, the building was lit with photographs of the firefighters and volunteers who had spent months fighting Australia's catastrophic Black Summer bushfires, alongside a hand-painted sign that simply read "Thank you firies", using the Australian nickname for firefighters.

The tribute was meant both to thank emergency crews and to send a message of support to the many towns that had been burned out, choked by smoke or cut off. This article looks at what was shown on the sails, the scale of the crisis behind it, how Australians and people abroad responded, and what the season left behind.

What appeared on the Opera House sails

The projection was a slideshow rather than a single image. It mixed news photographs from the fire grounds with simpler, more personal moments: crews in yellow protective gear, a woman embracing a volunteer firefighter, and the handwritten "thank you firies" sign that had become a familiar sight in fire-hit towns. The Opera House said on social media that it was lighting its sails to share a message of hope and strength and to thank emergency services and volunteers.

It was not the first time the landmark had been used this way. The sails are regularly lit for festivals, anniversaries and moments of national feeling. Using it to honour volunteer firefighters turned one of the world's most photographed buildings into a national thank-you card.

Photographs of fire crews projected onto the sails on 11 January 2020. News agencies including EPA and AFP/Getty photographed the display from the harbour.

The Black Summer fires in context

The 2019–20 bushfire season, now widely called Black Summer, was one of the worst in Australia's recorded history. Fires had been burning since winter 2019, and by January they had spread across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and beyond.

The final figures, compiled after the season ended, are stark:

• About 24 million hectares burned, an area larger than the United Kingdom. When the Opera House tribute took place, the running estimate was still closer to 18 million hectares.
• 33 deaths directly linked to the fires, with hundreds more later attributed to smoke exposure. At the time of the tribute the toll was still rising, so early figures such as "20 deaths" were soon out of date.
• More than 3,000 buildings destroyed, including well over 2,000 homes in New South Wales alone.

Firefighters were among the dead. Two volunteers from the NSW Rural Fire Service died in December 2019 near Balmoral when a tree fell onto the road in front of their tanker, and another was killed when a fire-generated tornado overturned a fire truck in the Snowy Valleys. On 23 January 2020, less than two weeks after the projection, three American aerial firefighters died when their C-130 water bomber crashed near Cooma.

The sails lit up during the bushfire tribute. The images were chosen to honour both career firefighters and the thousands of unpaid volunteers.

Who the "firies" were

A striking feature of Australia's fire response is how much of it rests on volunteers. The NSW Rural Fire Service, the Country Fire Authority in Victoria and similar services in other states are made up mostly of unpaid members, many of whom left their jobs and families for weeks at a time during Black Summer. Their exhaustion was one reason the thank-you messages resonated so widely.

Professional crews, park rangers, defence force personnel and international teams from New Zealand, the United States and Canada also joined the effort. The hand-written signs that appeared on fences and roadsides were usually addressed to all of them.

Another image from the projection. The "Thank you firies" message became one of the defining phrases of the season.

The toll on wildlife

Australians were also alarmed by the impact on native animals. In early January 2020, University of Sydney ecologist Chris Dickman estimated that more than a billion animals had been killed by the fires. A later assessment raised the number of mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs killed or displaced to around three billion. Conservation groups, including WWF-Australia, ran emergency appeals to care for injured animals and restore habitat.

Australia's iconic wildlife is being hit hard as bushland continues to be destroyed. Millions of animals are being killed, injured and displaced. Help us get emergency funds to care for injured and displaced wildlife 👉 https://t.co/ZwuLZS43ot#AustraliaBurns pic.twitter.com/i7mhpdualO

— WWF_Australia (@WWF_Australia) January 12, 2020

One of the most widely shared rescue efforts was Operation Rock Wallaby. Staff from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service dropped thousands of kilograms of sweet potato and carrots from helicopters to colonies of the endangered brush-tailed rock-wallaby, whose rocky habitats survived the flames but whose food sources did not. NSW environment minister Matt Kean shared photos of the drops and of one well-fed wallaby.

NSW Fires: Staff from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife conducted a food drop for brush-tailed rock wallaby colonies across the state yesterday. Sweet potato and carrots were dropped as part of 'Operation Rock Wallaby'. https://t.co/OF81oZFF1j #NSWfires #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/yw0YxJm0PN

— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) January 12, 2020

Operation Rock Wallaby 🦘- #NPWS staff today dropped thousands of kgs of food (Mostly sweet potato and carrots) for our Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby colonies across NSW 🥕🥕 #bushfires pic.twitter.com/ZBN0MSLZei

— Matt Kean MP (@Matt_KeanMP) January 11, 2020

One happy customer 🦘🥕🥕🥕🥕#operationrockwallaby #AustralianFires pic.twitter.com/wtzMgeaX6D

— Matt Kean MP (@Matt_KeanMP) January 11, 2020

How people helped

The fires triggered one of the largest charitable responses in Australian history, with an estimated $500 million donated to victims and wildlife groups. The Australian Red Cross reported in January 2020 that its disaster relief and recovery fund had passed about $44 million, with some money set aside for the long rebuild ahead. Its NSW director, Poppy Brown, told reporters that giving surged after the appeal was broadcast alongside Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks and as images of the fires travelled around the world.

Arts venues joined in. The Opera House announced a fundraising gala for March 2020, and orchestras and concert halls in Sydney and Melbourne held benefit concerts, with Red Cross volunteers collecting donations at some of them. Celebrities and ordinary people abroad gave as well, and wildlife hospitals received help from donors around the globe.

The tribute was projected over the harbour, where crowds had watched the New Year's Eve fireworks only days before.

What Black Summer left behind

Heavy rain in February 2020 helped crews bring the remaining big fires under control; the last major Victorian fire was contained in late February, and New South Wales declared all its fires out by early March. Recovery took much longer. Towns rebuilt homes and businesses, ecologists tracked how forests and species regrew, and national inquiries examined how Australia prepares for fire seasons that are becoming longer and more intense in a warming climate.

The Opera House projection lasted only one evening, but it captured a feeling shared across the country at the time: that the people who ran towards the fires deserved to be thanked in the most visible way possible.

Sources: Classic FM, 13 January 2020: Heroic firefighters honoured on Sydney Opera House; Lonely Planet: Sydney Opera House illuminated with a tribute to firefighters; Wikipedia: 2019–20 Australian bushfire season. Photos: EPA.