NSW Coroner to examine 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire deaths

The inquiry will start in Sydney on August 25 then move to regional courtrooms close to bushfire-affected communities, the NSW Department of Communities and Justice said.

In September, the inquiry will travel to Cooma and Queanbeyan and in 2022 it will travel to other parts of regional NSW.

Further details about the dates and locations of other regional hearings will be published on the NSW Coroners website once finalised.

The inquiry is aimed at over 40 blazes, which burned through six per cent of the state, took 26 lives and destroyed nearly 2,500 homes.

All the hearings in the Black Summer bushfire inquiry will be made available online for viewing.

Submissions will be accepted until Friday, July 23, 2021.

If you would like to make a submission, click here.

Read more: Shoalhaven City Council bags a Local Government Excellence Award for Currowan bushfire action plan

During the Black Summer period, South Coast communities were challenged by the most terrifying bushfires the region has ever seen.

Spreading from bushland to the coast, the Currowan fires lasted 74 days and claimed the lives of three people, 312 homes and almost 500,000 hectares of bush.

In the aftermath of that horrific experience - shared by individuals, communities, volunteers and emergency services personnel who bravely manned the frontline - regions continue to reflect on the challenges faced and the lessons learned.

Read more: Currowan fire one year on: You move on with great difficultly says bushfire survivor

Speaking one year on from the bushfires, Frank Condello spoke with the Milton Ulladulla Times in December about his hellish experience living through the Currowan fires.

Frank and his wife Lyn lost their home, the popular Yatte Yattah Nursery and one of their beloved dogs when fires tore through villages like Conjola Park and left a wake of heartache and destruction behind on New Year's Eve.

"It had been bloody murderous - absolutely," Frank said.

Frank said it was hard to pick up their lives from all the ashes.

"You move on with bloody great difficulty," he said.

"I went up there the day after the fire and it was in total and absolute ruins," he recalls.

"The nursery, the house and the shop, sheds the cows, the neighbour's property, car and trucks - all gone.

"We literally lost everything."

Read more: 'Orange family' reflect on highs, lows and memories of 2020

Frank and Lyn ran the popular Tierney Road nursery for about 28 years.

He, like many others, tried to be prepared but the ferocious fire had a hunger for all the dry undergrowth that had surrounded the area.

"Here we are on New Year's Eve I had two fire pumps set up, I had watered everything and I had hoses ready," he said.

"I was dawdling up towards the front gate and looking over at the hill and all hell was breaking loose.

"I then got a phone call from a friend at Egans Farm Lane who was starting to get a bit worried.

"She said 'the fire is getting close' and I made her promise one thing - do not try to drive out of that place because she would be gone."

He then started walking back to his house.

"Then I turned around and walked to the front again. Then this almighty ball of fire came out the heavens and it dropped at the front gate," he said.

"It was like a bomb".

With Liam Cormican