Bushfires spread from St Mary's Pass to Four Mile Creek and along the coastline through Scamander and onto St Helens. It continued to burn for 11 days, with more than 50 properties damaged and 26 homes lost to the flames.

I was teamed up with reporter Mark Baker, and later in the week with Peter Sanders. The best stories are found when you work closely as a team, to show the readers images of exhaustion, devastation, heartache and success with the describing words from the reporters.

When Mark and I got closer to St Mary's, we could see the smoke just over the hills and realised just how big this fire had got. This image of smoke covering the nearby hills became the start of the story.

We arrived at St Mary's fire station to be briefed and to decide where to start looking for stories and photos.

We met volunteer firefighters and career firefighters that were returning from the fire ground, covered in ash, hot and exhausted, but had enough strength for a smile for the camera. They would rest and refresh themselves before heading back to where they were again needed.

The sad part of any bushfire is the effect it has on wildlife. Rescuers usually don't know how many are affected for some time after the fires. I spotted this female Wallaby with her young around burnt-out rubbish on a destroyed property, she eventually found her way to some water.

Allowed onto the fire ground, we photographed crews back burning.

These always make good safe images, but still, show the crews trying to battle the fire.

Photographs don't convey the smell, the heat or the sounds of bushfires, hopefully, you can imagine, by showing you what they face each time they get off the fire truck.

Mike Webb told us of his experience with the fires on his Scamander property, telling us how he prepared for the flames with his fire hose and water tank on the back of an old ute.

He managed to stop some of his property being burnt. The fire came closer to himself and his faithful truck. He said that he set the hose to be fan-like, which he hoped would protect himself from the heat, and it worked.

Then the water just stopped, he looked to see why and saw that the fire had burnt through the hose, luckily the fire had passed him and he was safe. He lost his garage and some vehicles and partially burnt his old bus.

I wanted to show all of this story in the photo so the garage, truck and bus had to be in the background with him and his fire rake surviving the ordeal.

Former Prime Minister John Howard visited to get a firsthand update on the conditions and to see for himself the devastation the fire had caused.

The usual national media pack followed him around trying to capture him with the locals. Sometimes being the local photographer known by the firefighters helps to get a better position, which I manged across the bonnet of the fire vehicle.

I asked if I could get a photo of Mr Howard and a fire officer with the background of the burnt bush, which was only across the road.

A few metres walk and I had all the items for a front-page image. This told the story so much better and with the right words as a headline, made a great page one,

Travelling all around the fire ground, we soon got to witness homes and properties either destroyed or partially burnt, the owners working out what their next step in their life would be, sorting the mess out.

Some owners would welcome you and tell of what they face, others just couldn't speak from the emotion they had. This is the hard part of the job, where you see people suffer and there's not much you can do but just listen and tell their story.

I was lucky to have a flight in a light aircraft over the coastline. I shoot with the plane's window open to get clear photos, you still have the bushfire smell, sometimes smoke and the odd floating ash to contend with.

Being at about 1500 feet gave a clear vision of how big this fire was and how much it was burning around the township of Scamander. The houses on the southern side of the Scamander River were surrounded by blackened bush and further spot fires with thick smoke still covering the hills back towards St Mary's.

Mark, Peter and I had travelled around the bushfires in various vehicles, shared the emotion of residents of their luck or loss, our fire gear smelling like burnt gum trees, dirty of ash and scorched earth, recording the news for the next day's paper.

Times I will remember.

- Paul Scambler.