It's believed a coronial inquiry into the Tathra and district bushfire is not happening until at least mid-2020, some two-and-a-half years after the event.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That bombshell was delivered to residents in the district last week via their insurance companies, with questions being raised as to why government was not the agency delivering that news.
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay was visiting the Bega Valley at the weekend, stopping in at the Tathra Hotel for a chat with a long table full of local residents.
Unsurprisingly, the topic of bushfires was front of people's minds. It was these residents who told Ms McKay of correspondence they'd received last week informing them of the delayed timing of a coronial inquiry.
Ms McKay was incredulous it hadn't yet occurred.
"It's still the case there are so many issues ongoing [in Tathra], but I got the sense the community still hasn't had a say in any framework of something that can apply elsewhere," Ms McKay told Australian Community Media.
"An inquiry still hasn't occurred, meanwhile another fire emergency is happening right now and the lessons from Tathra have not been heard by the government.
"This is an important case study for the government. What are the lessons, why is it still happening - I think the community has a right to ask these questions.
"Tathra is a good place to start and I get the sense they want to be heard."
In early October a justice department spokesperson said a date for the NSW coroner's court inquiry had yet to be set, 18 months after the blaze destroyed 65 homes and damaged a further 46 in and around Tathra.
In the days after the fire, NSW Rural Fire Service investigators found electrical infrastructure on Reedy Swamp Rd as the likely cause.
In June, former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty conducted an independent review into the emergency response procedures, which made a range of recommendations.
Then-Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant said at the time the Keelty Report was releasing interim findings he hoped the subsequent coroner's inquest into the fire "could be completed as soon as possible".
"Any delay in that can hurt with the recovery, and quicker answers help with the recovery I think," he said in June 2018.
"The coroners will set the time frames for their inquest given their capacity, their workloads and their capability to have the inquest."
Insurer IAG, which trades as NRMA, sent out a letter to its Tathra clients dated November 4 to say it understood "a Coronial inquest will likely be held sometime after June 2020".
"IAG...has repeatedly requested access to the Coronial file to assess whether compensation may be recovered from any liable party. The Coroner has so far declined to release the Coronial file until such time as a Coronial inquest has taken place," IAG writes in the letter, of which Australian Community Media has a copy.
Among those clients were John and Jan Harris, whose Vimy Ridge home was completely destroyed.
Thankfully John said an insurance payout from IAG was not dependent on any outcome of a coronial inquiry, with the couple receiving the full cost of their home within a month of the fire.
However, that didn't mean they didn't still want answers.
"We have our own theories [about how it started]," he said.
"But we would really like to hear something officially."