Dubbed the 'Wall of Safe', residents would fill out the bright coloured squares marking themselves and their families safe after bushfires burnt through the rural town on the NSW Far South Coast.

On the post-its read 'Glenn and Ann safe', 'Glennda and Heimo OK', and 'Rob Conna is safe'.

The post-its became the means of communication since there was no power, no internet, and all of the phone lines were down.

The hall was transformed into the village's Bushfire Relief Centre on January 5 in 2020.

READ ALSO: Quaama holds first seasonal fair since Black Summer bushfires devastated district

Local residents Glennda Heino and Veronica Abbott were at the hall that day and said the first words out of people's mouths were 'have you heard from...?', 'I'm worried about...'.

"I couldn't remember the names of people I had known for 20 years, so I couldn't say yes or no" said Ms Abbott.

The women decided that everyone entering the hall looking for drinking water, food, or refuge needed to write down their names to mark they were safe after the blaze.

The 'Wall of Safe' became the first port of call when visiting the centre.

"There were tears, there were shivers, there was relief, it was so powerful, so it was really important for us to memorialise that," said Ms Abbott.

In the weeks after the fires, no one could bare to remove the little squares from where they had been placed.

To immortalise the importance of the 'Wall of Safe' to the Quaama community, a photograph was taken by Bega Valley photographer Honey Atkinson.

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Also featured in the photograph were an array of donations including blankets and doonas that had come in from around the country, and very special sets of teapots.

"One of our local firies walked in and I said, 'is there anything else you need?', and he said 'you know what, I really want a teapot, I miss having proper tea', so I put an ahoy out on Facebook and we had people sending us teapots from Queensland," laughed Ms Abbott.

Ms Abbott said the hall eventually became a the point of call for information, including getting the correct information about grant money that had become available.

READ ALSO: Quaama relief centre's Veronica Abbott given Premier's Award

"I would be grabbing people as they walked through the door and say, "oh I need to talk to you because there's something that's become available that is just right for you."

"I had my computer hotspot on through my phone, I would fill out forms for people, I would send out emails, as a lot of people were relying on that, because people only had their phones and were trying to fill out really complicated documents," she said.

The two women, Ms Abbott and Ms Heino, had long been on the hall committee and eventually helped establish the Quaama Progress Association - responsible for distributing donations amongst other roles.

Ms Abbott said she thought that photograph encapsulated everything that was happening at the time.

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