A widowed retiree living in a remote region of the Australian outback has revealed that she nearly lost her life during the 2019 bushfires that devastated the country.
In 1994, 69-year-old Barbara Walker left her life in Switzerland behind, settling 70 miles from the nearest town, Kununurra, in the eastern Kimberley, one of the worst-hit regions of hell.
She told Ben Fogle, who was revisiting the wildlife enthusiast eight years later, in an episode of Channel 5’s New Lives in the Wild which airs tonight at 9pm.
While the Swiss-born nature lover used to rehabilitate animals at the resort, she now turns her attention to restoring the land so it can support life.
The fire came from five sides. He got to the hill, he just burned the whole lot down,’ he recalled.
She told Ben Fogle, who was revisiting the wildlife enthusiast eight years later, on an episode of Channel 5’s New Lives in the Wild which airs tonight at 9pm, that the smoke filled her lungs. .
‘All the fences were destroyed… the gates, everything was destroyed and the smoke… I almost died, I couldn’t breathe anymore.’
Barbara said she was “surrounded by smoke everywhere” and there was “nothing she could do” as firefighters arrived from Perth.
“My heart was pounding like hell,” he added. ‘This woman came and brought me some water. I couldn’t do anything… and this is how you can die…’
The next day, he was faced with the devastating consequences of the fire.
“Dead kangaroos, dead snakes… dead things lying around,” he described. “Many of my animals disappeared, they never appeared again.”
The bushfires that ravaged Australia created an unprecedented amount of damage, destroying a fifth of the continent’s forests.
A series of studies and articles devoted to the tragedy called the horrific fires “a fierce wake-up call for climate science” with scientists emphasizing that the fires were categorically linked to climate change and made worse by a year-long drought exacerbated by he.
Barbara stressed that she “couldn’t leave” after the disaster, no matter how scary it was.
While the Swiss-born nature lover used to rehabilitate animals at the resort, she now turns her attention to restoring the land so it can support life. Pictured with Ben in 2015
In 1994, 69-year-old Barbara Walker left her life in Switzerland behind and settled 70 miles from the nearest town, Kununurra, in the East Kimberley. Photographed in 2015
The presenter was full of praise for his presenter, admiring her tenacity and ‘defy in the face of adversity’
She urged: ‘You can’t leave. That’s impossible. Because I’m here to take care of a piece of land and for the animals.’
He admitted that he is afraid of another fire, but acknowledges that he is in a risky environment.
“This is Australia,” he told Ben. ‘You have floods, you have fire, you have storms, you have…everything.’
The presenter was full of praise for his presenter and admired her tenacity and ‘defy in the face of adversity’.
“She’s willing to put up firebreaks, keep trying to keep this grass down… and she’s trying to preserve this habitat,” he said.
The caretaker of the earth also revealed that in the past eight years, she too had faced a battle with breast cancer and had to have one breast removed ever since.
Ben first learned of Barbara’s story in 2015, when he initially visited her remote home for the show.
His home is a couple of handmade log cabins and an old trailer. Pictured during the show in 2015
Barbara’s shower is an old bathtub that has been connected to a fire pump and uses water that is piped directly from a nearby stream. Photographed in 2015
‘That’s the Barbara I met eight years ago and she seems intact. I think a lot of people would have run…but not Barbara.
‘Barbara soldiers in.’
The caretaker of the earth also revealed that in the past eight years, she had also faced a battle with breast cancer and has since undergone a mastectomy.
“Normally, my health was good, but I had a lot of stress in recent years,” he explained.
After feeling some lumps in her breast and suspecting it might be a cyst, Barbara was told she had cancer and would need an operation.
He had built a successful photography career, earning up to £4,000 a month decades ago before first coming to Australia in 1994.
Although 24 years her senior, the couple married and were together for 13 years before he died of cancer at the age of 77. Roy in the photo before his death.
However, despite feeling nervous on the day of the procedure and stressed because she was forced to travel for surgery, “she is not afraid of death.”
“Everyone has to go,” he commented. ‘When I came back, I was still the same person but I had to make changes’ and I worked on feeling less stressed.
‘I have a mission to do and as long as I am alive I have the power to do it.’
Ben first learned of Barbara’s story in 2015, when he initially visited her remote home for the show.
He had built a successful photography career and was earning up to £4,000 a month decades ago before he first came to Australia in 1994.
Traveling the country with a friend, she stumbled upon the remote farm six months into her trip and fell in love with its owner, rancher Roy Walker.
Although 24 years her senior, the couple married and were together for 13 years before he died of cancer at the age of 77.
Since then, she has lived alone in an isolated camp in the jungle.
His home is a pair of handcrafted log cabins and an old caravan, while his shower is an old bathtub that has been connected to a fire pump and uses water piped directly from a nearby stream.
“I never really felt comfortable in my home country,” she said of her decision to leave Switzerland and modern conveniences behind.
‘Since childhood, I had to go against the grain. I always felt a bit like a slave, you know, people were like, “You can’t do this, you can’t do that, this is forbidden, that’s forbidden.”
The older I got, the more it bothered me.
Eight years ago he revealed how he supplemented his precarious existence financed with his pension of 6,000 pounds sterling a year.
Most of her money went to the animals, and despite the difficulties, Barbara said she was living her dream, determined to keep alive the legacy of her late husband, who has been described as one of the last royal cowboys in Australia.
In tonight’s episode, Barbara admitted that 16 years after her husband’s death, she doesn’t want to replace him with another man.
“I don’t need a lover,” she told Ben. I need a worker.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild airs tonight at 9pm
