Jack Campin, I haven't been ignoring your questions: how have Aboriginal communities been affected? What help are they getting?

My first thought was that as far as I can tell from media reports everyone who is affected by the bushfires would have the same access to assistance, but then, a lot of that thought was based on thinking about media reports about how people in the different affected areas have been working together as a community.

Then I had the terrible thought that the prejudices held by some people may not be dislodged just because the community is in dire straits, so reports that the whole community is working together may be misleading if prejudices are still there.

The assistance available is based on individuals or families requesting assistance, and it would probably be administered mostly by white people, so the indigenous communities might be reluctant to ask for help.

I read this article on 6 Jan
Bushfires cut off food supplies to NSW South Coast towns just as Alice needs to feed her full house.

There are a number of bushfire related links on the right hand side of the article and more links after the article, including this one:

First all-Indigenous NSW firefighting crews protecting sacred sites, remote communities

One of the other thoughts I had was that owning a house instead of renting a house would affect the type of assistance available, because if the house was destroyed and was insured, the owner - whether living there or renting it to someone else - would receive an insurance payout. If the house was not insured, that's where I think/hope that the massive donations to charities would kick in and some sort of assistance will be offered. If people are renting the house and it is destroyed, then that is a whole different ball game. If the owner has renting insurance then the tenants could be covered to move into other accommodation, but that assumes that other accommodation is available which hasn't been destroyed by the bushfires. Also, the house contents may or may not have been insured by the people living in the house, which brings up a whole new set of issues. Being insured assumes that the owners or occupants have enough income to spare on insurance premiums which can be hefty.

To complicate the issues even more, all of the bushfires happened outside of major cities, in rural or regional areas. The distance from other unaffected areas is a factor, but also, as I have said before when you look at the bushfire maps you can see that the black areas of where the bushfires had been were starting to join up in some places. The affected areas are huge. That means that the areas where accommodation and services could be available are severely limited.

To give you an idea of the distance between Brisbane and Victoria, which is the length of the area affected by the bushfires, it's 1500 kilometres or about 1000 miles, and that is not counting the bushfires in north east Queensland.

There are going to be delays rebuilding homes, and in the interim, other accommodation is needed. Many people have lost their income because their workplaces have been affected, and in some cases they were isolated because the roads were cut so they could not go to work if it required travel.

I'm hoping that the generous donations coming from around Australia and around the world will be used properly to help everyone in whatever way they need it.

So the quick answer to your questions is, I don't know and it raises some concerns. No easy answers.