Marysville to Reopen to the Public

The once beautiful town of Marysville is about to be reopened to the public for the first time since last months devastating bushfires:

SOME of the towns worst hit by Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires will be open to the public later this month, police hope.

A police spokesman said it was expected residents from Marysville, where at least 45 people died in the devastating fires, should be able to return home on March 20.

From Monday March 23, members of the general public would be able to visit towns destroyed in the Marysville complex of fires under the plan, including Cambarville and Narbethong.

Many of the places devastated in the Black Saturday fires, which killed at least 210 people, have been off-limits to residents and members of the public because they were considered crime scenes.  [AAP]

For those that have never been to Marysville before, from The Keppel Lookout here is how this charming city used to look a few months before the bushfires destroyed the town:

Below are pictures of the downtown area of Marysville:

The downtown area had plenty of fixed up family owned stores, coffee shops, and restaurants catering to the Melbourne day trippers like myself that would frequent this town:

As can be seen below parking can be challenge during peak tourists time though when this town probably had more tourists visiting it then people that actually lived in the city:

The side roads that lead away from the downtown area all had a number of nice looking bed & breakfast hotels:

Something that used to be a big hit with tourist visiting Marysville was the incredible amount of colorful birds that lived in this tree in downtown area of the town:

The shopkeepers would hand out bird feed to the kids to feed the birds with:

The kids obviously had a blast doing this.  Hopefully once the town is rebuilt these colorful birds along with the many the town’s many visitors will return.  I look forward to that day.

Make sure you check prior pictures I took of Marysville as well.