A Horsham family in Mallacoota that gave seashells and rocks with personalised messages to firefighters will at this stage be staying put until the roads open.
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Richard Kerr, a builder by trade, has been in the far east Victorian town with his wife Josie and children Maverick, Lola and Ellie since December 22.
He said the family hoped to leave the town by road when it was safe to do so.
"I've got two vehicles, a boat and a caravan here, so logistically for me and my family it doesn't really work," he said.
"We've gone through a very bad event and things are now on the mend. The best case scenario will be (they can leave in) seven to ten days, and worst case scenario could be after kids go back to school. No one knows yet."
"The fires weren't burning when we arrived, but when we started driving into Mallacoota, for the last 150 kilometres it was just so dry - nothing like in the previous years."
Mr Kerr said he had been looking for a way to thank the emergency services and volunteers that had protected the town during the last serious fire day on December 31.
So he set his children to work writing messages of thanks on seashells and rocks to give to them.
"I'll forever be very grateful for what the CFA crews did on the ground on that Tuesday," he said.
"Tuesday was the day the firefront came through, but we knew Saturday was going to be another dangerous day because we still had fires burning around Mallacoota and our caravan park and we knew it was going to get windy.
"The plan was to get the kids doing an activity in the morning and wear them out a bit so that in the afternoon, when things potentially could get bad, we could protect them and take their mind off things."
Mr Kerr said he had since heard from the volunteers the gesture had meant a lot to them.
"The guy that's running this, Senior Sergeant Glenn Owens, I had my youngest daughter hand him a rock with a message on it, and he said 'that's really touched my heart'," he said.
"And the firies that got these things, they have all said 'this means a lot to us', they were getting photos with our kids. And there was a red cross lady that said she'd cherish it forever.
Mr Kerr said another Horsham family in Mallacoota, the Hairs, was staying with them in the caravan park. Their children also distributed the rocks to emergency services.
He said blue sky was visible from Mallacoota on Wednesday, for the first time in more than a week.
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