GG visits bushfire-devastated regions

Little Mercedes Davies found a new playmate as she mucked around in the dust with
her toy train and her dog Beck amid the fire-devastation of north-east Victoria on
Thursday.
Governor-General Quentin Bryce spied Mercedes' Thomas the Tank Engine and exclaimed,
"she's beautiful" before she quickly plonked herself down on the ground beside the
little girl.
The two happily played outside the community hall-cum-relief-centre in the small
town of Alexandra about 200 kilometres out of Melbourne.
As Ms Bryce remarked that it was lovely to see a little girl play with a train -
something she had never done as a girl - she presented two-year-old Mercedes with a
gift-wrapped book.
Mercedes' mother, Amanda Silcock, said she and her husband had been lucky their
house in nearby Buxton was saved in the firestorm last Saturday but her husband's
parents, who lived nearby, had not been so lucky, losing their home.
"Someone was watching over us," Ms Silcock said on Thursday.
She was also pleased to see Ms Bryce who had flown from Canberra to Melbourne
earlier in the day at the start of a four-day trip covering the fire victims and
volunteers and those caught in the massive floods in Ingham in north Queensland.
Of the book Ms Bryce had presented to her daughter, Ms Silcock said, "This means
heaps to us, we will treasure it."
Ms Bryce had spent nearly 90 minutes talking to survivors in the community hall,
most of them from Marysville, the hamlet razed to the ground and in mourning having
lost one in five or its residents in the conflagration.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Ms Bryce talked of the generous spirit of
Australians who had volunteered not only to fight the fires but to help those who
had lost everything to recover and of those who had made such generous donations.
She said there was a need to do something special to remember the children who lost
their lives in the fires and for their schoolmates who will miss them.
"It has been so important to me that people have been so kind to give up time,
people are under such pressure, they had so much to give, their professionalism,
their skills, their care in their hearts and to give their time to me today has
meant a great deal to me," Ms Bryce said.
Earlier, Ms Bryce visited about 30 volunteer Country Fire Authority (CFA)
firefighters who had stopped at Wandong CFA station for a quick lunch, and ended up
hugging a number of them.
One of them, 22-year-old John Payne, went one better than his mates and received a
kiss from Ms Bryce after he told her it was his birthday.
Mr Payne said he was just "glad to be out here doing something useful" and said they
were pleased to see the Governor-General visit and show her concern.
"It's good, I think everyone enjoys seeing her coming around, talking to everyone,"
Mr Payne said.
Ms Bryce will visit flood-hit Ingham, in north Queensland, on Friday and Saturday
before returning to Whittlesea in Victoria for a church service on Sunday.