These days, they’re all new homes in Pine Ridge Road Kinglake West. Twenty-odd houses have sprung up over the past five years.
Before February 7, 2009 there were 35 homes – but all were destroyed in the indescribable fire front which ripped through the small community. Fifteen residents lost their lives, including eight children.
"You could see the flames chasing us, it was scary it really was," says Gwen Fennell, who vacated her home at number 21 Pine Ridge Road.
Three generations of the Fennell family sought shelter at nearby Kinglake West, and eventually returned a few days later. It’s a moment 79-year old Gwen will never forget.
"The house is not what matters, what matters is what was in the house," she said. "I lost a hell of a lot of personal things."
"When we come back here it was nothing but dirt - everything all my beautiful plants all my hard work was gone."
But for Gwen’s 20-year-old granddaughter Ebony, there was a far more profound loss.
"My friend lived up the road and she died and I have to drive past every day," Ebony says. "And that's hard - you can never get away from it. No matter what you do, you still have to drive past everyday, I can't go any other way."
She says she’s tried counselling, but it didn’t work. She says volunteering in the CFA helps.
A few kilometers away in the town of Kinglake, a dozen or so women busily hang artwork ahead of an exhibition coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. The photographs and reflections are prepared by local youth, and demonstrate the very different ways they cope with the aftermath.
"It enabled the kids by going back and doing these things to recognise how far they had come," says youth group co-ordinator Lesley Bebbington.
"For some kids it was recognition they hadn't even thought about what happened to them on that day. They just kind of got up the next day and kept going."
It's evidence that some people are only now confronting the horror of Black Saturday, and accessing services for the first time.
Jodie Bowker runs a rearby counseling service. She says the five-year anniversary is a painful time for many in the community.
"Because you've got the hot weather, the fire risk, then the knowledge that you are coming up to the 5-year anniversary."
Back on Pine Ridge Road, Roger Cook tidies up around his new house. Mr Cook lost his beloved mud-brick home in the fire and says while not everyone moved back to Pine Ridge Road, but those who did share a special bond and spirit.
"That flag over the road, that lady put the flag on the fence after the fire as if to say 'we're coming back' and she says she's not going to take it down until it drops to pieces."
