Former long-time photographer with The Canberra Times, Graham Tidy, has captured the resurrection of a street in Chapman that was devastated by the January 18 firestorm 20 years ago.
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Lincoln Close in Chapman resembled some otherworldly dystopian landscape when he first trained his lens on the street in the days after the firestorm.
"Well on the day, I wasn't actually working. I was at home in Jerrabomberra filling the gutters with water. You just didn't know where it was coming from or going to," Mr Tidy, now 70 and retired, said.
"So later on that day, I went into the office to see if I could lend a hand but all the fire had passed by that time.
"Over the next few days, we visited all this area and I spotted this place and thought it would make a nice panoramic shot of all the devastation. And then thought maybe I could come back at different intervals to see how it's going."
"The first couple of times I came was on a fairly regular basis, maybe once a fortnight, and you could see the clean-up was happening but it was very, very slow. And probably a year later, you could see things come back to some sort of normality."
"A lot of the trees were obviously gone and so desolate. But now you wouldn't recognise it as the same place. It's just grown again, more homes have been built. Yeah, it's lovely to see."
![Rebuilt houses were part of the picture in 2006. Picture by Graham Tidy Rebuilt houses were part of the picture in 2006. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/32suSVsqH3pdw6NJyh92X9D/6b00417f-14f3-43a0-9a9c-5c6b9a424d98.jpg/r0_0_3445_850_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Tidy left The Canberra Times in 2016 after almost 27 years with the paper.
He went back to shoot Lincoln Close again for the 20th anniversary, even though he no longer worked for the paper, because he appreciated the significance of the milestone.
The street is now green and lush, so different to that barren brown image of 20 years ago.
"The Canberra firestorm was certainly one of the most memorable events during my tenure, along with the Thredbo Landslide and the Royal Canberra Hospital implosion," he said.
![Lincoln Close in 2017. This picture was by Sitthixay Ditthavong Lincoln Close in 2017. This picture was by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/32suSVsqH3pdw6NJyh92X9D/8454839d-acca-4228-abdf-e1ef12afd790.jpg/r0_0_7942_2392_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I think the fires had the most impact on me because of the lead-up smaller fire events in the preceding days that we covered and then the amazing stories of both loss and survival we uncovered, in the days and weeks after the fire.
"Of all the natural disasters, I think it affected Canberrans the most. Being a fairly tightknit community, I would reckon every Canberra resident would have known at least one person who was directly affected by the fire."
![Lincoln Close 20 years after the firestorm. Picture by Graham Tidy Lincoln Close 20 years after the firestorm. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/32suSVsqH3pdw6NJyh92X9D/9e02122a-1384-419c-8971-ff0219f1efc4.jpg/r0_0_12078_3704_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Graham Tidy's photo timeline
See how Chapman Close rebuilt over the years after the destruction of the 2003 bushfires in the following series of images.
January 2003
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/1623d7c9-76e9-4a64-b2fa-74dc637c8a58.jpg/r0_0_4488_1084_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
March 2003
![Bushfire aftermath in March 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in March 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/6b766017-011c-4b83-970c-504c9e253098.jpg/r0_0_4488_1143_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
April 2003
![Bushfire aftermath in April 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in April 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/3ee92158-7155-40a1-be43-39b96bb254bb.jpg/r0_0_4488_1134_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
May 2003
![Bushfire aftermath in May 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in May 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/8fa50077-422f-468a-9801-d31847279d05.jpg/r0_0_3291_735_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
June 2003
![Bushfire aftermath in June 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in June 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/66410c3b-0196-4929-a27a-878eb90c9e40.jpg/r0_0_4488_1137_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
October 2003
![Bushfire aftermath in October 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in October 2003. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/5a2fd4bc-173c-40a6-b8a2-0da076ad96fe.jpg/r0_10_4488_1137_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
January 2004
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2004. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2004. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/3f08d7f9-1a99-47bc-a798-dc43c7e1877b.jpg/r0_0_3330_945_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
April 2004
![Bushfire aftermath in April 2004. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in April 2004. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/52e5550d-8140-47a2-b3e7-c555661c8d5d.jpg/r0_0_4488_1117_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
January 2005
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2005. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2005. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/683df34e-4ac2-4d41-be3b-6108431abf47.jpg/r0_0_4488_1137_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
January 2006
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2006. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2006. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/9e096d4e-e111-439f-b8b3-84e4a6c346f7.jpg/r0_0_3445_850_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
January 2009
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2009. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2009. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/b01f6620-ff38-44f8-ad0d-486b1be22281.jpg/r0_0_12689_2679_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
January 2010
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2010. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2010. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/ea3e898a-1591-4ef9-9654-a64c65562af9.jpg/r0_0_9727_2724_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
December 2012
![Bushfire aftermath in December 2012. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in December 2012. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/aa582749-ffd8-46d4-8a14-2f2854bce4f8.jpg/r0_0_15149_2828_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
January 2023
![Bushfire aftermath in January 2023. Picture by Graham Tidy Bushfire aftermath in January 2023. Picture by Graham Tidy](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/67cb36ce-5c4d-4ec1-b196-ab26c642a5f9.jpg/r0_0_12051_3704_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)