News Service from House Harris

Vic: Ignore police and return home, urges Marysville resident

MELBOURNE, March 2 AAP - Fed up with being stopped from visiting her burnt-out property in Marysville, a woman from the bushfire-ravaged town says residents should ignore police roadblocks and return home.

Three weeks after Black Saturday devastated large parts of Victoria, killing at least 210 people, many Marysville locals are still unable to access their properties to see the damage.

At least 45 people died in the bushfire at Marysville, and police have declared the area a crime scene, stopping many people from entering the town.

"We have to get home for our mental health. We have to grieve," said Madeleine Love, who has had a home in Marysville since 1994.

"I have the view that if there are no other options, the Marysville residents should be encouraged to be civilly disobedient on this issue, for their well-being."

Ms Love, 48, who lives in Benalla in the state's north, but also has a home in Marysville, said she had only once been able to get to her property.

She managed to get in to see her destroyed house when a police officer did her a favour and took her briefly into town, on condition she not tell others.

But Ms Love said if locals continued to be denied access to their homes they should ignore police roadblocks and march into town en masse.

"There will only be more temporary accommodation in jail I suppose, not much different to what they have got," Ms Love said.

She said Marysville was full of people since the fires on February 7, but locals were not among those able to bypass police roadblocks.

"There are telcos and SES and electricity people and there are army reservists. The day I was there, there were masses of trucks lifting burnt cars out of the place," Ms Love said.

"Why would the Marysville residents contaminate this place?"

Barbara Holland, 59, has been associated with Marysville for 25 years and owns some units in the town, which she rents out.

Ms Holland said insurance assessors had been denied access to her property, and she had been given no indication of when she would be allowed back.

She said if people from the town who had lost their homes wanted to return, she would join them in a peaceful march.

"I would be prepared to join them for moral support," Ms Holland said.

Her daughter Sharon Bourke, who ran the local ski shop in Marysville, said as well as her home and business she was losing her community.

"Our need to return home is not being addressed," Ms Bourke said.

"It is very hard for people not in that small sort of community setting to understand."

She said she did not agree with civil disobedience to avoid road blocks.

"The role of the coroner is vital. For the sake of the grieving and out of respect for the dead these rules are there for a reason," she said.