2003 Canberra bushfires: Brindabellas land owner Wayne West fears lessons not learned 20 years on

And when the Lord chooses to send down the angels

I'll tell them that I'd rather stay

The words to this John Williamson song are framed in Wayne West's home, an idyllic property on the banks of the Goodradigbee River deep in the Brindabellas, to the west of Canberra.

Green grass runs down to the river; old-fashioned blooms such as gladioli and cornflowers provide some brilliant colour in the garden; sausages are sizzling on the deck, accompanying the sound of birdsong and the gurgling Goodradigbee; the Australian flag flutters on a pole under the gum trees.

The property, across the border in NSW, next to the Brindabella National Park, has slowly come back to life after it was burnt out in the January 18 firestorm in 2003.

It was a devastating blow for Mr West who had spent nearly two decades getting the land in pristine condition.

"After the fires, the landscape basically looked like Mars," he said.

"It was just bare, no greenery. The hills were bare. The trees were standing with all the leaves stripped off."

A retired builder from Canberra, Mr West now lives full-time on the remote property after selling his house in Kaleen two years ago. His wife Lesley shared in his dream to live out their days on the property but she sadly passed away in 2017. Their home on the river has been rebuilt and family photographs of the Wests and their two daughters adorn the walls.

Much of the last 20 years have been stressful for Mr West who was involved in a David-and-Goliath legal battle against the NSW government as he claimed the NSW Rural Fire Service and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service badly mismanaged the fires.

The fight went all the way to the High Court, with Mr West ultimately deciding in 2014 he couldn't afford to continue the battle, either financially or emotionally. There were victories along the way, including an ACT Supreme Court judge finding NSW had adopted an "inadequate and defective strategy" to fight the fire.

Mr West, now 73, says all he ever wanted was for lessons to be learnt, so the same mistakes were not made in fighting other fires.

"No, I don't regret taking the legal action," he said.

"I'm totally disillusioned with the NSW government, and the ACT government did the same, how they go about distorting the facts and manipulating the truth.

"They honestly didn't come out and present the facts of what happened with this fire."

The McIntyre's Hut fire, which roared into Canberra on that fateful day 20 years ago, joining other fires burning in the ACT, was ignited on January 8, 2003 by a lightning strike less than two kilometres from the Wests' property.

Over the next 10 days, Mr West made multiple phone calls to the NSW Rural Fire Service, saying in those first few days the then slow-moving fire could have been brought under control by direct attack, but was instead left to burn towards ever-shifting containment lines. Even 10 days before the firestorm hit, Mr West was worried the fire would burn into Canberra under the right weather conditions.

"Because the winds we receive up here in January and February is always the westerly, nor-westerly wind, and that's the only direction the fire could travel," he said.

"In that period of the nine days, I rang them 22 times asking what they were doing and where the men were and what their intent was and none of those phone calls really gave any satisfaction."

Mr West still believes if brigades had been sent to the McIntyre's Hut fire, the fires that hit Canberra would not have been as devastating.

"I think the greatest mistake was made that no one actually came up to the fire, spoke to the property owners affected and then attacked the fire to try and extinguish the fire," he said.

Mr West has found some contentment back on his property, even though the environment is not exactly how it was.

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"After 20 years, I just wonder what will be the future if there's another fire in the Brindabellas? Personally, I'm happy. Living up here now. Love the environment. The regrowth is nearly finished. We have most of our animals back in the river. Happy."

And he never thought about walking away, despite the devastation of 20 years ago.

"No, I'd never leave this place," he said, tears in his eyes.