Bushfire has transformed the summer peak season into something very different for Araluen Motor Lodge.
In the middle of the South Coast's bushfire nightmare, the spirit and generosity of its communities have been clear, especially at the Batemans Bay motel.
Julie Bambach, who has operated the business for 30 years, has provided rooms to people who've lost their homes, free of charge.
"They've potentially lost everything," Ms Bambach said. "I just said to them 'I'm not going to take your money'."
The motel doesn't normally allow pets, but as people have evacuated homes, Ms Bambach has been happy to take in their animals, understanding people simply could not part with them.
"You've got to make allowances in situations like this."
I think sometimes it takes a disaster for the human good to come out in people.
- Julie Bambach
For most of the summer she's also housed firefighters at a heavily reduced rate. She'd offer them rooms for free if she could afford it, but running costs mean she can't.
Being in Batemans Bay, Ms Bambach and the business have been affected by power outages and loss of phone signal as much as anyone.
She was checking information online and getting messages via WhatsApp when it would connect.
Ms Bambach said the whole community was demonstrating it cared and was supporting those in need, with restaurants handing out food and other motels offering rooms.
"Everyone's done something to help someone in some way," she said.
"I think sometimes it takes a disaster for the human good to come out in people."
Even other Araluen Motor Lodge guests stranded in Batemans Bay jumped at the chance to help. When word reached them that the firefighters were on their way, they helped Ms Bambach and the staff to clean rooms, strip linen and make beds to accommodate the exhausted firefighters.
The chef at the adjoining restaurant, Michael Donegan, even came back to cook everyone a meal of barramundi, chicken and pork on the barbecue with food that was supposed to be for a special New Year's Day service.
Further north, the people of Wandandian were also banding together in the face of bushfire.
Nearly a day after fire descended on the South Coast village, Anne Simpson was still too busy to check whether her house had survived.
She was backing up her community's fire crews, washing dishes and cooking for firefighters with appetites worked up by hours spent battling the flames that threatened their village.
The bushfire that raced on Tuesday into Wandandian, south of Nowra, had forced her to shelter with 40 people, including children, at the Wandandian Progress Association Hall.
Pets sheltered in the hall too as bushfires turned the sky black in eight minutes at about 2pm, and rode a ferocious wind into the village.
There was no time to worry, as Ms Simpson watched out for the kids, dogs, cats and birds waiting for the fire to pass.
A patch of scorched grass shows it came within about 20 metres of the hall. But the evacuees kept calm, Ms Simpson said.
"The fact I had to focus on keeping them calm kept me calm," she said. "I'm pretty proud of our community."
After the fire, Ms Simpson showed no sign of the strain a long day and night supporting firefighters and residents might bring.
In fact, she said, "keeping busy really is the most important thing".
"I don't do anything with the brigade myself but I can do support stuff.
"I've become very good at cooking bacon and egg sandwiches and sausage sandwiches and making cups of tea and doling out water, all those sort of things.
"That's just as important."
A barbecue outside the Wandandian Rural Fire Brigade station, and a table carrying tomato and barbecue sauce, shows how she helped keep volunteer firefighters going through the bushfires.
Ms Simpson slept in her car on Tuesday night after the fire passed.
"It's amazing how if you're really tired, you'll sleep anywhere, just look at the number of firies who fall asleep curled up on the ground," she said.