The impact of the season's bushfires has been felt not only within the fire zones, singer-songwriter Amy Shark said, but all Australians have been touched in some way.
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The ARIA award-winning artist was not directly impacted by the fires, although she does have friends and family members of friends that had been, but she does feel the collective hurt experienced by people around the country as a result of the tragedy.
"I think when you're born in Australia you have this passion for this country," she told Australian Community Media from her home on the Gold Coast.
"With everything we've been through it's so traumatic, even if you're not the one suffering I think you suffer with the ones who are."
Shark will headline a concert in Bega on Saturday, February 29 as part of the rugby league festival that aims to aid rural communities and individuals who have been affected by the drought and bushfires, because she wanted to support the survivors of the fires any way she could.
"I think every artist right now is trying to do everything that we kinda can," she said.
"The more I heard and read and saw about Bega, being one of the number one places that was really taken out, I just wanted to go there and do whatever I could; even just to take people's minds off it for a little minute."
Shark, who recently performed at the massive bushfire relief fundraiser Fire Fight, said music could do so much for people; whether it was listening or relating to it.
"Music just takes people to another place, even just for a little bit and I think that's really important," she said.
Her songs are known for their relatable and powerful lyrics.
For example in her hit I Said Hi she sings: "Lying on my side, watching time fly by, and I bet the whole world thought that I would give up today".
She hoped songs like that could become an anthem for towns that had not given up and were fighting to recover in the wake of the fires.
Also a "beautiful thing about music", she said, was even though she had her own story in mind when writing I Said Hi, when musicians came up with those sorts of lyrics people related to them in different ways.
"I've had so many people lean on that song for so many different reasons," Shark said.
"Sometimes I look at it and I'm like 'I can't believe I wrote that!'
"It doesn't feel like it's my song anymore because I hear it everywhere and I hear people using it for so many different reasons."
While the new music she has been working on is "top secret", it will not be long before she makes a huge announcement and she was excited for "Amy Shark 2.0 to begin".
Shark, who used to work for the Gold Coast Titans, is a long-time rugby league fan and was looking forward to the match in Bega.
"I grew up in Queensland and every girl that's grown up in Queensland watches NRL and loves it," she said.
"I was a Broncos supporter and then when the Titans came about... I'm one of these people that are like 'well I was born on the Gold Coast so I'm going to support my home town'.
"They're a difficult club to support but I still love them," she laughed.
Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels will play at the sold-out EISS Super Sapphire Trial Tribute in Bega on Saturday, February 29.
Locals and visitors, and those without a match ticket, are encouraged to make use of the live site which will be next to the Bega Recreation Ground from 12pm and will show the Panthers-Eels trial on the big screen.
Entertainment at the live site will feature Sam Stevenson as well as Matt Glass & The Loose Cannons, alongside Amy Shark and Brad Cox, from 6.15pm.