WHEN the immediate danger out-of-control fires pose to human life, property and livestock has passed, the problems are far from over for those left standing in the ashes.
Four years ago Roger Warren watched as fire raced across his 1100-hectare property, scorching half of the pastures and taking fences and livestock with it.
It was a bad year for fires and the 3600ha blaze outside Boorowa was not considered one of the worst.
Roger managed to replant “a couple of hundred acres” thanks to interruption of business insurance, which he sowed to phalaris, cocksfoot and prairie grass among others.
Those grasses helped created ground cover and bolster organic content in the damaged soils.
But it is a long road back, Roger missed out on BlazeAid assistance, but locals chipped in with man hours, free agistment and studs backed him up.
Lachlan Merinos, Forbes, and Springwaters Poll Dorset Stud, Boorowa, helped replace rams that had been burned.
David and Mary Marsh, “Allendale” at Boorowa and Elwyn Wright, Wright’s Karingal Pastoral, between Cowra and Yass offered free agistment.
“You know every time I drive past those properties I remember the help they gave me, you never forget,” said Roger.
He spent 12 months replacing fences and a lot longer rehabilitating land normally lush with native pastures, predominantly microlaena stipoides.
He’s a fan of the grass, it’s come back well, “and the paddocks I grazed the hardest have come back best”.
This season, farmland near Wellington and areas near Goulburn have already been hit hard. Tony Inder, who is helping coordinate pledges of hay from the Wellington community for those affected by the fires, said there had been more than 500 tonnes of hay pledged.
“There’s only a handful of blokes affected but I know they would be the first to help out if the shoe was on the other foot,” he said.
There have been pledges from as far away as Narromine.
There has also been trucks pledged to help move the hay donated.
John Phelan, who owns “Hidden Valley”, “Royal Hope” and, what locals have quipped might be appropriately named, “Big Ashes”, is one of those who has received hay in the fire’s aftermath. John sells weaners and was lucky not to have lost any stock on his 1110-hectare holding.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone who has helped out, to recognise their generosity of spirit,” he said.
“People are giving hay to someone they don’t even know.
“I’ve been in business all my life – you’ve got to look at these things as glass half full.”
He said there were some positives to be drawn from the fire, that some extra country had been cleared.
He was setting aside yesterday and today to take a look at just how much fence line he’s lost.
South East Local Land Services (LLS) are helping coordinate assistance for people affected by the Tarago fire, which burned 3400 hectares last week in the Goulburn area. Local manager Aaron Smith said initial assistance had now been distributed, about 40 tonnes of fodder to mainly cattle and sheep producers, and now post-fire recovery was underway.
He said senior officers would be on call to advise how best to stop erosion, suggest new fence alignments if fences had been lost, and help with tactics for weed and feral animal management. “Then there’s the issue of access tracks, help to protect topsoil and how to recover damaged areas,” he said. “We’re also working closely with DPI’s Rural Resilience program.”
He said BlazeAid was also looking to implement support programs in the next week or so.
Anyone who would like to donate fodder to farmers doing it hard can phone South East LLS on 48241900.
