FARMERS and volunteers will cleaning up the Sir Ivan Bushfire for some time yet, but six weeks on from the horrific blaze, there are signs of progress: more than 80 kilometres of burnt fencing cleared, a further 12km constructed - and, this morning, the arrival of a cool room on the back of a ute.
Primary Industries minister Niall Blair and NSW Farmers president Derek Schoen were among those who dropped in to see the BlazeAid volunteers at Cassilis today as helpers start to ramp up their fencing efforts throughout the scorched district.
Wet conditions prevented any work today but regular rain has seen green chutes poke through the charred earth over the past couple of weeks.
“When the emergency is on there’s a cast of thousands,” Mr Blair said. “There’s cameras, there’s ministers… then it all stops. That’s when people can feel more alone, and that’s why we’ve decided to come out here today.”
More than 55,000 hectares, 35 homes and buildings, phone towers, and close to 1000 livestock and pets burned in the Central West during the bushfire in February.
The fire all but wiped out the village of Uarbry near Leadville.
BlazeAid’s Brian Carr estimated 7000km of fencing - close to $20 million worth of material alone - would need replacing, an effort “that could take years.”
But he said volunteer progress had stepped up a notch, and that the replacement of most boundary fences could be achievable within three or four months.
“We’ve had 114 volunteers doing about 500 days in the three weeks since we’ve arrived, and all that time we’ve been clearing fence lines,” he said.
“There’s about 82km of old fence we’ve pulled out in that time, and in the last week we’ve really got stuck into new fences.
“We’re doing eight to nine properties a day and at the moment we’re up to 12km (of new fencing) “That is going to skyrocket. There’s nothing sweeter to a farmer than a new fence.”
Some farmers are totally, totally bewildered and very depressed. They say they can’t get out of bed. We tell them we’ll be there at 8am so they better be up with us
- BlazeAid's Brian Carr
Mr Carr said on-ground work hadn’t been limited to fencing.
“It sometimes become a secondary issue.
“Some farmers are totally, totally bewildered and very depressed. They say they can’t get out of bed. We tell them we’ll be there at 8am so they better be up with us.
“It usually takes about two or three days but they do eventually spark along and improve.”
Mr Carr said farmers had been surprised with the rate of work a team of five volunteers was able to undertake.
“You find that farmers are used to working on their own - they look at a job and say it’ll take two days.
“We head out in the paddock as a team of four or five and we’re calling back by lunchtime saying we’re finished - they can’t believe it.
“When I first came up here I had a guess we’d be here for about four months. In reality it would take years to do all the fencing, so we’re prioritising the boundaries.
“We are very conscious of the fact that there are fencing contractors out here who rely on this kind of work - but trust me, there’s plenty to do out here.
Mr Blair backed BlazeAid’s boundary strategy.
“Boundary fencing is the number one - no doubt. I guess the message is as well that this is something that will takes seasons, not just weeks.”
Mr Blair said he had travelled to Cassilis to hear directly from those affected what needed to be done.
“I’m hearing from people that we need to look at the window of applications for the low-interest loans, size of buckets of cash involved there… all things we are going to look at.
“Our approach has been: Tell us what you need.”
It was these words that saw volunteers speak up this morning and secure a much-needed piece of equipment: a cool room for donated meat.
“We’ve had a lot meat donated to blazeaid volunteers. We made one phonecall and just as we were leaving a (Local Land Services) ute turned up with a cool room on the back of it.”
- Money donated to the Merriwa Sir Ivan Bushfire Appeal will go towards the purchase of cattle that will be fed at the Alexander Downs feedlot for 80 days. NSW Farmers says the objective is to turn every $1 donated into $1.50. Cattle will be fattened for market in the Alexander Downs feedlot at no cost. A donation of 500 tonnes of grain from a group of grain growers means there is the capacity to process up to 600 head over the coming months. The cattle will then be sold with all the sale proceeds going towards the appeal. The target is $1 million.