Deb Gray had always dreamed of being a full-time cattle producer and her goal was on its way to being realised when she purchased a property and Angus cattle in the Araluen Valley near Braidwood in August 2019.
However, just five months later more than a third of the property was burnt out in the Black Summer bushfires.
Fires had been burning around the Araluen Valley for weeks when an ember attack took hold at Ms Gray and her husband Shane's property.
"We did not suffer anywhere near the extent of other people, but we had only been there for five months, our stock numbers were already down and we didn't have the money set aside to get through a disaster like this, we thought we would have to sell everything," Ms Gray said.
But with some financial help from their family they were able to hand-feed the calves they had on the ground and started to look into the industry-assistance on offer.
"I found the MLA Back to Business program. I thought that was a small grant, but they said no we actually give you a consultant for three days," she said.
"We had Alastair Rayner from Rayner Ag, he set out some short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. He came in and said let's work out some options with what we've got and forget about what we had."
Mr Rayner, who worked with a number of cattle producers following the fires, said the fires offered people a fresh start.
"They had a chance to consider other directions they might go in," he said.
"I'm a big believer in finding efficiencies in the program, and maximising the value of the product. If we look at the dollars per hectare, what are the things they can do to improve that value without having to spend more money.
"I think it's easy to say 'how do we get more pasture?' and 'how do we get more cows?' but that's often not the root cause of how we get someone's business more efficient and effective."
One of the aspects Mr Rayner is helping Ms Gray with is alternative markets for her calves and surplus heifers, for example selling online on AuctionsPlus instead of via the saleyards.
Ms Gray has also started to explore regenerative agriculture since the fires - looking into rotational grazing and biological fertilisers.
"After the fire went through and things started to re-germinate, I could really tell the difference between the paddocks which had been sowed every year, compared to the native grasses which were now popping up," she said.
"I started playing around with a paddock we had run down to dust because we were hand-feeding in there.
"In around September we were due to have some rain and I bought a tonne of (down the tube fertiliser) YLAD Germinate Plus and we spread that.
"Six weeks later you would not have believed the difference, there were new species of grasses, patches of lucerne which had been laying dormant for 30 years..."
Ms Gray has now been accepted into Southern Cross University's regenerative agriculture course, which she will study while continuing to farm at Araluen.
"Looking back the fires were one of the best things that could have happened and we now have clear goals and a direction.
"At the moment the goal is to set up my paddocks, get that right, get the trees back in the ground that we lost in the fires and get our numbers back up to reach our carrying capacity," she said.
"We're up to 50 cows now and we're hoping they are all in calf."