St Patrick's Day Fire

Local newspaper article describes the fire.

A couple of months on and Terang BlazeAid camp has built about 150km of new fences. It's now very wintery here, rain and showers happen just about every day. The ground is softer for the auger and post driver but the grass is constantly wet. The burnt black paddocks are now nice and green again.

Shares in the local laundromat would be a good investment.

These photos courtesy of Moggs.

Gumboots under the wet weather gear keep your feet dry.

But some days the drizzle just doesn't stop!

Terang - Stark Reminder

So we are out and about driving posts and running wire for new fences, locking up paddocks bit by bit, when we get a new assignment. Fence a driveway, laneway and home paddock.

Yep, no problem. Didn't give it much thought. Posts burnt, ground burnt and scarred, situation normal. Until we notice the kids swing and clothesline.

Looking more closely it's clear there was a house right here. And the home paddock no longer has a home.

A stark reminder of just how devastating this fire was.

Terang - BlazeAid

Now in Terang Victoria, helping out after the mid-March fires. The local community has been very supportive of their farmers with local clubs and organisations clearing most of the burnt fences, and trees, just days after the fires were out. Now BlazeAid has set up camps and is working to restore the fences.

It's different work this time. Mostly the fence line is already cleared, so no chainsaw work other than putting points on the new pine post and building timber box-end assemblies. The fences are mostly plain wire on pine posts with hardly a steel picket to be seen. This requires lots of tractor work with the post rammers mounted on the back, driving the post into the ground. Then running the wire and stapling the wire to the pine posts, with a hammer and 40mm staples: definitely not one of my fav jobs.

The losses on farm, machinery etc are huge. Burnt farm buildings and equipment everywhere you look.

Each night the fencing teams return to a comfortable camp set up at the Terang Race Track. Local clubs from the district come in to help out with some of our meals. So the community helps us and we help the community, nice.

Driving new pine posts.

No trick photography here just melted plastic and metal.

Sad!

One of the farm kids wrote this whilst the guys were working, nice.

Stacks of timber everywhere waiting for a match.