Terry Place's Weerite property was burnt out in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, but the legal battle for compensation dragged on for six years.

He said his personal insurers were excellent, but dealing with Powercor's insurers, even after a court action settlement, was a completely different story.

"They try and wear people down," he said.

"Hopefully the St Patrick's Day fire victims can get through things more easily," he said.

"The State Government should have a TAC-like scheme. Something like Powercor having a policy with the government to fix things as opposed to the class action experience we suffered through," he said.

Mr Place said the loss of pasture and production had been a blow for three years after Black Saturday.

"The loss of production was massive. We got a kick in the arse from that. Those are losses you have to put up with, you try to grovel your way back," he said.

 He said agreeing to Powercor paying 100 per cent of losses sounded like a good out-of-court settlement, but the reality was very different.

"They accepted 100 per cent of losses but then we had to determine what those losses were,” he said.

"You think the insurers would be fair and reasonable but that's not what happened. They just had a go at everything. 

"They had a bloke in from Queensland to estimate the cost of fencing. 

"The cost of fencing is very different in Queensland compared to the Stoney Rises.

"Even trees grow differently. They take 100 years to grow here."

Mr Place said peat humus was also burnt in the fire, in places down 30cm.

"Estimating the cost of pasture was difficult, the loss of production,  because this area is very different to most others. It's not like normal topsoil," he said.

 "The peat humus just burnt and blew away. In the cricket ground it burnt down 10 to 12 inches. We lost a lot of productive land."

The farmer said recovering from no wages immediately after the fire had been difficult to overcome.

"We struggled to get cows in calf. Previously it may have been eight, 10 or 12 per cent (not in calf) and after the fires it was 50 per cent and the insurers were saying that's management ... that's your fault."

Mr Place said that for three years after the fires his farm production dropped by at least a quarter.

He said the class action and settlement was a very negative process due to the hassle and strain caused by the insurers.

"We settled six or seven years later. It was just too much on the family. They (insurers) just wear you down and in the end you just want to get out of it," he said.

"It's only been six months since the St Patrick's Day fires and people expect something to be done but that's not the way the court system works."

Mr Place said dealing directly with Powercor insurers would not work for everybody and class actions had their advantages.

"There's no doubt certain things could be done 200 per cent better. You've got to prove losses and that was the hassle," he said.

"In hindsight I would love to have let judge hand down a decision and not settle. It would have been the first time in Australia. 

"But, at the time there were other things important things in life than fighting court actions," he said.

Earlier this month Maddens Lawyers principal Brendan Pendergast, Australia’s leading bushfire lawyer, labelled widespread public criticism of St Patrick’s Day fires class actions as “scandalous” and earlier this week he said insurance companies cannot take control of victims’ claims.

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