The Guthrie family at Glenfyne has taken another step in the long road to recovery from the St Patrick’s Day fires with the planting of a shelter belt to replace the many trees burnt on the property in the March 17 disaster.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
All 202 hectares (500 acres) of the beef property were burnt in the blaze and while pastures have regrown, they will have to be resown at a later stage.
Numerous farm infrastructure such as sheds and fencing and about 20 stock were also destroyed and only the farmhouse was left unscathed.
The 1000 seedlings, planted by students from Melbourne’s Gilson College, sit near blackened roadside vegetation that are a stark reminder of the fires.
The Guthries said the revegetation work, organised through the Heytesbury District Landcare Network, had helped ease the pain as had the big show of community support that included help from the Cobden Uniting Church, Blaze Aid and Lions clubs.
Farmer Scott Guthrie also works for Mount Noorat Freighters and about 40 of his workmates and other community members were rolling up wire from burnt fencing a week after the fires hit.
But the farm is still operating at about 75 per cent production capacity and much rebuilding has still to be done.
Heytesbury Landcare spokesman Geoff Rollinson said the revegetation work was done with the help of $156,000 from the state government that will be used for fire recovery land management across the network’s territory.
The Heytesbury’s $156,000 was part of a $2.6 million state allocation for Barwon South West announced earlier this month.
Mr Rollinson said 73 hectares of Landcare projects on 26 properties in the Heytesbury area were damaged in the fires but the recovery effort did not just aim “to restore things to as they were.”
While the bulk of the Heytesbury’s network’s $156,000 grant will be used to buy seedlings and provide fencing rebates for landholders, the work will be done in consultation with several other community and government land management agencies such as Agriculture Victoria.
The multi-agency effort aimed to give landholders an opportunity to maximise their benefit from the rehabilitation work and include it in whole farm planning that would also look at issues such as water management and realigning fencing to land type boundaries, Mr Rollinson said.
“It will go beyond fires recovery.”
The multi-agency effort, part of the state’s Safer Together bushfire risk management program would include workshops and field days and continue the one-to-one assistance provided to those hit by the fires, he said.