Three years after fire swept through the south-west, two things haven't changed, says Jack Kenna.
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The farmer, whose property is at The Sisters near Terang, said all sides of government needed to work together to prevent bushfires, rather than pandering to minority parties opposed to reducing fuel load.
"We are no safer from a fire than what we were went Ash Wednesday went through," Mr Kenna said.
"There's all these excuses for not getting rid of fuel load. If the tall grass had been eaten out or sprayed there wouldn't have been so many cattle and homes lost on St Patrick's Day."
The second thing which concerns the farmer who lost 60 hectares (150 acres) of pasture at his property is the poor mobile phone reception and unreliable internet access.
"I'm thinking about investing in a few pigeons," Mr Kenna said.
"Some days we can't even send emails. At least we could rely on the pigeons."
Despite Mr Kenna's property being badly burnt after winds snapped a power pole on his property, he knows he was lucky.
"We won Tattslotto really," Mr Kenna said.
"We didn't lose a lot. We lost more sleep than property."
After the fires Mr Kenna vowed to ensure changes were made to the maintenance required on power poles.
He said lives could have been lost on that fateful day three years ago.
Mr Kenna said the fire had taught him to focus on the good things in life.
"I have a lot more good days than bad," Mr Kenna said.
"At least I wake up in Australia every morning - imagine waking up in Syria or somewhere like that."
Mr Kenna said he also learnt how generous community members were in a person's hour of need.
"We learnt there's some pretty good people around here," he said.
Terang's Beasley family will be forever grateful for the kindness shown to them after their house was destroyed in the blaze.
Maree and Phil Beasley were at a friend's place when they were alerted to the fire.
The couple and their children George, Fred, Rose and Leo lost everything.
But they know they were lucky they weren't home.
Mrs Beasley said the first year after the fire was "a bit of a blur".
Family, friends and tradespeople banded together to rebuild their home.
"We're grateful for all the help - everyone did everything they could to help," Mrs Beasley said.
Tara-Lee Salau and her partner Adam Rowe also rebuilt after losing their North Elingamite home.
She said the couple and their three children loved their new home.
"It's great," she said.
"The paddocks are green again and the vegetation has come back."
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