Vic farmers count the cost of fierce, widespread fires

RURAL communities across Victoria are counting the cost of recent bushfires as emergency services and volunteers continue to fight 14 blazes across the state.

The larger bushfires are in the state’s east, where tracts of grazing country and native forest in mostly hilly and mountainous terrain are still burning, with the Longwood and Walwa fires being the largest.

In cropping country, the Grass Flat fire near Natimuk in the Wimmera has burnt roughly 8350ha, and in the Mallee, the fire south of Underbool has also impacted a considerable area.

The Streatham fire, which roared east along both the north and south sides of the Glenelg Highway towards Skipton, has burnt 19,229ha, including more than 16,000ha of farming country.

While nearly all Vic farmers had finished harvest prior to strong winds and temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius setting in last Friday, the fires have destroyed some unharvested crops, headers, stored grain, and hay bales, as well as some homes, sheds, and public buildings.

Grass Flat-Natimuk fire

At Grass Flat, grower and Horsham Rural City Council mayor Brian Klowss lost around 485ha of unharvested but insured wheat.

“We had a breakdown with one header; that’s what held us up,” Cr Klowss said.

“A lot of people only finished in the last week or 10 days.”

He said of the total 8350ha burnt in the Grass Flat-Natimuk fire, around 95 percent was cropping country, and 95pc of that had been harvested.

“My main concern…on the farming scene is the erosion.”

Hot and windy conditions continued into Saturday and Sunday.

While temperatures have dropped this week, sustained winds have thwarted efforts to extinguish some blazes.

“We had 100kmh gusts with 40-odd degrees,” Cr Klowss said of Friday’s conditions.

“The fire first burnt first 10-15km but only 200-300m wide, and then it hit Three Chain Road, where we live, and then it spread.”

The fire destroyed 30 homes in Natimuk and Quantong, closer to Horsham.

“We had four neighbours lose houses.

“One neighbour was with me trying to put the fire out while his house exploded in front of him.”

“My big concern is the mental health of people after an event like this.

Streatham fire

Carranballac farmer Myles Read finished his bumper harvest last Tuesday, and fire ripped through all three of his farms on Friday.

“I’m 100-percent burnt,” Mr Read said of his country, including his home property, Caringal, on the Glenelg Highway between Streatham and Skipton.

He was running 350 wethers; 45 had to be put down after the fire, and the remainder have been sold as the best option for a farm without paddock feed of any kind, including stubble.

Mr Read harvested 1600ha in total of cereals and canola, with his 900ha of wheat yielding around 7 tonnes/ha, and canola its highest average yet of 4t/ha.

While canola was sold off the header, Mr Read had vertical silos full of wheat, as well as 2000t in an open-fronted shed.

“I had stored grain surrounded by hay in a shed.

“Once the hay caught, it burnt the top of the grain.

“We managed to fish hay out from three sides, and…put straight water on the top of it.

“We managed to skin the crust off it with shovels; I’m just glad we managed to save what we could.”

Mr Read estimates around 100t of the 2000t of the red wheat stored in the shed was lost in the fire; the rest will be sold to dairy customers south of Carranballac.

He said damaged grain was lost income.

“Wheat is insured in the paddock, but not in the shed.

“The shed’s still standing; it’s all H-beam, so structurally it’s good.”

A neighbour of Mr Read’s has four silos filled with faba beans still burning after fire ripped through his farm, another lost 35 head of cattle, and another lost 365ha of unharvested wheat.

To the east of Caringal, a total of six headers out of the 12 lost in the wider Westmere Fire Brigades area, plus a number of chaser bins, are believed to have been destroyed by the fire, as has a laden grain truck.

Substantial rain is unlikely to appear before March, and the growing of a cover crop is therefore not an option to help hold soil on burnt country.

Mr Read said he has deep-ripped a line across the paddock close to the family home to minimise the dust.

“We may rip every 100m to try to hold the country; that’s all we can do.”

Minor damage at GrainCorp

Major eastern Australian bulk handler GrainCorp operates a site at Natimuk, and while no grain was impacted or lost in the fire, its boundaries and fenceline were destroyed.

“GrainCorp is managing the impacts of recent bushfires and severe weather across parts of Victoria, including the Wimmera, Mallee and Central Victoria regions,” GrainCorp said in a statement.

“Thankfully, there were no injuries to GrainCorp employees.

“Some sites, including Natimuk, Nhill, Berrybank and Hopetoun, experienced damage to bunker tarps from high winds, and minor infrastructure impacts.

“Our thoughts are with the communities, growers, customers and employees affected by these events, and our teams who are supporting clean-up and recovery efforts across the regions.”

VFF response

The Victorian Farmers Federation on Saturday activated its Disaster Relief Fund to support producers impacted by the “catastrophic bushfires”, when 300,000ha had been burnt.

VFF is currently running a fodder drive for those affected, and as of yesterday, had 6156 bales donated, up from 1050 on Monday, with 648 delivered or in transit.

Farmers can also request and offer agistment via the VFF website.

Truck drivers are needed to help deliver donated fodder to farmers.