Fire-hit communities in need of trauma support, as volunteers and donors dig deep

1 month ago 17

Residents in areas of central and northern Victoria affected by this month’s bushfires may need emergency relief for another two months, local volunteers have warned.

Community-led emergency relief centres have been established across the region hit by the Longwood fire that broke out on January 7 and burnt through 136,000 hectares of land, killed countless livestock and destroyed at least 173 homes and 442 outbuildings.

Andrea Bauer (right) has been leading the community-led emergency response to the bushfire crisis in central Victoria.

The fire is still burning, although it doesn’t pose an immediate threat to lives or property, with watch-and-act warnings still in place on Sunday across a vast swath of land from Longwood and stretching south to Thornton, near Marysville.

Watch-and-act warnings also remained in place on Sunday for the Cobram district fire and the Walwa fire, both in the state’s north.

Volunteers across the fire zones have been handing out groceries, cooking meals and setting up showers and toilets for those who have lost homes, distributing hay and fodder to keep livestock alive, and helping with applications for state and federal financial recovery grants.

At the Highlands Community Hall, about 20 kilometres north of Yea, Andrea Bauer, who has been co-ordinating the response, said the community was hopeful power would be restored this week but feared the Highlands-Caveat area might be without electricity for many weeks.

Andrew Embling (right) and his team of volunteers (from left) Bruce Stewart, Emily Salmon, Ben Nash and Chloe Gaunt, who have been organising feed and hay for farms.

Bauer had been working at the hall non-stop for five days when she spoke to this masthead, and said the donated supplies were supporting locals who had been burnt out of their homes and those who could not get to supermarkets in Seymour due to widespread road closures.

Volunteers at the hall have also set up an advisory service to help residents apply for state and federal financial relief. The centre is also acting a distribution hub for tools badly needed for the recovery effort after the widespread destruction of sheds and outbuildings.

Bauer said while the material side of the relief effort was going well, professional counselling and trauma support were badly needed.

“What I’m looking for is some welfare services, people talking to people,” Bauer said.

“I’ve been trying to do that, others too, and there’s a big advantage in being local and knowing people and what they’ve lost, but I just can’t do it along with everything else.

“When you see people come in here, that look on their faces, almost like they’re not there.

“The [Murrindindi Shire] council might send somebody up one day a week, and she’s got a therapy dog or something, so that might help.”

The council did not respond to a request for comment.

In Alexandra, closer to the south-eastern edge of the Longwood fire zone, stock agent Andrew Embling was co-ordinating a pop-up distribution centre for hay and animal feed donations, to keep surviving livestock in the burnt areas from starving.

Embling said donations were still flooding in on Sunday from farmers as far afield as Wagga Wagga, NSW.

“We’ve got 30-odd trucks coming in today from right across the Riverina,” he said.

The centre at Alexandra’s showgrounds has processed 1500 large hay bales since last Monday, about 200 small bales and 32 batches of silage. Six vehicles driven by volunteers had taken the supplies as far as Merton and Gobur, both about 30 kilometres away.

“We will keep this hub here going at least for another week on a limited time of four hours a day, so anyone can come and pick up and they can deliver,” Embling said.

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