When bushfires ripped through Shane and Penny Wells’s property at the base of the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park, they had little time to get their sheep, horses, and alpacas to safety.
Evacuating big animals is no small feat, but it didn’t matter to their friend Alison Brumley, who offered up her backyard paddock to her friends’ beloved livestock.
“I live smack-bang in the middle of Cavendish, not a lot of land, but what land we have is for [Shane and Penny] to share,” Ms Brumley said.
When the livestock trailer pulled up at Ms Brumley’s place, 10 alpacas “and a sheep named Gary that identifies as an alpaca” jumped out.
Gary the sheep joined the alpacas at Ms Brumley’s home. (ABC South West Vic: Olivia Sanders)
Ms Brumley said rural communities rallied during an emergency.
“It’s just what you do, and you don’t second guess it,” she said.
Gary prefers the company of alpacas to other sheep. (ABC South West Vic: Olivia Sanders)
Sheep and beehives lost
Bushfires have been burning in the Grampians for more than two months.
Shane and Penny Wells’s animals were able to get to safety, but not everyone has been so lucky.
Agriculture Victoria figures show since the fires sparked in December 2024, almost 1,300 sheep and close to 1,300 beehives have been destroyed, as well as one horse and one cow.
Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) livestock director Scott Young said stock losses were devastating for farmers.
“Any livestock farmer feels a connection to his animals and wants to do the best by them,” Mr Young said.
“To have them killed by fire is devastating.”
But Mr Young said stock losses were kept at a relative minimum because farmers were well prepared.
“The time it took the fires to come out of the actual park and into the farmland gave farmers an opportunity to put their livestock into containment areas where they could hopefully protect them from the fires,” he said.
Mr Young wants the state government to support farmers whose pasture has been burnt. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)
Stock feed burnt
As work to rebuild fences gets underway, farmers have the added task of trying to feed stock when so much pasture has been burnt.
“Trying to access feed is really hard at the moment [and] it’s going to be a big challenge to be able to buy fodder and grain to keep the stock going,” Mr Young said.
Agriculture Victoria data shows more than 60,000 hectares of farming land has burnt since the Grampians fires started in mid-December, including more than 10,000 hectares of grazing pasture and almost 600 kilometres of fencing.
Mr Young said the VFF was working with the government to try to unlock financial support.
“These farmers have done a great job in being able to protect their animals, so they haven’t had the stock losses, but they still need to try to feed their animals,” he said.
“We would like the government to actually have a look at these trigger points and see whether they can be changed to ‘area of land burnt’ rather than the ‘amount of stock that has been lost’.”
Mr Young said the VFF encouraged farmers impacted by the recent fires to reach out to the National Centre for Farmers Health and the Rural Financial Counselling Service for support.
The state government has been contacted for comment.
