Kim Marshall’s heart sank the minute she laid eyes on the charred remains of her family home.
The long drive up to the family homestead at the foot of Mount William in the Grampians ranges was punctuated by burned fences and blackened paddocks.
But seeing the home she grew up in transformed into a pile of blackened tin and ash was something else.
“I just broke down, it was terrible,” Ms Marshall said.
“I burst into tears.”
Only the burned remnants of Rod Marshall’s home remain, blackened and broken. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
The home in Moyston, where the Marshalls stay when they’re working on the family farm, is one of four destroyed by a bushfire that has torn through the Grampians/Gariwerd National Park area.
No lives have been lost but more than 76,000 hectares of land have been burned.
The Marshalls’ farm, which is still run by Rod Marshall ahead of daughter Kim’s eventual takeover, has lost between 80 and 90 per cent of its grass and most of its fodder reserves.
And it is not the first time it has been hit.
During the 2006 bushfires in the Grampians, one of the most recent significant blazes to hit the region, Mr Marshall lost everything but his home.
This time round his fortunes have flipped.
The house has burned to the ground, but the fencing, sheds, and their 350 sheep and 50 cattle were spared.
Farmers like Rod Marshall are still counting the cost of the bushfires in 2006. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
For all the devastation around them, the family remains stoic.
They are more concerned about their stock than anything else.
“We’ve got cows that are calving and sheep that are lambing,” Mr Marshall said.
“So it’s the worst time of year for something like this to happen.”
Kim Marshall stands near what remains of the family farm in Moyston. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
Deja vu
Emergency services remain at the scene of the bushfire, using favourable conditions to prepare for another blast of hot weather this weekend.
State Incident Control Centre spokesman Luke Hegarty said firefighters were working to build control lines around the fire.
Sybil Burmeister runs sheep and cattle with her family on a property just out of Willaura.
The fire has destroyed kilometres fencing on the Burmeister family farm. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
Her home was spared in both the 2006 and 2024 fires, but the rest of her farm has not been so lucky.
Ms Burmeister had only just finished fixing her fencing from the 2006 fires.
This latest fire has destroyed dozens of kilometres of fencing, including three of the farm’s four boundary fences.
“Luckily the whole community was pretty well prepared for it,” Ms Burmeister said.
“Somehow we’ve managed to save all the sheds and animals and everything.”
Ms Burmeister’s husband and sons, Floyd and Sinclair, fought the fire on the town’s old CFA tanker, carting “who knows how many loads” of water around the property.
Floyd and Sinclair Burmeister were among the volunteers fighting to protect properties, including their own, near Willaura. (Supplied: Sylvie Burmeister)
She said the blaze got just 60 centimetres from the door of an old stable where she intends to build her new family home.
“It was as close as you’d like it,” Ms Burmeister told the ABC’s Victorian Country Hour.
Help is on its way
Volunteer farming relief group BlazeAid has set up camp at the Willaura football oval, not far from Ms Burmeister’s farm.
Volunteer firefighters have been working around the clock to contain the Grampians fire. (Supplied: Sybil Burmeister)
The group expects around 50 volunteers to put their hands up to help replace the fencing lost to the fire.
It was an effort that could take all of next year to complete.
“We’ve got to give the farmers time to, sadly, dispose of the stock that’s been killed in the fires, so there’s a lot to get ready,” said BlazeAid vice president Christine Male.
The total amount of fencing lost is still being tallied, and the cost to replace it is significant.
Ms Burmeister, for example, was quoted a cost of $2.50 per metre of fencing by a local contractor, and she’s lost between 30 and 40 kilometres of fence.
“I couldn’t believe that,” she said with a laugh. “It’s really expensive.”
This is the second time BlazeAid has set up a station in the region this year, following the devastating Pomonal bushfires in February, which destroyed 46 homes.
Ms Male said her organisation was more than willing to help at properties they had previously volunteered at earlier this year.
Cattle are grazing on fodder and feed in burned out paddocks at Moyston. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)
The federal government has confirmed support payments will be available for Victorian workers and sole traders affected by the blaze.
The Country Fire Authority said at least 31 sheds and farm buildings in the Mafeking, Moyston, and surrounding areas had been lost in the blaze.
