South Central and West Gippsland
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0!24 /& 4(% &!2-%2 '2/50 252!, .%730!0%23 #/6%2).' 6)#4/2)! n #)2#5,!4)/. Published since 1986
‘FOOD MILES’ SHORT AT SMEATON
MARCH, 2014
PAGES 4 - 5
486 Whitehorse Road, Surrey Hills, 3127
SEYMOUR FIELD DAY WRAP-UP
PAGES 6-7
12-PAGE LIFT-OUT
WARRAGUL FARM WORLD
)XU\ LQ Âż UHÂśV ZDNH By DAVID PALMER
DESTRUCTION: Vehicles on a property in Doolins Road near Darraweit Guim were completely destroyed by the Mickleham-Kilmore bushfire on February 10, but it was the loss and suffering of farm livestock in the days following the fire that deeply distressed local farmers and smallholders. PHOTO: David Palmer
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„ Continued page 2
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S REDUCE SE OU GREENH SION IS GAS EM
FARMERS burned out by the Mickleham-Kilmore bushďŹ re last month are furious that authorities used road-blocks across 24,000 hectares to exclude them and essential services from their farms for up to three days. Tom McDonell, who farms about 2500ha near Darraweit Guim, said the exclusion deďŹ ed common sense and he was “pretty outragedâ€?. “It (the exclusion) was far worse than the ďŹ re itself,â€? Mr McDonnell said. When he spoke with Southern Farmer two weeks after the February 10 ďŹ re, he had lost 10,000 sheep and 400 agisted cattle because of the ďŹ re. And that was the bulk of the ďŹ nal livestock death tally compiled by the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries at the end of February - 16,150 animals of all kinds destroyed. A week earlier the tally was 18 houses, about 12,000 sheep, 450 cattle, more than 300 other animals and at least 1200km of fencing. Mr McDonell, his employees and DEPI staff had had to shoot thousands of sheep largely because of severe lung damage from ingesting smoke and heat. “When you open them up their lungs are just full of gunk,â€? he said. Mr McDonell went on national radio a couple of days after the ďŹ re saying he’d lost 7000 sheep. Less than a week later he had lost 10,000 as he found and killed more
hopelessly burned animals. Certainly the biggest landholder in the area – his farm was more than 10 per cent of the burned region – his losses were far and away the biggest in the ďŹ re. But the ďŹ gure was not ďŹ nal: two weeks after the ďŹ re as he was still ďŹ nding animals which had to be shot. Mr McDonell was able to bring one excavator onto the farm on the night of the ďŹ re to start burying stock immediately. But because of the Victoria Police road-blocks – sometimes two on each road – he was unable to bring in two more excavators, operators and fuel to dig graves, or trucks to move surviving stock, until three days had passed. He said Environment Protection Authority personnel arrived on February 13 to dictate where livestock would be buried but by then the grave sites were well established. One DEPI ofďŹ cer of the dozens eventually allowed into the ďŹ re zone told Southern Farmer that they had to work up to 15-hour days to put livestock out of their misery as soon as possible. Fran Cleland saw her house burn in the ďŹ re. But her strongest words were for the road-blocks and the way in which they stopped farmers from attending to their livestock. “They caused uncounted agony for so many animals,â€? Ms Cleland said. “We saw a farmer stuck for three days at the Wallan refuge, frantic for his sheep.
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