NEARLY three months out from the New Year’s Eve fires that ravaged the region, a new flush of green grass is bringing a new flush of positivity to the Poolaijelo district.

Ardmeen Farms principal, Celia Scott - who counts herself fortunate that her property was largely untouched in the fires – said the district’s residents continued to show their resilience in the face of adversity and with the assistance of a massive band of volunteers.

“The green grass that’s coming through at the moment is having a positive effect on everyone’s mindset,”
Ms Scott said.

“There’s lots of clean-up still happening and we’re still appreciating great help from Blaze Aid.”

The organisation, created by Kevin and Rhonda Butler following the Black Saturday fires which devastated much of Victoria in 2009, is now nationally recognised and has travelled to every state in Australia, helping regional and rural communities to recover following disasters, such as the Poolaijelo fires,

Blaze Aid relies on volunteers and is best-known for assisting farmers with the arduous task of re-fencing properties – creating some order among the chaos.

Since New Year’s Eve, 73 Blaze Aid volunteers have assisted on 16 properties in the Poolaijelo and Edenhope district, clearing more than 57 kilometres of damaged fencing and putting up more than 69 kilometres.

“Their work has saved local farmers many, many hours and more than $123,000 in costs,” Ms Scott said.

She said the ongoing support of people from across the country, continued to stun local residents.

“It is still a bit overwhelming, how absolutely generous people are,” Ms Scott said.

“It makes us realise that even though we feel like the trauma is getting further away – which is a good thing - people are still aware of what we went through and there are still people supporting us to get through this.”

She said the latest response to an SOS from Blaze Aid had re-enforced

“It is really an overwhelming feeling when you find complete strangers just stepping in to help,” she said.

“When (Blaze Aid’s Kevin Butler) put a post up on social media for help to go and get (new products required for a rebuild), he sent a message at eight o’clock in the morning, by the time I got back at 12 o’clock, someone had already volunteered their time and was driving, I don’t know how many hours, to pick up the posts.

“It really is amazing.”

This week, the community took delivery of the first batch of ‘plastic neutral posts’, which will be used in the Poolaijelo area in a planned, mass-tree-planting exercise, planning for later in the year.

Ms Scott said the loss of paddock trees as well as plantations in the area had had great environmental impacts on the district, but a new co-operative effort between landowners, Blaze Aid and local Landcare Groups, aimed to re-vegetate up to 17 local farms.