contractor Bruce at the site . Very wet longish grass . Four went with Bruce to tackle the steep fence behind the pine plantation and John . Chris , Sheena and I started on the one along the creek . By mid afternoon we had finished pulling down all the wire and some of the star pickets , the others finished their steep section shortly after , the fog was lifting and the sun starting to shine through . We crossed over to the other side of the creek and started there . John , Bob , & Dulcie stayed on to pull out the remainder of the post with the tractor .
TRIP REPORTS
Farmer John was very pleased with what was accomplished on these two days . We were also very impressed with how he and his family had coped with the devastation of the fires which came on two different days from two different directions and living with all the fallout since . They seemed like a very close family . It was good to just sit and listen to all his stories of how they survived . They were very lucky , they only lost 4 sheep and that was when a damaged tree fell on them . Somehow , I think there was a lot of good management there rather than good luck .
With the extra help we demolished this second fence in no time including pulling out all of the star pickets .
We estimated about 1.5km along the back of the pines and about 1.8km on both sides of the creek . A good days work by all and John was pleased .
Day 3 . Tuesday 7 th
Another cold frosty morning and even heavier fog . Chris couldn ’ t front today as her “ dodgy ” leg was hurting . We met at John ’ s farm shed this time to pull out another fence nearer his house than yesterday . An estimated 0.8km long . Again very wet long grass . We demolished it by lunchtime including pulling out all the posts and cleaning up everything and taking it back to his very large dump of burnt wire and star pickets . He didn ’ t think that he would put a new fence here again as it was no longer needed .
After lunch Bob , Sheena and I pulled down another short section along the main Road . An estimated 0.5km long . The others went back to the area behind the Pines with John and the tractor to pull out the remaining posts and star pickets . Quite hard work by all accounts .
That night we found out that areas of Melbourne were being locked down again including Broadford where Allan stored his caravan , so he would have to leave tomorrow to get it back into storage before the deadline .
Another pleasant evening spent sitting around the campfire but not till late as everyone was feeling some effects of their labour .
Day 4 . Wednesday 8 th
Today dawned basically the same , frost , fog and cold , but today we were working on the second farm . Allan packed up early and left for home .
This time we were working with Kath & Forrest , Allan , Graham & Joy and Ian from the Uniting Church Group north of Corryong near Towong . There were two sections to be pulled down , one very steep and boggy , the other was on a flat section near a creek . Once again wet long grass . Chris was with us again so she and I pulled down the second one . The others pulled the first one down with a lot more difficulty especially in the boggy sections . After lunch Chris and I helped Forrest , Joy & Graham and farmer Sandy finish off a fence along the Thowgla Creek to keep the cattle away from the creek . Sandy , the farmer , wanted a gate in the fence so he could go fishing , which we did .
About 0.4 km and 0.9 km of fencing pulled down . Helped put in the steel corner posts , some of the steel pickets and strung the 5 wires along the fence . Strained the wires tight and attached the barbed wire as well on this 0.8 km of fencing .
Another evening around the campfire and afterwards we all slept well .