WA Bushfires: Passionate BlazeAid volunteers re-fence fire-affected farms in Wheatbelt

There is a group of new faces in the small farming town of Corrigin this year.

With hearts of gold and hands ready to put in some hard yakka, they are making a huge difference to the lives of farming families affected by February’s devastating bushfires.

A silver lining in what has been a trying time for the Wheatbelt, more than 40,000ha of which was razed in the horrific Shackleton-Corrigin bushfire on February 6, the BlazeAid team is working round the clock to repair hundreds of kilometres of fencing destroyed in the blazes.

Donning their fluoro orange vests and kitted out with gloves and wire cutters, the enthusiastic volunteers have been a sight for sore eyes in the fire-ravaged communities.

Bruce Rock farmer Paul Thompson — whose farm was fortunately unaffected by the fire — was on the phone to the national organisation in the early aftermath of the blaze to get help for farmers who needed it.

“They’re going to see the effects for a long long time, for years if not decades,” he said.

He organised for seven BlazeAid trailers — which carry equipment teams need to clear trees and pull down and put up fences — to be brought down from Yuna, where they were previously stationed for cyclone Seroja recovery.

His wife Melanie was also integral in cooking and providing food for the volunteer group.

Mr Thompson said the way that the local community had rallied together and the immense support from BlazeAid volunteers, as well as the wider WA community and farming community, had been incredible.

“The people that turned up to the fire was enormous, the people that turned up to the clean up of the roads was enormous, everybody puts their hands up,” he said.

“It’s nice to see (the BlazeAid volunteers) out there, and for the farmers affected to see something happening — fences going up, down.

“The enormity of all or half their farm going up in fires, it’s nice to see something good to come out of it.”

They had been feeling the appreciation, Bruce Rock BlazeAid co-ordinator Kevin Jones said.

“You get great satisfaction of helping, the farmers are usually ecstatic about it,” he said. “You’ll be working on a fence and a farmer will go past and they’ll be beeping the horn and waving at us.”

Stationed at Bruce Rock Recreation Centre originally on February 25, teams have since worked their way through 23km of clearing and taking down 30km of the 87km of damaged fencing in the Bruce Rock Shire.

On Monday, the camp was moved to the Corrigin Recreation Centre, where it will base itself from for the remainder of the rebuild.

The length of fencing in the Corrigin shire — where 70 per cent of the damage occurred — is estimated to be about 200km and months worth of work, with 15 requests for assistance and more expected to come through in the coming days.

BlazeAid was founded following the tragic Black Saturday fires in 2009, with teams of volunteers heading into communities after bushfires to help them rebuild.

Since its inception, the volunteer group has refenced more than 15,000km across the country.

Currently, there are 14 camps across the country — five in New South Wales, five in Queensland, one in Victoria and three in WA.

The Corrigin-Bruce Rock and Denmark camps were established in late February, while a third camp in Denmark — which destroyed four homes — is set to open tomorrow.

With the average age of the volunteer groups currently camped in the Wheatbelt hovering around the 60s — with some upwards of 70-years-old — they may not have been what most would have pictured.

But it makes their efforts to help those in need all the more impressive.

“These are people volunteering,” Mr Thompson said.

“They are working out in the heat all day, and the average age is about 70. . . it’s incredible.”

Many are retirees who have taken to a life on the road, caravanning around the country, pressing pause on their travels to park up at BlazeAid camps when they need boots on the ground.

Both full-time solo travelers and both in their 70s, volunteers Carol Newton and Marjorie Sealey have been putting in solid hours to help, and sharing plenty of laughs along the way.

“You just want to get out there and want to help,” Mrs Sealey said.

“Someone’s got to do it.”

Heading out at about 7am, they work until about 1pm, to avoid the heat of the day when the temperature rises and the wind picks up, blowing what the duo jokingly called “eucalyptus pepper” on their lunch.

They have been joined by several other volunteers, led by team leader Murray Blyth, who helped Seroja victims alongside Mrs Sealey last year.

“BlazeAid’s not just about pulling a fence down and rebuilding a new one,” he said.

“There’s the emotional side of it as well.

“We can be a shoulder to cry on. . . and that gives you as much satisfaction as actually building a new fence. . . helping people getting on with their lives.”

As well as dealing with the flies, heat and dust, Mr Blythe joked they also had to deal with the humour, with the tight-knit team cracking plenty of jokes to keep spirits high while working.

It was not a race, he said, with volunteers needing to find what pace — and how many days a week — they could manage so as to not overdo it, he said.

“You have to find that routine, you might only be able to work four days then have a day off. . . maybe three days and a day off,” Mr Blythe said.

“That’s probably the biggest challenge, getting into a mode where you’re working efficiently for yourself.

“Don’t just try and work at 900 miles an hour.”

Volunteer numbers have so far been low, with only one team of about six heading out most days.

They are hoping they pick up in the coming weeks, whether they stay for a weekend, a week or a month.

“It’s not something you do every day,” Mr Blyth said. “So it requires an effort to put down what your life is doing at the moment and go off and help somebody else for an indefinite period of time.”

Mr Jones said there was a lot people could get out of volunteering for the cause, and food and camping at the recreation grounds was provided to volunteers free of charge.

“You get to meet new people, new faces and have new experiences,” he said. “You help each other to help the farmers and you get that comradery between each other.”

While the amount of time the rebuild will take is unknown, one thing is clear — they are in it for the long haul.

“It all depends on the volunteers,” Mr Jones said.

“If we had 100 volunteers it doesn’t take long, but if we have half a dozen it will.

“But we’ll stay here until it’s done.”

Those interested in volunteering at any of the WA camps can access information at blazeaid.com.au/current-camps.