Fire-affected towns welcome Easter visitors

By Justine Longmore

By Warwick Long

ABC Rural

Topic:Fires

Andrew Embling is encouraging people to visit the region.

In short:

Holiday-makers have been welcomed back to fire-affected communities over Easter.

The Murrindindi Shire was the worst-affected council area during the January fires in Victoria.

What's next?

It will take several years for locals to rebuild.

The rolling green hills around Yarck hide the scars of the fierce blaze.

Many homes and buildings destroyed in the Longwood blaze are still piles of rubble.

Easter weekend events and tourism bring hope of recovery and renewal.

We're open for business, Alexandra community and business leader Andrew Embling said.

We want people to come back. They're starting to, and that's good.

John and Heather Drysdale lost their house and most of their farm in the fire.

John and Heather Drysdale farm cattle and sheep at Yarck and Ruffy.

Nearly all of their land was burnt.

Realistically, not much was left behind, Mr Drysdale said.

A pile of twisted metal, a lone chimney and rubble is all that remains of their house.

We just haven't had a chance to get someone to remove what I call a mess now.

It looks like I haven't done my housework for a little while.

Heather Drysdale's roses were spared from the fire.

The Murrindindi Shire was the hardest hit in Victoria during the January fires.

Twenty-two towns and localities in the area were affected.

As a municipality, we've got about $50 million worth of public infrastructure that was impacted, Mayor Damien Gallagher said.

When you look at the private impacts, we're talking about 6,500–7,500 sheep and cattle — a massive chunk of our municipality's herd.

Damien Gallagher says the area has suffered significant economic losses from the fire.

About 4,800 kilometres of fencing was also destroyed — longer than the distance from Brisbane to Perth.

We're talking about $120 million in fencing loss alone that the community is having to endure.

Visitors urged to 'enjoy the countryside'

Nearly three months on, Mr Gallagher said many locals were getting back to normal.

The roads have opened, people are back at school and back at work, the grass is starting to green.

But there's people still looking at bent metal and rubble where their home was.

While the rebuilding will take some time, towns, businesses and events are eager for visitors.

Murrindindi is open for business, Mr Gallagher said.

There's swags of produce that you can take back of the very best quality produce from Murrindindi.

Businesses in Alexandra lost revenue during and after the fires.

The fire stopped short of Alexandra, but surrounded it on three sides.

The town was closed for two-and-a-half to three weeks and businesses certainly lost a lot of revenue, Mr Embling said.

We were shattered in January and February.

Mr Embling urged people to make the trip.

Burnt machinery at the Drysdale's farm in Yarck.

The Drysdales are getting their farm ready for the return of their cows.

Cows are spread over a big distance from Melville Forest to Bairnsdale, Mr Drysdale said.

Just making sure they're all good and looked after is a key factor.

Rebuilding fences has also been a priority on the Drysdale farm.

Our country is very steep and getting someone in here to do some fencing is not easy, Mr Drysdale said.

When we bring stock home, we're going to be feeding again, the same as last year.

Charcoal on the ground in Yarck, nearly 12 weeks on from the January fire.

The Drysdales aren't expecting their home to be rebuilt any time soon.

It'll be a long time, like years, Mrs Drysdale said.

So many other houses were destroyed as well and other properties are suffering.

I'm hoping we'll be in a new home by within two years, but we might not be.

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