In less than 48 hours two Maitland photographers and a high school student rolled up three kilometres of fencing on a scorched property between Cassilis and Dunedoo.
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They were the only living things on the horizon.
There wasn’t even a fly buzzing around them while they worked.
Everything had turned to charcoal and the smell of burnt cattle in a nearby creek lingered in the air.
The Sir Ivan fire burnt more than 54000 hectares and destroyed more than 20 homes in February.
At one stage it was moving six kilometres every seven minutes.
Allen Davis, Justin Aveling and All Saints College St Mary’s High School student Alex Thomson saw the severity of the blaze.
“There was nothing left as far as the eye could see, it’s so rare to see nothing on the ground,” Mr Davis said.
“It looked like a moonscape … The ground was brown and burnt.
“Nothing got away, they’ve lost every insect that couldn’t get away.”
The trio worked on Chris Wentworth-Brown’s property near Spit Rock, which is half way between Cassilis and Dunedoo.
He owns 2500 acres there and his father has 1600 acres nearby.
Mr Wentworth-Brown escaped the fire with his life and the clothes on his back.
His wife escaped with the kids and their school uniforms. She had five minutes to get out.
Their house, sheds, cattle yards, fences and all of their machinery was wiped out. They also lost most of their stock.
Now they are living in a caravan.
“What we did was like a pimple on a pumpkin,” Mr Davis said.
About 5500 kilometres of fencing needs to be repaired across the fireground and volunteer group Blaze Aid is leading the charge.
“Along the road you see little crews out putting up boundary fences,” Mr Davis said.“It’s a massive job.”
Mr Davis met Mr Wentworth-Brown while he was on his way to Dubbo after the fire. He was moved by the landscape and decided to pull into the next driveway he saw to find out what he could do to help.
He said about 30 farms had been effected.
“I drove through 48.4 kilometres of burnt out country side … Chris is a stoic kind of bloke, he’s been through a lot,” Mr Davis said.
He hopes to return to the property in a few weeks with more volunteers.
The clean up is expected to take months.
Belinda-Jane Davis
Passionate about community news
Passionate about community news
