South Coast Farmer - Autumn 2009

Country Shows are at risk from a lack of new blood owing into committees. But young people and the young-at-heart are helping to keep them alive. The South Coast Farmer takes a look at the competitive spirit of the Korumburra Show. See page 4-5.

PAGE 2 - “SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009

A typical day in the office (Let’s talk)

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“SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009 - PAGE 3

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

Kongwak to CSIRO

By Jane Ross

THE ability of South Gippsland’s farmers to ride out the challenges of climate change and world food demand, will depend on science and planning.

Alan Bell, chief of the CSIRO’S Livestock Industries, recently said this when he addressed 100 local people in the Kongwak Hall.

Professor Bell grew up in Kongwak on the family farm Pine Grove and attended Kongwak Primary School. He went to New England University and has lived and worked in Scotland and America, where he was head of the animal science department of Cornell University.

Professor Bell returned to Australia in 2007 and is based in Brisbane.

According to his website, he is a renowned animal scientist and a distinguished researcher in the nutritional physiology of pregnancy, lactation and growth in cattle and sheep.

He told his Kongwak audience that the world’s demand for food would double by the middle of this century, doing so at a time when resource bases are shrinking.

“There are enough signs of global warming to make us very concerned about producing extra food.”

Professor Bell said depending on how you look at it, Australia’s dairy industry can seem to be very small or significant. We produce two per cent of the world’s milk, half of which is exported as “part of the supply chain for high quality protein”.

There’s hope: Alan Bell, chief of the CSIRO’s livestock industries, believes that with good planning and help from scientists, South Gippsland farmers will ride out the challenges of global warming, carbon emissions costs and world food demands. Based in Brisbane, he grew up in Kongwak and is pictured on the Bell family farm at Kongwak, Pine Grove.

But, despite the “fairly gloomy present situation with the milk price going belly up and the European Union response to the market, looking out further, there will be continuing opportunity.

“There will be special opportunity here in South Gippsland.”

Professor Bell said his colleagues in other parts of CSIRO were predicting that south eastern Australia will become drier and warmer, although “there is a lot of debate about the magnitude”.

There will be more extreme weather, but “this corner of Victoria will not be so hard hit”. With Gippsland producing one third of Victoria’s milk, that’s good news.

“I see an opportunity for the community here for continued success.

Farming is a risky business, but we need to pay more serious attention to the magnitude of that risk.

“Business management is important.”

Professor Bell said pasture management is now very different from when he was a child, but will have to change again.

“Scientists will have to produce new plant varieties,” he said.

“We have now the genetic tools even to change animals, to be more adaptable to environmental extremes.”

But, he warned, there is the prospect of Australian agriculture being forced to take part in a carbon emissions trading scheme.

“The bottom line is the possibility that farmers will be taxed for the carbon dioxide they produce.”

That will apply to the oil, diesel and petrol used on farms, but more seriously for dairy farmers and those with other ruminant animals, to the methane gas the animals produce.

Professor Bell said it is estimated that these animals produce 10 per cent of the global warming impact in Australia.

“This brings about a very important political dilemma. On the one hand, Australian politicians are committed to the Kyoto protocol, promising we will do our bit.

“We also have a responsibility to contribute to world food supply.

“We have to get a balance.

“If Australian farmers are taxed directly (for carbon emissions), half will go out of business.

“There are opportunities to get around this. There is important work to be done.”

Already, he said, animals are being managed more efficiently, thus producing less gas.

“The message is more milk, less methane.”

Further underscoring the need for balance, Alan told the audience he remembered school excursions to the Kongwak Butter Factory “which was very much to the fore of cheesemaking”. He said he didn’t take much notice, but he did know that the whey from the cheesemaking was dumped in the Foster Creek, which ran at the back of the Bell farm. There were no fish in the creek.

But about 10 years after the factory closed, he saw a platypus in the creek.

“I’d never seen one there before.”

Back home: Alan Bell (left) and his brother John, outside the Kongwak Primary School, which they both attended. Alan, a professor, is chief of the CSIRO’s Livestock Industries. John, founder with his wife Sue of Paradise Enough Winery at Kongwak, is studying medicine as one of 70 students in a new post graduate program at Monash University’s Gippsland Campus.

PAGE 4 - “SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

Shows need help THE local community has been urged to get behind local shows to help keep them afloat.

Freaky stuff: twelve-year-old James Clifford of Korumburra gets up close and personal with a green tree frog named Kim Beasley (much bigger than the one named John Howard), Joshua the crocodile and a very friendly carpet snake. Although there was only a handful of junior competitors, there were plenty of youngsters, like James, who were happy to look at what was on display at the Korumburra Show recently.

Korumburra Agricultural Show president Bev Kurrle said she and her committee members still continued to “pedal on” despite being but a few.

Even so, the committee helped the show notch up its 114th staging recently.

“It’s a lot of hard work from very few people at the moment. That’s the thing that drags us down,” Bev said.

“We’ve put it to some of the people in the town that if we’re to go ahead – and the Korumburra community is a great community – people need to get behind it.”

With the sad demise of the Leongatha Agricultural Show still fresh in people’s minds, local show committees need a hand to make sure their own shows don’t go the same way.

Although there are some dedicated youngsters and old stagers who front up year after year, show committees need an injection of new blood if these institutions are to continue into the future.

Competitors like Amber McAlpine and Eilene Page are among a select few in the youth brigade who believe in the validity of local agricultural shows and are keen to see this tradition continue

long into the future.

Older competitors, like Yvonne Morrison who has been competing in horse events at the Korumburra Show for the past 54 years, are also helping to keep the proud tradition of agricultural shows alive.

The Star was at the Korumburra Show, watching Amber, Eilene and Yvonne in action.

What their competitive spirit makes clear is that the local show still has relevance. It only needs a few more people to put up their hand to compete.

Amber has been competing at the show for the past four years. The 15-year-old won the best junior handler sash for her turn with Diva the Brahman cow.

The McAlpine family, from Leongatha, has been exhibiting animals at the show for as long as anyone can remember and Amber is continuing that proud tradition.

For Amber the reasons to exhibit are simple: “I really enjoy it. I just love being around animals.”

“It started off as mum and dad’s hobby when I was younger, which is why I got into it,” she said.

Amber said that while she was one of only a few young people exhibiting at agricultural shows locally, there were

greater numbers at the bigger shows.

“There are a few kids at the national shows and stuff like that,” Amber said.

“There is the Bendigo Beef Show coming up and there’s usually more competitors there.”

It was clear that Amber had a close relationship with her cow Diva, who she described as a “real sweetie”.

Although the field was small, Amber was the standout competitor in her field and worthy of her accolade, according to long time judge David Meikle.

David himself was a junior competitor, and younger than Amber when he competed. He admits to being in his 50s now.

“When we were out there, Amber was able to handle the heifer and control it. She was also able to see what I was doing, so if she wanted to stop the heifer she was able to do that,” he said.

“She wasn’t wrestling with the heifer. I was able to do things with hand gestures and she knew what I meant.”

David said that control was the most important aspect of the competition.

While Amber has clearly mastered this art, too few others are being schooled in these skills.

Among the game birds in the Sanders Pavilion there was a great atmosphere of competition – adding to it was

Eilene Page, and mother Gail.

One was a young competitor, the other was an older woman who was young at heart.

The 16-year-old from Mt Eccles has been swept up in the excitement along with her mother “We’ve been exhibiting for about three years. We’re only new starters, aren’t we?” mother asked daughter.

“Yep,” Eilene confirmed.

After being given a few birds from a friend, their interest grew.

Eilene said the birds made good pets, as well as fierce competitors. The pair competes locally, travelling the shows at Wonthaggi, Korumburra, Foster and Lang Lang.

But like their birds, they may well spread their wings.

Bev Kurrle said the younger generation “doesn’t seem to be as interested as they used to be.

“At one time it was big thing. Mum and dad and the kids all went. It was a big day out. Today nothing stops for it,” she said.

But perhaps the show will again have its day, if only people will heed Bev’s plea and get behind it.

Amber McAlpine: the 15-year-old won the junior handler’s ribbon with the impeccably behaved Brahman, Diva. Amber said Diva was “a sweetie”.

“SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009 - PAGE 5

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition Big challenge: five-year-old Nash Beavis has a ride on prize bull Banjo. The young cowboy showed no fear despite the massive dimensions of the mighty beast. Banjo was bred by Rob McAlpine at Leongatha.

Champion game breeder: Eilene Page from Mt Eccles was awarded the junior champion ribbon for her efforts with Twiggy.

Below, All style: Yvonne Morrison from Inverloch has been competing at the Korumburra Show for 54 years, from the age of four. Age has not wearied her and she completed a perfect round of jumps on J.F. Ludo.

First prize: Ruby the cow brought home the prize for Grand Champion Dairy Cow. Owner Brett Kelly and partner Erin Carns from Korumburra have been competing at the show for two years.

Happy family: the Tudor family from Meeniyan had a fun day at the Korumburra Show, despite the fear of being eaten by a giant crocodile.

Mother Kerrie holds Brielle, 4, with Amy, 7, and Ethan, 6, standing.

PAGE 6 - “SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

By Chris Brown

IN 2005 Malcolm and Carol Cock left behind 2500 acres at Buchan and moved to Hallston.

South Gippsland: a rainbow across Hallston paddocks in 2007.

It was the end of 33 years in East Gippsland managing the family’s cattle and sheep property.

After turning the operation into a profitable enterprise and paying off the land, the time came to scale down and move closer to family.

In the early 1970s the Cocks were farming in the Yarra Valley, but seeking a property in limestone country with a reliable rainfall.

“We looked in the Western District down Port Campbell way. We thought, with 31 inches of rain at Buchan it would be good, but we didn’t know the inconsistencies of it,” Malcolm said.

“We felt Western District limestone country was too cold, wet and miserable compared to East Gippsland.”

So in 1973 they moved to Buchan with its two kilometres of Buchan River frontage, permanent creek and 250 acres of bush.

“It’s ideal breeding country. We ended up 50/50 sheep and cattle, and paid the place off and made a profit compared to when we were just straight cattle,” Malcolm said.

“All the machinery you needed in that country was a direct drill, a good spray unit because blackberries were a major problem, and a tractor with a front end loader on it.

“I left there feeling as if I had achieved what I wanted to achieve.

I’d been successful as a professional farmer in an area that certainly is an area that tests your management skills.”

Those experiences, as well as his involvement with BeefCheque and Farm$mart, are now helping Malcolm consult for Farm Dynamics Consulting.

“In the Farm$mart program we had a triple bottom line; mine was people first, making profit second and environment third,” Malcolm said.

“Some people turn that the other way around, but I believe to be sustainable environmentally you have to be sustainable financially as a farmer.

“If you’re going broke you haven’t got the money or resources to care for your land.”

Before the move to South Gippsland in late 2005, the Cocks purchased 170 acres at Mardan to hedge land prices.

“We sold that three years after we bought it and got used to farming this country a bit before we actually went to Hallston,” Malcolm said.

Surprisingly, the drier years in South Gippsland mean stocking rates are relatively similar for Buchan and on Amberley Park at Hallston.

They started with a stocking rate of 10 DSE per hectare in Buchan, which was developed to 18 DSE compared to 22 DSE at Hallston.

“If it was purely economics I wouldn’t be farming here as a business in South Gippsland. You can’t afford to farm beef and/or sheep small scale in South Gippsland unless you don’t owe any money,” Malcolm said.

“Not when you consider the price down there was about $1200 an acre and here it’s $3500-$4000 an acre.

“But you’re paying for position here and the reliable rainfall, though the soil’s not as good here.”

There are other differences between the two places.

• Bairnsdale is an hour from Buchan while Hallston is only 12 minutes from Leongatha.

• Blackberries were a major issue in East Gippsland, but need only a couple of day’s attention a year here.

• Rainfall comes in different ways. During the 1998 drought, Bu-

chan received 275mm in 30 hours.

• It reached minus14 degrees at Buchan once and in summer 2003 temperatures of 45, 46 and 47 were reached on consecutive days.

• Going to netball, football, cricket and tennis at Buchan all required one to two and a half hour trips each way.

• The Cock’s Buchan property included Cloggs Cave, a classified site of significance due to its part in aboriginal history.

“Buchan country had a lot of surface rock on it, which you couldn’t remove, making it more difficult to improve pastures and control weeds,” Malcolm said.

“There were lots of areas you couldn’t get to with the tractor. In Hallston the soil is acidic compared to limestone country down there, so we have to put Buchan lime on, which is a bit of irony.”

At Buchan the Cocks had 300400 Galloways, 80 Shorthorn stud breeders and 10 Angus stud breeders, plus 2000 ewes.

Today only Galloways and their composite variety, Buchan Blacks, remain at Amberley Park, Hallston.

‘We sold our Shorthorns and Angus so we don’t have to lease a farm,” Malcolm said.

“The Galloways are a minor breed and I’m trying to preserve our gene pool for all beef cattle.”

Malcolm calls this a major project for the next five to 10 years.

“We never know in the future what we might need, so to give our kids a choice you have to keep all these gene pools of everything,” Malcolm said.

“It takes people like myself who aren’t relying on my bread and butter from my farming operation to be able to preserve those genes.”

It’s a noble aim for the man from Buchan who’s living the South Gippsland dream.

Hot Hallston: Malcom’s cattle seek shade during January this year.

Significant site: Cloggs Cave at Buchan.

“SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009 - PAGE 7

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

River frontage: the Buchan River in 2005.

Beautiful Buchan: a yellow Bot tree is part of the Buchan landscape.

Two places: Malcom Cock has experienced faming at Hallston and Buchan. It is featured during Beef Week in late January.

PAGE 8 - “SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

FAMILY cows andd horses FAMILY, h are the three things that have kept Yarram dairyfarmer Vicki

Grylls G ll going i tthese h pastt ttwo years as she and her family have coped with illness and drought.

The Grylls family was rocked to the core when husband Ian was diagnosed with Motor Neuron disease mid way through 2006.

“Ian was diagnosed in 2006, at the time the doctors gave him two to five years to live, he died two years, six months and one day after that diagnoses,” Vicki said.

“His disease progressed very quickly so by the end of December 2006 we had to get carers in to help us a couple of days a week. Our eldest son Ben was away at University and Chris was in year 11 so things were pretty tough

through.”” but we got through Vicki cared for Ian at home for as long as she could while son Ben deferred his course at Dookie and came home to help on the farm and run his father’s farm contracting business.

“I had bad days and still do but you just have to cope, put your head down and do what has to be done, that is the way I coped,” Vicki said.

Before her husband had become ill, Vicki had renewed her love of horses and undertaken studies to gain her trainer’s license, the then hobby proved to be a godsend for Vicki as she coped with everything around her.

“Horse training is a bit of a release for me, I have been around race horses all my life.”

“My brother bought a good

yearling and it was through following his progress that I also got the bug to pursue training and racing.

“In 2001 I notice an advertisement in the Sale paper for a TAFE course in horse training so I applied and was accepted, it took two years to complete and I walked away with my Diploma in Horse Racing.

Vicki took up part time work in a few horse training establishments before applying for her horse training licenses which she was granted in 2003.

Since that time Vicki has been able to combine the rigors of running her dairy farm with her horse training.

“At the moment I have two horses on the track, Kings and Aces is a five year old who is travelling extremely well this season.

“Altogether he has had 17 starts for one win, two seconds and a third. However he is showing his true potential this season.

“From his five starts he has placed third twice and forth once, while last Saturday at Moe against a high class field he placed second.

“His next race will be at Sale and after that at Stony Creek,” she said.

“The other horse is a three year old

that will be prepared for the winter racing circuit, he has just been broken in and is looking good at this early stage,” she said.

A typical day for Vicki starts around 5.30am with the milking of the cows followed by track work at Port Albert until around 10 am.

This is followed by house work and farm work, and milking again around 4 pm. Then it’s stable work until around 7.30 pm after which time she relaxes in front of the television. But she wouldn’t have it any other way. Vicki is happiest when she is busy.

“On race days the boys will do the milking for me, and my father Murray is always there to back me up if I am unable to attend the track because of commitments here on the farm,” she said.

Through all the tough times, Vicki has never considered leaving dairying or her horse training.

“It has never crossed my mind although some people thought I would when Ian got sick, I have been in this industry for 28 years and we will work through the low prices and drought like everyone else and horses are my release from all the other pressures of life,” she said.

Above, Milking time: Vicki Grylls prepares for the evening milking in her Buckley’s Island Road dairy on the outskirts of Yarram.

Top left, Exercise: Vicki and her race horse Kings and Aces go for their evening walk.

Top right, Feeding time: Dairyfarmer and horse trainer Vicki Grylls with her Friesian calves.

“SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009 - PAGE 9

PAGE 10 - “SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

By Bert van Bedaf

DANISH migration to East Poowong was so prominent in the 19th century that the area was referred to as Denmark or the Danish settlement.

First terminus: When the line opened in 1922, Triholm Station was supplied with cattle and sheep yards, goods loading and storage facilities, and passenger facilities.

There’s a road sign that commemorates the arrival of the Danes in Poowong East in 1877.

The East Poowong hall is decorated with historical pictures of the establishment of the Danish community, whose descendants are still living in the area today. A plaque adorns the hall. It was unveiled during the Commonwealth jubilee year, 1951. In 2002, the descendents celebrated 125 years of Danish settlement.

The plaque is “a tribute by their descendants and friends to the pioneers of the Danish settlement”.

It has the family names of those pioneers inscribed; Staben, Moller, Schmidt, Petersen, P. Andersen and J. Anderson, Linnett, Bygdahl, Byriell, Olsen, Ecksten, Hansen, Johnson, Langston and Peter Pershang.

Descendents living in the East Poowong area today are beef farmers Alan and Joanna Schmidt, dairy and beef farmers Kelvin and Glenda Olsen, dairy, beef and sheep farmers Ivan and Janet Staben, dairy farm-

ers Roger and Heather Olsen, beef farmers Roderick and Yvonne Olsen as well as Barry and Beryl Olsen.

Ivan and Janet still live on the original selection. The homestead is 110 years old. Barry is a fourth generation Olsen, with children and grandchildren making up the fifth and sixth generations.

The community holds Danish functions to keep the heritage alive.

“We have Danish celebrations in autumn and some of the younger generation have gone to Denmark to visit relatives,” Barry said.

Originally of Lutheran denomination, East Poowong Danes have joined Anglican and Presbyterian churches over the years.

The motives for migration were war and gold. Getting away from war against Prussia and Austria and digging for gold attracted the Danes to Australia.

The war forced Denmark to surrender the Duchies of Slesvig-Holstein to Prussia, which is why the Danes in East Poowong predominantly originate from that region.

By 1865 the first wave of Danish immigrants arrived by ship. The Victorian goldfields of Rushworth and near Bendigo were their first destination.

When land was opened up for selection in South Gippsland under the

Land Act 1869, news of the fertile earth started to filter through. When by the mid-1870s gold prospecting became unprofitable, the great Danish trek to Poowong East began.

In March 1877, Christian Moller and Henning Staben “pegged out about 320 acres of densely forested land each to the east of Poowong”.

Soon the others followed and others joined later, including Martin Johnson (1880) and Peter Anderson (1881).

The area where they settled includes land on Drouin Ranceby Rd, Schmidt’s Rd, Waterfall Rd, Bromfield Rd, as well as Territory Rd, Mt View Rd and McDonald’s Track off Korumburra Warragul Rd. After selecting their land, the men cleared it to start building homes and prepare the properties for the arrival of wives and families.

They lived a Spartan existence.

Kristine Petersen was the first woman to come to the settlement in March 1878, a year after the first settlers had made their selection.

Her husband Peter and son Edward had build a two-room log hut with a shingle roof. Edward, 15, is said to have “cried for joy” when he was reunited with his mother.

More families arrived, building log houses of varied sizes. The Schmidt family of six children lived

Station baler: From left are Albert Richards and George Staben with Lorna Staben and son Ivan Staben, who still lives on the property.

Danish history ONE of the first Danes to visit Victoria was Jorgen Jorgensen.

He participated in the surveying and establishment of the first white settlement in Sorrento.

It was not until the gold rushes of the 1850s that many Danes settled in Victoria. Some were young soldiers seeking new opportunities beyond Denmark following the loss of a territorial war against Prussia.

By 1857 more than 1000 Danes were believed to be working on the Victorian goldfields.

A settlement near Castlemaine was named Copenhagen after the resident Danes who ran a hotel and general store.

One of the most enduring Danish dairy farming settlements was located in East Poowong, where 13 families lived by the mid-1890s. Their descendents continue to live there today.

The end of the 19th century saw significant growth

in Australia’s Danish community to 6403 in 1891.

Most settled in Queensland, where they received land grants under the Assisted Immigration Scheme.

Fewer than 1400 Danish immigrants lived in Victoria by 1891, but their contributions to the colony far outweighed their size.

They played a crucial role in the development of the Australian dairy industry.

In the first half of the 20th century, the number of Danes in Victoria halved, with only 517 recorded in the 1947 census.

Subsequently, in 1952, the General Assisted Passage Scheme was opened to Scandinavians and by 1961 the Danish community in Victoria had almost doubled in size. By 1971 the number had stabilised at around 1500. It remains at this level today.

Source: Museum Victoria website.

“SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009 - PAGE 11

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

in a hut of two rooms in 1879. The Moller family of five children lived in a hut of 56 square metres divided into four rooms. Similarly, Neils Olsen’s home accommodated 11 children in four rooms over 100 square metres.

The settlers brought their Danish farming practices with them.

For example, they built large barns to house their cattle during colder months. The barns were also used to store machinery and produce.

Often the barns and cow sheds were bigger than the family homes, which reflected the importance of stock to the Danes.

The Danish settlers exercised mixed farming to be self-sufficient and enable them to make a living.

Farms would include cows, pigs, sheep, horses and poultry.

Dairy farming gradually grew in size as more land was cleared. In 1881 Hans Andersen supported 15 head of cattle. But in 1888 Christian Byriell owned 160 head of cattle as well as other animals.

The purchase of a Danish cream separator added to the settlers’ increasing wealth. The Poowong butter factory had opened in 1892 and the settlers joined it. But because of low prices, the Danes again began to manufacture their own butter and sold it in Melbourne at eight and a

half pence per pound, which “even after the deduction of freight charges was a better price than that achieved at the Poowong butter factory”.

In 1888, the Olsens were sending 150 pounds of butter to Melbourne every week. The Stabens produced 100 pounds and the Andersons sent 220 pounds of butter to Melbourne.

Having enjoyed advanced farming methods in Denmark, the Danes applied new techniques in East Poowong, to become foremost in dairy farming.

They introduced new dairy methods and improved hygienic techniques as early as 1888. Systematic dairy methods were commonly used by 1895.

The impression gained from local newspaper reports between 1895 and 1904 was that farming by “the Poowong East Danes was far more progressive than those of their Anglo-Australian neighbours, most of whom were still struggling with primitive, unhygienic and inefficient methods”.

The Danish farmers prided themselves on hygiene, efficiency and attention to stock, including housing cattle in clean barns during the colder months and feeding them oil cake mixed with maize as well as green grass.

The farms were regularly praised

in rural papers for their cleanliness and technological innovations.

The huge success of the Poowong East settlers has been attributed to several factors. They had amassed sufficient capital to build modern dairies. Most had large families and there was no need to employ outside labour. Many of the young men stayed on the farm. They were prepared to work hard. They were open to new ideas and stayed in touch with relatives in Denmark and the United States who informed them of the latest innovations.

These qualities have enabled them to create “one of the most prosperous and successful dairying communities in Victoria”.

NOTE: The information contained in this article has been taken from an honours thesis by Kate McDowell Murphy, called “Between the Old World and the New; an ethnographic study of the Danish settlement at Poowong East”, Melbourne University, 1998. The article has also relied on the assistance of the Danish descendants in East Poowong, with special thanks to Glenda Olsen and Joanna Schmidt, who assisted in organising the thesis and historical photographs.

Circa 1941: Grandfather Henning Staben Jr is looking after young horse rider Ivan Staben.

Old barn: The barn belonged to the Byriell family, who owned sheep as well as cattle as part of their mixed farming business.

PAGE 12 - “SOUTH COAST FARMER”, February 24, 2009

South Coast Farmer - Autumn Edition

From the ashes THE recent Gippsland fires have taken lives, destroyed homes and wrecked livelihoods. The amazing images that have come out of the devastation have shocked people all around the world.

The South Coast Farmer publishes these pictures in memory of those who perished and in tribute to those who bravely fought to save so many lives and homes.

Hay drive: farmers from around Gippsland have rallied support for all those farmers affected by the bushfires. United Dairy Farmers Yarram branch president Bill Bodman Jnr (right) was on hand to help Mervyn Bright from Meeniyan unload a trailer load of small square bales he donated to the appeal.

Fighting on: CFA volunteers Vic Scholes, Steven Plath, Todd Birkbeck, Bob Copland and Dan and Jolie Williams stood firm in the face of the Boolarra fires.

Right, Fighting back: Ryan Collins and father Neil get straight back to work on Ivan Sutton’s fire ravaged property at Won Wron.