State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland, her daughter Sigrid, 15 months, and the owner of the property where the fodder drop and distribution centre is set up at Longwood, Neil Tubb.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“I don’t think people understand the magnitude of destruction and devastation; we’ve lost an entire township in Ruffy, and we’ve lost life. This is not something you can recover from in a week or month.”
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State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland says her community needs the whole state to think about it in the months to come.
“It’s a significant road to recovery and logistically on the ground it’s an extraordinary amount of work to get power back on, phone reception restored, to get them reconnected and going, let alone rebuilding their lives,” Ms Cleeland said.
State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland and her 15-month-old daughter Sigrid watch the hay trucks roll in to the donation depot in Longwood.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
She was speaking on January 12 at the hay drop-off and distribution centre she helped set up at Neil Tubb’s Longwood property, after a devastating few days for her own family when their property was burnt out by the ferocious fire.
“I think we’ll process our own personal toll one day, but the community needs me. This is why you’re elected, to be their advocate, and I wish more government representatives were on the ground to understand the hurdles we have every single minute towards recovery,” Ms Cleeland said.
Running on little sleep and based in temporary accommodation with friends, the MP had her three young children in tow as she juggled speaking with farmers and volunteers on site and taking phone calls at the Depot Rd property.
“We will need genuine help for a long time and it needs to come from an understanding of what’s needed on the ground and not bureaucratic and government spin that looks great, but isn’t necessarily helping,” Ms Cleeland said.
“So we want them to come here and see what the community is doing and ask what it needs.
“Don’t tell us what we need, we’re already responding; we want them to listen to our needs.”
In the days directly after Ruffy was razed on Thursday, January 9, and Friday, January 9’s Catastrophic Fire Rating day, Ms Cleeland and others got the fodder depot up and operating.
Hay donations were steadily arriving in Longwood on Monday, but many more will be needed in the coming months.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“We are trying to mirror this across other regions like Yea and Alexandra,” she said.
“My sister is helping because she’s been burnt out at Yarck, my parents were burnt out at Avenel, so we’ve got connections in every community that has been impacted.
“We’ve got thousands of stock that survived that will perish if we don’t get this to them straight away.
“Hay, lucerne and quality fodder is critical.
The donation and distribution depot is at Depot Rd, Longwood.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“We’re also trying to get lick blocks for the animals for that variety of nutrients because it’s not just roughage, they’re so depleted, they’ve gone through hell.”
She said there were efforts to get veterinarians on the ground, but there were already local vets, some who’d been burnt out themselves, helping others via telehealth.
“Unless you’re on the ground and can see how dry, how hot it is here, you don’t understand how fragile the stock that have survived are and how uncertain their future is,” Ms Cleeland said.
“And these are our livelihoods, these are the backbone of our community.
“We’ve lost everything here; if we don’t have the livestock to rebuild our businesses, we have nothing.
“And we don’t want to torture them, that’s the second tranche of a catastrophe; the fire’s one thing, but losing what remains is tragic.
“This is a long road to recovery. We will not have a blade of grass for three or four months in our region.”
