ONE year on and the families, businesses and communities affected by last year's deadly Black Saturday bushfires are slowly recovering.
One business that has been able to move onwards and upwards in the past 12 months despite monumental challenges is Lawsons Angus.
The February 7 fires burnt through the stud's leased land at Kinglake and threatened properties at Murrindindi, Yea and Glenburn, where the stud's principals, Harry and Ruth Lawson, operate their bull unit.
They were forced to relocate 600 cattle from Kinglake (another 60 were destroyed) to Glenburn and find the extra feed, all just seven weeks before staging a successful bull sale.
"The fire burnt on all four fronts and impacted all four farms," Harry said.
"Even though we were compensated well - our insurance company was terrific - it had a knock-on impact. We had 600 cattle on January 1 grazing on green pasture up to your knees ... but then had to move them to the bull unit, where they chewed through the feed only one month later."
When it didn't rain in autumn, the Lawsons found themselves with the prospect of feeding thousands of cattle every day.
"It was exactly where we didn't want to be," Harry said.
But instead of abandoning their plans for expansion, the family accelerated their program in Western Australia.
"Initially, we were only going to run an embryo transfer program in Western Australia, but decided to buy a farm instead of spending the money on feeding cattle," he said.
The Lawsons invested in a property at Hopetoun, near Esperance, and moved 1200 cattle on to it, before they had time to establish a home or make capital improvements.
On top of the logistical challenges of moving cattle more than 3500km across the Nullabor there were freight, health and boarder passage costs of about $150 a head.
"The cattle moved over here before we did. We would never have done that were it not for the fires," Harry said.
He spent the next 12 months commuting between Hopetoun, Perth and Glenburn while all the time overseeing the establishment of more than 800 hectares of crops, fencing and cattle yards.
The lease at Kinglake has since ended and 800 stud cows, 800 weaner calves, 500 sale bulls and some commercial cattle are running at Glenburn, where the stud will offer its annual southern sale of 250 bulls on March 10.
"It's hard not to look back and focus on how difficult it was ... in that scenario, timing is everything; you have to spend a lot of money to get things moving quickly," Harry said.
But there were many positives to be taken from the experience too, he said, especially the tireless work of the CFA, police and emergency services, insurance companies and people helping one another.
"Beyond the financial impact (of the fire) was the emotional impact, especially for our staff, who were directly involved. We are forever grateful for their tremendous efforts during the fires and after," Harry said.
This year, Lawsons Angus will consolidate the radical changes of the past year.
"Like most other beef farmers in hard times, we plan to knuckle down, consolidate, recoup and focus on the big things," Harry said.
"We always want to farm in a positive way. We surround ourselves with positive but realistic people who can look to the longer term."
