TEN months after fire ripped through 9000ha of Murray Valley farmland, lush spring growth hides the scars on Tooma Station. KIM WOODS reports
The station was the focus of a recent fire recovery field day.
One of the best springs of the decade has kept the risk of bushfires fresh in the minds of Upper Murray farmers who paid a terrible toll last December.
Stewart and Kate Sutherland are among the survivors, with their property, Tooma Station, still in recovery mode.
They lost crops, pastures, fencing, a wool shed and farm buildings.
This month the couple hosted a field day on bushfire preparedness.
"Deep down you never think it's your turn," Kate said.
"We had no written fire plan and never talked about evacuating or leaving."
Kate was keen to convey the perspective of those left alone on a farm with fire approaching.
When Stewart rushed off with the local fire tanker, he yelled back "Get the house prepared, darling".
"I had five hoses with a variety of fittings so the first lesson was have interchangeable brass fittings," Kate said.
She had plenty of plastic buckets but no metal ones.
Kate cleared the veranda of clutter then tackled filling the gutters with water.
"Watering gutters looks easy on paper but it's not - we are tennis players so we had plenty of tennis balls," she said. "But our downpipes are square - someone suggested wrapping tennis balls in old nappies and stuffing them in.
"The ladder was down the woolshed so the next lesson was to have a ladder always by the house."
By now the phone was starting to ring constantly with concerned neighbours, friends and family.
"It was a double-edged sword as the more I was talking on the phone, the worse I became," Kate said.
The power went, cutting communication via the radio and hand-held phone.
"We had to raid the TV remotes and clock radios for batteries - always have plenty handy," she said.
Strong winds meant Kate struggled to reach the whole house while hosing it down.
Her garden, freshly mulched with cereal straw, proved a trap for flying embers.
Kate also discovered woollen blankets were thin on the ground.
"We found we didn't have enough goggles as the flying dirt and smoke made it hard to see.
"Eye wash and Ventolin were in also short supply.
"An old-fashioned mop and wet towels are good advice.
"I found the modern squeeze mops don't do the trick."
As the fire front roared towards the house, fire tankers appeared up the driveway and firefighting planes swooped overhead.
"I thought the calvary had come," Kate said.
"Once the danger had passed, we were so relieved and couldn't stop hugging each other."
Post-fire, neighbours, family and friends appeared with food and home help.
Still in shock, Kate found she was tearful for days afterwards.
"I would advise anybody to take photographs of every room in the house for insurance purposes," she said.
Kate's friend and neighbour, Suzie Mitchell, was also home alone when the fire razed her property.
In hindsight, Suzie said a paddock plan with stock numbers recorded would have helped her.
"I went to the wrong paddocks and drove around in the smoke before I realised there were no stock there," she said.
"The wind was so strong it slammed the gates back on me so straps to tie gates back would have been useful."
Suzie said a generator provided power for radios and the pump.
"I made the bad decision of putting a horse in a yard where I thought it would be safe," she said
"It was badly burnt but the others were safe when I opened gates for them."
Suzie suggests having a cupboard of fire-protection gear, extra hoses and mulch gardens earlier in the season.
"Keep lawns green and combustible rubbish away from the house," she said.
Suzie said some of her decisions at the time were made on gut feeling.
With her husband, Keith, she lost more than 1000 sheep that day.
The last of their stock have just returned home from agistment almost 11 months later.
