Fire recovery checklist

Download this page – Fire recovery checklist January/February 2020  (PDF - 404.6 KB)

This straightforward checklist is to assist farmers after the damage of bushfire.

Family

• Ensure the safety and wellbeing of yourself, family and friends.
• Talk to family and friends about your experience.
• Start doing a few small, safe jobs.
• Manage offers of assistance by recording names and phone numbers.
• Take plenty of photos and notes for insurance and future reference.
• Identify and isolate on-farm hazards such as:
  • fallen powerlines
  • asbestos contaminated sites
  • chemical storage areas
  • sheep dips and spray areas
  • lead and other heavy metal contaminated sites (batteries, treated pine, etc.).

Stock

• Manage the health and welfare of your animals by:
  • reporting injured livestock to Agriculture Victoria on 1800 226 226 so that our animal health staff can assess the livestock
  • euthanising impacted livestock if you are confident that you can do so humanely or contact Agriculture Victoria for assistance
  • continuing to monitor all stock on a regular basis
  • providing adequate food, water and shelter to remaining animals.
  • Complete an emergency feed and water budget table.
    • This will help you determine your livestock’s short-term needs which is important if you have lost a significant amount of pasture or supplementary feed and water supplies are impacted.
    • For further information and advice on feeding livestock visit Agriculture Victoria’s feeding livestock website.

Water supply

• Protect your drinking water by diverting downpipes until an initial flush (of roof and pipes).
• Protect your dam water by:
  • skimming off floating debris and organic matter
  • trapping ash, debris, organic matter and sediment with closely spaced steel posts, ring-lock, netting or sediment traps
  • fencing and reticulation
  • consolidating water supplies with pumps and pipe
  • removing floating debris off dams after rain
  • de-silting dams.
• Remove stock if water becomes putrid, looks or smells rotten or has signs of blue-green algae (paint-like scum on surface).

Fencing

• Mark boundary fence alignment prior to clean-up.
• Seek assistance with clearing boundary fence lines.
• Avoid replacing internal fencing immediately; fire offers an opportunity to re-think your farm layout.
• Consider:
  • patching up old fences wherever possible
  • a new fence alignment or gate location/s
  • replacing fencing along land class boundaries
  • requesting an aerial photo plan of your farm to review your farm layout
  • seeking advice from Agriculture Victoria staff on re-fencing and whole farm planning.

Pastures

• If possible, de-stock burnt and partly burnt paddocks.
• Seek potential for outside agistment.
• Consider building a stock containment area or sacrifice paddock to limit grazing to a defined area (to protect your pastures and soil).
• Perennial pastures and sub-clover are generally unaffected by fire. However, fire can have a major impact on annual pastures.
• Consider setting up a watered pasture trial plot to assess plant survival.

Soils

• Seek assistance with rehabilitation of firebreaks and access tracks.
• Consider protecting loose, sandy soils from wind erosion with cover crop of oats, deep ripping or ridging.
• Upgrade track drainage to minimise erosion.

Native vegetation

• A significant proportion of native vegetation will survive a bushfire; give it time to recover.
• Watch for burning tree roots three to six months after the fire.

Weeds

• Contain weed spread by feeding stock in one location, such as a containment area.
• Closely monitor areas disturbed by firefighting or recovery activities.

Flooding

• Flooding can be a major issue following a bushfire.
• Protect your house and other facilities from flooding with earthen banks or sand bags.
• Install closely spaced steel posts upstream of culverts and stream crossings to trap debris.
• Regularly check your dam spillways and banks for damage.
• Regularly check erosion control structures for damage.

For more information call Agriculture Victoria on 136 186, visit Bushfires or contact your local fire recovery centre.