Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall, left, and BlazeAid Ebor camp co-ordination Tony Samuel.
Friday, 15 November 2019
THE effort to replace hundreds of kilometres of boundary and internal fences destroyed during the Bees Nest fire at Ebor is underway, with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service starting the delivery of fencing materials to impacted landholders, Member for Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall announced today.
“For farming operations to return to any sort of normality its vital fences are rebuilt as soon as possible to keep their livestock in,” Mr Marshall said.
“The National Parks and Wildlife Service is covering the cost of fencing materials for farmers who directly shared a boundary with Guy Fawkes National Park and those landholders who have entered into a fencing agreement with organisation have started to receive materials.
“Where possible, BlazeAid volunteers stationed at Ebor will put up these boundary fences, however due to the rugged terrain, contractors may be called in to undertake some of the work in the harder to get to areas.
“I want to thank National Parks staff for working with landholders to get these fencing agreements in place.”
Mr Marshall also thanked BlazeAid for the efforts of its volunteers in supporting farmers during the recovery.
“For two months now BlazeAid workers have been hard at it putting up around 50 kilometres of fence on properties across the Ebor area already,” he said.
“With this week’s bushfire crisis creating even more demand for BlazeAid’s services I have been working with my parliamentary colleagues to secure a funding arrangement which will support the organisation to charge ahead with projects without having to rely on donations to purchase materials.
“I’m hopeful State Government funding may be forthcoming before the end of the year.”
Blaze Aid’s Ebor Camp Co-ordinator Tony Samuel said he expected he will be stationed at Ebor for another six months.
“Due to the steepness of the landscape this campaign has been incredibly tough on our volunteers who are starting to get tired,” Mr Samuel said.
“So far we have completed 43 jobs but there are still about 30 to go with some of them being important wild dogs fence, which will prevent the spread of the pest once wildlife returns back to the National Park.
“Currently we have close to 30 volunteers who are going out on jobs daily and we are making headway on what’s been an incredibly large fire ground and I expect that number to fluctuate as it gets closer to Christmas.
“I want to again sincerely thank Adam for his ongoing support of BlazeAid’s work.”