The Harcourt, Ravenswood South and Walmer communities and surrounds are shocked and devastated following Friday’s fire.
The fire began in Fogartys Gap Road at Ravenswood South on Friday afternoon and the catastrophic conditions saw it get away from emergency services pushing it through parts of Walmer towards Harcourt.
It then jumped the Calder Freeway and cut a swathe through the Harcourt community wiping out numerous homes before sweeping up and over Mount Alexander and threatening homes at Sutton Grange, Sedgwick, Faraday, and Elphinstone.
Emergency services were continuing the battle to bring the fire under control as we went to press Monday morning.
It could be days before some Harcourt and district community members are able to safely return to their homes to assess the damage from the fire.
At Saturday’s Community Meeting at the Castlemaine Town Hall Incident Controller Michael Masters said the fire was still very active and was not yet under control and that may take days.
At the same time they were looking for people impacted by the fire, who may be injured or have other issues that need to be addressed and providing immediate relief support. They were also looking out for animals, livestock and wildlife.
An Agricultural Victoria representative was in attendance to assist community members with any questions.
“Over the next couple of days, weeks and months we will start the recovery process. But today we are still in response mode and trying to provide the immediate relief of suffering,” Mr Masters said.
He said the majority of Harcourt’s community buildings had survived the path of the fire.
“I do want to acknowledge that there are a number of houses have been lost both in Harcourt and in the fire affected area itself well.”
The full impact of the fire is still not clear, with conflicting reports about property losses, but emergency services estimate up to 50 structures have been lost (homes and sheds).
Mr Masters said fire crews had worked hard overnight Friday to try and stop the spread of the fire. It had increased by another 260 hectares and as of Saturday morning covered an area of 3780 hectares.
As of Monday morning the fire had moved onto the southern boundary of Mount Alexander and fire crews were working to establish a containment line. Large air tankers began dropping retardant on the site Monday morning to shore up these lines.
At Saturday’s meeting, Mr Masters said he understood community member’s desire to their return homes but their job is to keep community members safe. Some areas may not be opened up until the middle of this week.
Relief centres at Kyneton Sports and Aquatic Centre and Bendigo Showgrounds provided a place of refuge for displaced community members Friday and across the weekend.
Mr Masters explained he made the decision not to open a relief centre in Castlemaine on Friday because at that time the fire was impacting the Midland Highway. Castlemaine was also without power at the time.
However, Mount Alexander Shire Council staff have been working around the clock to support emergency services and opened an ‘Emergency Recovery Centre’ at the Castlemaine Town Hall on Monday morning.
The ‘Emergency Recovery Centre’ has a focus on assisting community members who have lost their homes and been displaced with accommodation support, emergency relief, and assistance accessing financial support payments available from the state and federal governments. It is operating Monday to Friday this week from 11am to 5pm.
Local Emergency Response Coordinator and Acting OIC at Castlemaine Police David Semmens said the opening up of the township and recovery would happen in a ‘staged’ approach as areas were declared safe.
The Calder Freeway was reopened around midnight Saturday and the Midland Highway was reopened Sunday afternoon.
Numerous road closures are still in place and are listed in the VicEmergency app. Updates are available here
The fire has also damaged a railway bridge in Harcourt and rail services are not expected to be back on line for at least a week or more. Buses will replace trains on the network until further notice.
Much of the township is without power and Powercor teams have a lot of work ahead of them.
“In particular they need to repair a 66,000 volt transmission line which runs in the north section of the fire, without that there is only one source of power supply coming into Castlemaine and if that gets impacted by another emergency Castlemaine is off the grid and that is a significant risk. So that’s important to us and the distribution lines to get properties off line back in the grid. But again it needs to be safe for those crews to move in,” Mr Masters said.
Coliban Water infrastructure on Mount Alexander and within the township was also damaged. The water authority issued a warning that the water is not safe to drink until further notice.
The water supply infrastructure on Mount Alexander has links to towns as far away as Donald so this was a priority and was repaired late Saturday. However, Coliban Water’s ‘Harcourt – A do not drink advisory’ warning still stands. For updates click here
Television, radio and telecommunications infrastructure was also damaged as the fire crossed Mount Alexander cutting off communication for many residents.
Community members can continue to follow the VicEmergency app for updates and tune into Phoenix FM 106.7 for ABC Radio Emergency Broadcasting coverage.
Victoria Police Superintendent WD5 (Central Victoria) Paul Gardiner assured Harcourt community members that there would be an active, visible police presence in the community in the days ahead.
At least one life has been lost. A man in his 60s is thought to have been fleeing the scene when he suffered a suspected medical episode.
Ambulance crews were unable to access the scene as fire threatened the property. However, a CFA member who is also a paramedic reportedly tried to render assistance but the gentleman had died.
As the Ravenswood fire took hold Friday, two ambulances, a MICA paramedic and Ambulance Victoria helicopter were seen at the Camp Reserve.
However, an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson told the Express this was a separate unrelated medical emergency.
Mount Alexander Shire Mayor Cr Toby Heydon said it had been an incredibly distressing weekend and council were working to do what they could to support the local shire communities, especially the Harcourt, Harcourt North, Walmer, Faraday and other affected communities.
The mayor acknowledged the work of our incredible emergency services and this was met with a rousing round of applause from the 300 plus community members gathered.
“We are a very interconnected shire. We all know people impacted by this at Harcourt, Harcourt North, Walmer, Faraday and surrounding communities. Our thoughts and our planning is focused on how we can be support these families and individuals, businesses and broader communities,” he said
The volunteer-managed Mount Alexander Shire bushfire Facebook page were incredible throughout the weekend working hard to provide updates and support, as have several local brigades.
There has also been an outpouring of support from community members and community groups which are rallying around fire-affected community members with offers of accommodation, donations of food, water, clothing and essential items, and support with animals and livestock.
Local GPs are also shuffling appointments to enable them to assist fire-affected community members with their medical needs.
A benefit concert was held at Boomtown Winery & Bistro Sunday for fire-victims and numerous GoFundMe pages have already been created to help individuals and families who have lost their homes.
