BlazeAid volunteers repair 334 football pitches of flood affected fencing across Western Queensland

BlazeAid volunteers say they have repaired more than 50km of fencing in western Queensland hit hard by flooding, and have urged landholders to not be afraid to ask for help.

BlazeAid volunteers stationed in western Queensland are encouraging hesitant farmers to reach out for help as the organisation reports they have too many hands and not enough work.

The crews have been working in Quilpie since April 19, helping to clear flood impacted properties and repair fences.

The South West was thrashed by heavy rainfall in March with more than 500mm falling in a matter of days and the flood impacting area reaching double the size of Victoria.

BlazeAid crews rebuild fences in Quilpie

Blaze Aid camp co-ordinator Christopher Chance said they have more than 50 volunteers stationed in the region ready and willing to help.

“We have four different BlazeAid camps open and Quilpie was the first of them which opened on April 19,” he said.

“We are based in Quilpie with about 40 volunteers but we also have a crew of five in Adavale and a crew of six in Toompine based in the town halls.

“We have about 17 properties registered and in terms of the work we are focused on the flood affected farms, clearing the debris and repairing the fences.”

BlazeAid crews have rebuilt 50km of fencing

Mr Chance said crews had been working with farmers to get kilometres of fencing back up.

“In our first week we cleared about 2.35km of downed fencing and repaired about 800m but as we progressed through the weeks and we had more volunteers come through that work rate has increased and last week we did 25km in fencing with 17km cleared,” he said.

“We have a couple of properties we are helping and one has 50km of fencing to be done, another one had 11km of fencing to be done and we got that done in a week.

“So far we have completed over 50km.”

There are 40 BlazeAid volunteers on site

Mr Chance said the volunteers had received great feedback from the community.

“The feedback has been very positive, the shire has lent us a generator and some powered sports and we are getting lots of appreciation from the farmers and the individuals,” he said.

“It has been one of those things where everyone is eager to help, but what we are finding is a lot of the farmers are used to working by themselves and aren't open to getting help.

“We have had experiences where on the first day a farmer said they wanted to do things a certain way and they didn't trust us with the job but we always say we want to do it how they want it, we won't force anything.

“As every day passed they opened up to us and ended up taking in the suggestion and the help.

“For the most part we are there to help but at the same time if we can do something that adds value in a way a farmer may not of thought of that’s great.”

BlazeAid crews rebuild fences in Quilpie

Mr Chance urged any farmers in need of help to reach out and said they were open to donations form the community.

“We will accept food donations to keep the crew going each day, people can also go to the BlazeAid website to give donations, we have also had some walk-ins who have donated cash,” he said.

“Where we are at right now we are quite well situated but if anything I’d like to reach out to more affected properties because we have a lot of people here eager to help.

“The past two or three weeks we have cleared the work that was required ahead of schedule and we have a couple of jobs we can't start because the farmers still have water on their property.

“We are in a position where we have a bunch of people willing to work but not much work to do, I’d like to convince some of the hesitant farmers to reach out because we are keen to help.”

Originally published as BlazeAid volunteers repair 334 football pitches of flood affected fencing across Western Queensland