From the ashes: Farming after fires at Dadswells Bridge

When fire struck Ellie McDonald’s family farm at Dadswells Bridge, her personal and professional life collided.

Being a volunteer firefighter in your own community brings you up close with devastation and destruction, often affecting people you’ve known all your life.

For Ellie McDonald at Dadswells Bridge, this collision of personal and professional manifested in the worst possible way, when fire struck her family’s sheep stud while she was working on call.

The 25 year-old is First Lieutenant at Dadswells Bridge CFA, after starting at the brigade at just 16 years of age.

Juggling her CFA duties with farm work, Ellie works alongside her mother and father running Hopea Suffolk and White Suffolk Studs, running 230 stud ewes and selling between 90 to 100 rams annually.

A “catastrophic” fire danger day on February 13 2024, coupled with a lightening storm in the Grampians started a fire that Ellie said quickly spread towards the farm.

“It hit our paddocks at around 4.15pm and another tongue of the fire put our house under threat about 4.30pm,” Ellie said.

Ellie McDonald with White Suffolk lamb and Kelpie named Jess. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“Somehow I only lost 30 out of my 250 sheep at the time. Some sheep were singed but had somehow managed to avoid the fire which was incredible.”

Ellie’s responsibility to the CFA meant she was on the fire truck battling blazes elsewhere until past midnight on the day of the fire, leaving her clueless as to what was taking place on her own farm.

“That night was very sleepless and exhausting, we got up at daylight and found them all in one big mob mostly together, which was a massive relief, but to find the ones who had died was devastating,” Ellie said.

“The fire was just so quick that we didn’t have a chance to get the sheep in, we were busy alerting neighbours to the fire and I think in my own head it was never going to hit our place … but it did and we got hit hard.”

A total of 25km of fencing was burnt, and 600 acres of pasture lost.

And Ellie is the first to admit that recovery – both physically and mentally – has been exhausting.

Ellie McDonald on farm at Dadswells Bridge, where she juggles volunteering at the local CFA with her stud sheep responsibilities. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“Everyone wanted to help so badly but we just didn’t know where to start … the amount of offers for help, fodder, and agistment was overwhelming and very heartwarming,” Ellie said.

She said the sense of mateship, friendship, and purpose she gets from being involved at the CFA is priceless, and has carried her through as she rebuilds the farm post-fire.

“It (the CFA) is an outlet to farming, the same as me playing netball, just to get away for a bit and do something different and meet a lot of interesting and knowledgeable people along the way,” Ellie said.

“I’ll stay in the CFA for as long as I can.”

Ellie McDonald has been nominated for the 2024 Shine Awards, which celebrate the achievements of rural and regional women across Australia. Click here to nominate an outstanding woman you know.