The community-led recovery efforts in Harcourt are a testament to its residents, motivated by the desire to see the thriving community back on its feet.
As such, the Harcourt Leisure Centre was overflowing with people attending Wednesday’s community meeting, where it was announced that the town’s annual Applefest will go ahead in March.
Chair of the Harcourt Progress Association, Remy Snowman, said the festival will be bigger and better than ever.
Remy acknowledged the other Victorian communities affected by fires, especially in the neighbouring towns of Ravenswood, Sutton Grange, North Harcourt and Walmer and thanked the community and volunteers.
“The way you have pulled together and helped each other through so far, it’s inspiring,” he said.
“It’s a privilege to be part of such a great community.”
Harcourt CFA Captain Andrew Wilson, who was the initial incident controller when the fire started on Friday, January 9, said 150 appliances responded to the fire on the first day.
“That is an amazing effort for the machine that the CFA is to get those appliances. But no matter how many appliances we had on the day, I don’t think we would have stopped this fire,” he said.
“As happens, the wind changed. The wind is what bites us, and it bit pretty bloody hard.”
He said by January 16, there were 50 strike teams (a Ute and five tankers) on the ground, with teams coming from far and wide.
“That’s 250 tankers, plus 60 tankers on the day from direct response to the fire,” he said.
The local CFA captain said that whilst the fire (which is now 4,500 hectares) had the smallest footprint of all the big fires on the day, it had the biggest impact in terms of property loss.
“53 houses were lost, with the majority in Harcourt, one in Sutton Grange and two in Walmer. That’s a big hit for the community,” he said.
“The fire is listed as under control at the moment, and until Mother Nature does her thing its going to stay that way – we need some rain across the fire ground.”
He said their biggest issue at the moment is the unburnt pockets of grass within the fire area.
“But the fire is tracked, and we are confident it will remain within the current fire footprint,” he said.
DEECA Forest Fire Management crews also continue to patrol and monitor the fire, and extra crews are on standby this weekend to respond and assist if needed.
The Recovery Centre at the Harcourt Leisure Centre will continue throughout February, but will scale back to operating on Wednesday and Friday only.
The community-led GoFundMe organised by the Harcourt Progress Association has raised over $200,000 to date. The money will go directly to the fire-affected community to help rebuild. If you’re able to donate visit www.gofundme.com/f/harcourt-progress-relief-fund
