Having lost 8000 sheep in the Grampians fires three years ago, Doug Slattery said goodbye to his final 8000 last week at his dispersal sale.
The devastating events of the Victorian bushfires brought back shocking memories for Mr Slattery who said although the fire took its toll on stock, it did not take the terrible loss of life in built up areas that these recent fires have.
"The loss of life is just staggering it will take a long time to get over what has happened," he said.
While he knows the effect of raging bushfire all too well, it wasn't the 2006 fires that made his final decision to sell.
"We've thought about it for a long time and in the end it is a combination of things I suppose," he said.
"We've had 10 dry years here, the fires certainly didn't help and even now we still have fencing and a bit of tree planting to do.
"When it all settled down we decided although the farm is working, it was hardly worth it as the young bloke isn't keen so we may as well start somewhere else and move on to the next stage."
The Slattery family has been farming at Willaura for 90 years, with Mr Slattery’s grandfather taking up the place after the First World War.
Doug has been a strong figure in the local community for many years in various roles, one of the latest as a key player setting up the local community bank.
Brierly has now been sold to an investment fund in the United States and has been leased out for cropping with Doug and Jandi Slattery set to move to a 300 acre property near Geelong.
When asked whether the enormous woolshed will see sheep again he paused.
"Well I just don’t know about that one, cropping seems to be all the rage at the moment so it is certainly hard to tell.
"The spring rains have been so unpredictable that it might just work back in the favour of sheep again one day but the next generation of farmers certainly seem keener on cropping.
"Woolgrowers are getting pretty thin on the ground around here now."
Hundreds turned up to Mr Slattery’s dispersal and clearing sale last week where two and a half year old Merino ewes joined to White Suffolks topped the sale at $70, the top pen of Bindawarra blood wethers also making the same money.
Bidding at times was strong but Mr Slattery was a little disappointed with the sale, given all sheep presented in such good condition and were backed by such strong Merino genetics (Bindawarra, Wurrook and Kurra Wirra blood).
"I thought maybe there would have been a bit more of a swing back to sheep given cropping hasn't gone so well around here lately, then again the wool market hasn’t been too flash for a while.
"The fat lamb market is going pretty well though so it was a little surprising, but that is where the market is at the moment I suppose."
Buyers came from as far as Alexandra, Camperdown and Horsham and no sheep went to the trade.
In fact one truckload of sheep had to be offloaded at the Horsham saleyards as their new owner was out fighting the Horsham fire on Saturday, according to Mr Slattery.
