Hay relief finds its way through the red tape

Among the good news, only two of the 300 evacuated horses last week remained at the town's saleyards, the rest having returned home or moved to safe paddocks.

Helping to restore the sense of normality, cattle sales will resume at the East Gippsland Livestock Exchange from today.

But, even while drizzly rain brought a new calm, fire chiefs and relief groups were warning that the horror was far from over.

Among them was Bushfire Horse and Stock Safe Bushfire Assistance coordinator Kelly Van Den Berg, who said some areas had missed out on relief as hay was consolidated into large, police-escorted convoys.

"We've still got farmers in areas like Anglers Rest and Tostaree ringing us directly saying 'our stock are starving'," she said.

"'They're standing on burnt paddocks, they've got no hay, we need calf pellets, we need mineral blocks, we need this, we need that'.

"We're definitely not driving through blockades or doing anything dangerous but we're just trying to get around some of the red tape because we're not about bureaucracy.

"We're just trying to get what they need directly to them, when they're telling us that they need it."

Bushfire Horse and Stock Safe Bushfire Assistance is a volunteer group operated by East Gippsland locals and hosted on local properties.

Those connections and flexibility helped it respond more rapidly and directly than larger organisations, Ms Van Den Berg said.

But she urged people to donate to local groups like the Heyfield Lions Club and larger bodies like Need For Feed and Blaze Aid, which could offer long-term help.

Ms Van Den Berg said local relief organisations would also spend donated funds at local businesses supplying feed and farm supplies.

"It's not just the farmers and the residents that are in the fire zone that are going to be affected long-term here, the towns in the whole of East Gippsland are going to be financially devastated," she said.