Ken and Mary Frost's farm is almost "unrecognisable" after a grassfire burnt their entire property in Victoria's far west on New Year's Eve.
Scorched trees and shrubs around the immediate perimeter of their home are a reminder of how different the outcome could have been if the local fire brigade had not dampened the house in the moments before the grassfire crossed onto their property.
The quick-thinking action of the Poolaijelo locals, including Mr Frost, a former fire captain of the brigade who was driving the fire tanker at the time, ultimately saved the home from radiant heat and ember attack and the place his soldier-settler father once lived.
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Further afield, charred paddocks can be seen for kilometres, as can dozens of several-hundred-year-old iconic red gums which lay strewn across the ground, felled naturally during the fires or after the incident due to integrity concerns.
Piles of fence wire remain bundled up in paddocks, while heavy machinery work to clear fence lines after the biggest fire in the Wimmera in more than 50 years.
The farming community of Poolaijelo is located 10 kilometres as the crow flies from the SA border.
Sparked by a car in SA at 1.30pm on December 31, within two days, more than 7300 hectares had burned as the death toll of livestock soared into the thousands.
Most of the damage was done on the Victorian side of the border, and mainly on farming properties around the Poolaijelo community.
Both of the Frosts' properties, including their 280-hectare home block and their 136ha property several kilometres away, were completely burnt.
Six-hundred of their first-cross ewes, 15 Dorset and White Suffolk rams and three Angus bulls perished in the fire, along with a machinery shed and kilometres of fencing.
Mrs Frost is also a former captain of the brigade and protected the house as the fire approached.
"Things are starting to come together and coming home yesterday we found a cow and four heifers... they were coming home too, and it's been over two weeks since we'd seen them," she said.
"It was hard to believe."
A neighbour had earlier opened a gate to allow the cattle to escape as the fire approached their farm, ultimately saving their lives.
Reignition of red gums has kept volunteer firies busy since the fires were put out, and Mrs Frost says, since the start of the year, there has been a call out every second day.
"We don't have fully-contained fences at the moment, so our sheep keep wandering out of their paddocks," she said.
"We thought by feeding them they might want to stay, but that's not really the case.
"You get a great sense of achievement when at the end of the day you look at, for instance, the fence line you've pulled down or pulling a shed apart and saying, 'that's one less job'."
She remains somewhat optimistic, however, and despite missing out on celebrating the new year, she said a celebration was well overdue.
"After the fires we also celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary so some time in the very near future we're going to sit down and have a new year's and wedding bash with cashews and macadamias," she said.
"If we don't move forward, we'll go mad so you have to do the best you can to get on with it."
On a neighbouring property, Peter Ker manages mixed farming enterprise Karowarra which lost 125 ewes and lambs and three spring-drop calves, along with 30 kilometres of fencing on its 890ha Poolaijelo property, Caranta.
But Mr Ker says he is upbeat and has focused on the positives of the fire.
"First up, we had to get the right people in there to help with the clean up and removal of fences," he said.
"Then we had to get fencing contractors back in to start the job and since the fires, we've replaced eight or nine kilometres of fencing.
"It's like adding a $350,000 project and we've got to get it done as quickly as possible, and that's in the midst of finishing harvest this week and baling lucerne hay on our irrigation on Monday and we're also drafting up steers for our autumn sale and have only just finished shearing at Caranta as well."
Karowarra's portfolio includes four properties, two in Victoria and two in SA.
Fifty per cent of its Poolaijelo property was burnt during the fire and Mr Ker said with the loss of hay and cost of agistment, the fire would cost the business close to $400,000.
Endangered red-tailed black cockatoo habitat to be assessed
Wildlife experts will also assess the damage to habitat of a critically-endangered bird in Victoria's far west after the fire on New Year's Eve burnt part of Meereek Bushland Reserve at Langkoop, a known location for the red-tailed black cockatoo.
Wimmera CMA acting chief executive Luke Austin said the organisation was aware some of the bird's habitat had been burned after the fire near Poolajielo three weeks ago.
The fire burned 7300 hectares of farmland and native bushland.
"The red-tailed blacks nest in hollows so what we want to do is look at these known nesting sites both on private properties and in the forest itself," he said.
The birds predominantly nest in stringybark and buloke woodlands and are found in south-west Victoria and South Australia, including at the recently-burnt bushland reserve.
In May 2021, a group of 181 volunteers led by BirdLife Australia took part in an annual count of the birds which estimated 1230 birds were located in the area, slightly more than the 2019 tally of 1193 birds.
"We're continuing to further investigate the impacts of this fire and the effect it's had on their habitat," Mr Austin said.