Buchan South grazier Chris Wheeler repurposes burnt Black Summer tree

The Gippsland grazier has repurposed a red box tree burnt during the Black Summer bushfires and created a commanding entrance to one of his properties, Olivers, at Buchan South.

"Each post would weigh between a tonne and a tonne-and-a-half," Mr Wheeler, 81, said.

The two posts measure between 800-900 millimetres wide and have a girth of 2600-2800mm.

Mr Wheeler said the posts were a tribute to his late father, Frank Wheeler, an ex-sleeper cutter, who taught him most of what he knows today.

"I can remember my dad snigging similar-sized posts with draft horses, then he squared them with a broad axe and with an old-fashioned Trewhella jack, he would jack them into the holes," he said.

"There's a lot of different impressive farm entrances, you can't really say one is better than another, but this is just something to recognise the legacy of Pop Wheeler, which many people used to call him."

A small plaque on the top of each of the posts reads In Memory Of "Pop" Frank Wheeler, who died in 1984 at Echuca.

"I went to cut up the tree, which would have been 60 to 80 years old, and realised it was solid and thought I would put a couple of posts in here like my dad did," Mr Wheeler said.

Mr Wheeler grew up north-east of Melbourne at St Andrews on a small farm where he would milk cows as a kid, and remembers his father would cut fire and boiler wood to power the industrial factories of Melbourne.

"You didn't have gas back then, I go back further than that," he said.

"I'm an ex-logging contractor as well as a farmer so I've worked in the bush all my life."

The family later moved to Colac and at the age of 17, Mr Wheeler and his older brother relocated to Heyfield where his brother took up the role of a tree feller, and Mr Wheeler acted as an offsider.

"After about eight years, my brother and I decided we would become logging contractors in our own right and worked in partnership under Wheeler Brothers until 1998," Mr Wheeler said.

In 1967, Mr Wheeler and his wife of 57 years, Mary, moved to Buchan where they purchased their first farm.

The Wheelers now run a herd of 250 Angus and 250 Hereford breeders spread across 1200 hectares.

Their operation also includes 750 first-cross ewes.

"The farms we own are named after the people we bought them off," Mr Wheeler said.

"For instance, we have Holloways, Grays, and of course Olivers."

Mr Wheeler said he was still as passionate as ever about farming, and left the house at 6.30am each morning, and usually would not return until sunset.

"I spend a little bit of time with my wife, I come home for morning smoko and for lunch," he said.

Mr Wheeler said their success would not be possible without the service of farm manager, Geoff Cameron, who has worked with the Wheelers for 47 years, originally in the logging business, and then on the farm.

"To be working with someone for that long, is pretty incredible really," Mr Wheeler said.

Meanwhile, the effects of the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, which extensively burnt the Wheeler's properties, are still being felt.

"I still have another three-to-five years of fence replacements to do," Mr Wheeler said.

"You can't replace all the fences in one go, because of the cost of fencing, and by the time I get the fencing done, there could be another one coming through."