Tourism operators and farmers are pleading for more support to get back on their feet following a bushfire that destroyed homes and killed hundreds of animals.
The Grampians National Park blaze was declared contained on Monday after burning for three weeks, scorching 76,000 hectares of land and bringing holiday tourism in the western Victorian region to a standstill.
The park remains closed but residents can return to their properties.Â
After 21 days of firefighting efforts, the bushfire in the Grampians National Park is now contained 🥳 More than 76,000 hectares has burned. There is now no active or running fire, and the perimeter is within control lines 🔥 — cfa_updates (@CFA_Updates) https://t.co/nvdVIHF4Jq@FFMVic pic.twitter.com/8uHhWofUBhJanuary 6, 2025
Many businesses in surrounding towns were not ready to reopen straight away, Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said.
"A lot of the supplies they had for that busy period would have been used up or thrown out," he told AAP.
"Now begins the task of rebuilding without the cash that they would have had from that Christmas period."
Mr Sleeman, who estimates the fire cost the local economy more than $1.9 million a day, met Visit Victoria and other state government stakeholders on Monday morning.
He said the road to recovery would be long and tough, declaring the visitor experience would be diminished if operators were unable to get back on their feet.
"We're certainly going to need the support of state government with some reopening, recovery marketing dollars," Mr Sleeman said.
"This is going to be a marathon recovery from a regional perspective."
The bushfire burned through 76,000 hectares of land and killed hundreds of livestock. (HANDOUT/STATE CONTROL CENTRE)
Northern Grampians Shire mayor Karen Hyslop said the council would work to get relief for businesses, pointing out many were also impacted by bushfires in February that wiped out a third of the town of Pomonal.
"There was COVID and then there was the fires in February and now this," she said.
Four residential properties in Moyston and Mafeking were destroyed in the latest fires, along with 40 outbuildings in Moyston, Willaura, Willaura North, Mafeking, Pomonal, Glenthompson and Mirranatwa.
Some 13,538ha of farmland has been burnt, 540km of fencing damaged and preliminary livestock losses tally 775 sheep, one horse, one cow and 1285 beehives.
The impact to pastures was significant, said Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking, who visited properties between Moyston and Willaura on Thursday.
"The farmers we met were still quite shell-shocked," he said.
"It's going to be two years or more to fully recovery, to get pastures fully established, fences completed, get infrastructure rebuilt."
Agricultural land, infrastructure and livestock were destroyed by the blaze over three weeks. (HANDOUT/STATE CONTROL CENTRE)
A young couple enlisted members of the Moyston Willaura Football Club to remove damaged posts and wires from paddocks in preparation for re-fencing by volunteers from BlazeAid.
Beyond the immediate need for fencing to keep livestock off roads, Mr Hosking said providing fodder and livestock agistment were priorities for local farmers.
"Farmers right across Victoria, NSW, South Australia are very generously donating fodder and agistment to some of those impacted farmers,'' he said.
"But the challenge of actually connecting the two ... is still an expensive process so I think there's a role for government to step in and provide some fodder subsidies."