They were also grappling with the difficulty of dealing with bureacrats and concern about water for the immediate future.
Farmers caught up in the fires just needed to talk to someone who understood their plight, farming leader and Redwood Valley farmer Graeme Sutton said.
Sutton, a farmer of more than 40 years, said the most frustrating aspect is the lack of knowledge and understanding of farmers’ needs.
Evacuated from his Redwood Valley property on Tuesday, the first day of the fire, Sutton is grateful for the couple of hours warning that gave him time to move his deer and cattle to a lower-risk part of his farm.
“It was pretty scary.
“The fire came mighty close. We were very lucky. We were saved.”
But with his property still off limit four days later he had real concern for farmers with big numbers of livestock.
“We managed to get back in on Wednesday to check stock no problem but then on Thursday we were declared a state of emergency and now we have our hands tied.
“”Under the control now of Civil Defence we battled all day Thursday and finally managed to get in to check stock at 4.30pm.
“We are being dictated to by a slow and clumsy-moving bureaucratic monster full of its own importance as it struggles to cope with the practicalities.
“It’s absolutely frustrating for farmers,” Sutton said.
“They are saying take your stock to the show grounds. That’s all very well for the horses and pets but can you look after my deer? I don’t need them to at this stage – I just want to be able to look after them myself and that means getting to them on my property.
“What we need is someone we can talk to who understands and can help us farmers with what we need and that’s to get back on our properties to check stock, even just for an hour or two a day.”
Water is a growing concern.
“We’re on a rural water scheme here in the valley. The main pipe has been damaged in the fire and the storage tanks are running low so we’ll be needing to cart water very soon and what are the authorities doing – getting engineers to look at it to see what needs doing.
“What we need is a roll of pipe and the means to dig it in to replace the damaged pipe. It’s that simple in the practical thinking.”
Eves Valley farmer and Tasman deputy mayor Tim King is thanking his lucky stars he, too, was evacuated on day one but not before moving stock from one side of the farm to other.
But with fencing and pasture burned the challenge now is how long he can keep his stock fed and watered in temporary containment.
“We are fortunate to have good stocks of silage so we are feeding out but water access is a huge problem. If we can get fences up in the next few days we may be okay.”
King had endless praise for the firefighters and helicopters that saved the family’s home and a good chunk of his farm from the fire.
“I can’t describe what a great job they did and the support from family, friends and neighbours who just turned up with utes and trucks, loaded on whatever they could get their hands on, including farm machinery. We are just so grateful.”
King said Alliance had been contact offering to relocate stock or take it immediately for processing if need arises.
“Support and assistance in that respect has been just so amazing.”
But like Sutton he’s struggling with bureaucracy to get on his property to feed and water his stock and that’s “frustrating the hell out of me”.
On Friday Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor declared a medium-scale adverse event for Tasman district, unlocking further Government support for farmers and growers.
It means and extra $50,000 for the Rural Support Trust and primary industry groups to help speed up the recovery.
O’Connor acknowledged the acute issue is stock management where owners have been evacuated.
“There will be difficult times ahead and the Government will ensure everything that can be done will be done to ensure people and animals are safe and can get back on their feet,” O’Connor said.
Fire authorities confirmed the major fire storm on 2000 hectares of forestry and farmland is believed to have been started by farm machinery working in Pigeon Valley.
“It’s an accidental event. It’s certainly nothing anyone would want to happen,” Fire and Emergency regional manager John Sutton said.
