@copperoad; due to the loss of power supply and phone services into their area I've just spoken with dairy farming friends of mine in the Corryong fire zone. They're people whose farming practices match it with the best, including nevere-ever overstocking and the planting of lucerne to separate vegetation types in the event of fires such as those ravaging the area.
Except for the lucerne, they lost all of their pasture but NOT their stock or infrastructure. But boy have they been rattled by fires they already rate as much worse than those of 2003 when the district was last totally burnt through and not over yet by a long way.
They informed me that Towong Shire had a large water tanker and a grader sitting in a shed and not used because no operators were available to drive them [where were army personnel Scomo?]. While praising the skill and courage of firies on the frontline and that of pilots they lamented the complete lack of large sized water bombing aircaft able to access otherwise inaccessible firefronts.
They find it difficult to digest that while the Corryong District burned Scott Morrison's office lied about him holidaying in Hawaii after dfoing so little to assist with responses to the worst drought and fire season to impact southern Australia in living memory.
