00:00Yes, it was an incredibly stressful day for everyone in the region, but especially for
00:07the small towns in the region as well. So yeah, it was an incredible thing unfolded
00:14throughout the course.
00:15Yeah, yeah. So I understand you've now safely evacuated, but your son has stayed behind
00:22at the hotel to look after it. Yeah. Are you a bit worried for him?
00:28Yeah, that's right. Yesterday, we got the red alert. So we decided to evacuate. We have
00:34young family, my son's children were there. And so everyone evacuated except for my son
00:42Troy and our chef Malky. They stayed on to cook 100 meals for the firefighters. And once
00:48those 100 meals were cooked and packed up and collected with bottles of water and soft
00:53drinks from the hotel, they then evacuated down to Mortlake.
00:59Wow, 100 meals for the firefighters. That's, wow, that's a lot of food. So what made you
01:05decide to take on this mammoth effort?
01:08I look, you know, we've been watching things unfold and how hard the firefighters work
01:16and a lot of the farmers in the area jump onto the crew for the CFA and have to leave
01:20their farms to go and fight the fires as well. So I think, you know, it just felt like the
01:25right thing to do. And, you know, getting food out to them and sustenance is so important
01:31considering what they're doing in the long hours and the hard work and the trauma that
01:35they face. Food is an incredible contribution. It's a small one, but it's an important one
01:41to keep them going.
01:42Well, I mean, that's very good of you. I mean, food is pretty expensive now of cost of living
01:45concerns and a lot of mouths to feed those firefighters. So how are your stockpiles of
01:49food and ingredients holding up?
01:54Look, we are well stocked. Normally our town will be thriving right now.
01:58We've had such a strong year in the area with frost damaging a lot of the crops.
02:06So the farmers have been struggling due to the loss of crops and the loss of income from
02:11the crops. And the town then struggles as well with the lack of work that the farmers
02:15normally provide for, you know, just people in the town, but also seasonal harvesters
02:22that come into the town. So economically, we were struggling anyway from the damage
02:27from the frost and the loss of income.
02:29But the bushfires have added salt into the wound for the farmers.
02:35Many farmers have been affected with burnt out fences and sheds, leaving livestock
02:41wandering around. Farmers have had to make difficult choices and leave their farms to
02:46go and fight the fires.
02:48And so what they urgently need right now is adjustment for the many sheep and cows that
02:56are not contained by any fencing.
02:59There's so much burnt out fencing in the area, moving down to Glen Thompson and
03:04Woolloora. So they've called out for adjustment anywhere in Victoria to take the
03:09animals to. So it's been an incredibly difficult time that has an ongoing effect for
03:16the community, not only financially, but for the workers and the farmers as well.
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