Perched on a hillside south-west of Kangaroo Valley, surrounded by burnt, blackened trees, the next stage of the village's bushfire recovery is underway.
A BlazeAid camp is taking shape on Tallowa Dam Road, ready to help around 50 property owners in the area who have reached out for help after the bushfires.
BlazeAid is a volunteer-based organisation that works with families and individuals in rural Australia after natural disasters such as fires and floods.
Working alongside the rural families, the volunteers help to rebuild fences and other structures that have been damaged or destroyed.
A camp based in Milton has been doing some extensive work in the southern Shoalhaven, with the Valley operation set to launch into full swing this week.
The Valley camp has taken on a very international flavour among the volunteers, which includes a woman from Ireland, a Scottish couple, a young German carpenter, a Canadian-turned-Aussie, and a couple of ex-pat Kiwis who for a number of years have called Australia home.
Valley camp co-ordinator Doug Chang joked: "It is a real united nations."
"I think there are only two of us among the first seven volunteers who were actually born in Australia," he said.
Volunteers are expected to be based in the Valley for up to six months to complete the workload.
"Our jobs are prioritised from high to low, and we start with the highest priorities first," Mr Chang said.
"We've had registrations from around 50 property owners who have all had different degrees of impact from the fire.
"About 20 are high priority - they need their fences back to restore their income or they are under personal hardship. So we prioritise them more highly than others."
He said BlazAid's mantra was to assist all property owners affected by natural disasters.
"The words property owners are important. We don't use the word farmers. In this area there are different types of property owners, not just farmers," he said.
"We prioritise them on their need, whether they are income producing, whether they need to contain stock, whether they have a personal situation."
Work started at the weekend when a Sydney based-company, Atom Resources, brought 25 staff members down to volunteer.
"They cleared around three kilometres of fencing in eight hours," Mr Chang said.
"That saved about two or three weeks' work.
"They stayed off-site within the local community, fed themselves, putting money back into the community, as well as working."
Robert Crawford
Robert Crawford is a senior journalist at the South Coast Register, for Australian Community Media . Everyone's got a story, what's yours? Email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Robert Crawford is a senior journalist at the South Coast Register, for Australian Community Media . Everyone's got a story, what's yours? Email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au
