Thank you all!

(This page is under construction and will be for some time.)

To all of you who helped, cared, inquired, and offered help.
To all of you who bought wine.
The generosity of the Australian people is something we were not quite prepared for.

First of all: Thank you Firies.
You have a difficult, stressful job and you do it with passion and compassion.

To all the crews who called in, too many to keep track of, sorry.

Especially to the ones responding to the first grass fires in the evening and the fire in our NE corner. This saved a lot of damage to properties downwind.

Also very gratefully remembered the two first tankers who came in at dawn the next morning. They saved a burning old gumtree behind the winery, too high for our equipment. It means a lot to me. Also to the ringtail possum who survived.
And then thank you to the crew who took care of the smouldering hay shed. They did such a clean job and I didn’t even meet them.
And the tanker who hosed down vegetation around our dam a day later, because fires flared up there again and again.
And all the crews who tried to extinguish the fire in one of our old dead trees. It still burnt a week later.

Thank you Damien.
After your own very hot day and your own very stressful night you gave us time to emergency-mend the fences to a paddock for our cattle. All next morning we knew our house safe with you and your clever fire strike bike.
Thank you Emma, for immediate hay for our cattle. It came in very very handy.

Peter of the Lakes Entrance Rotary Club was the first to realise that the best way to help wineries is to buy their wine.
Thank you so much, Peter.

Thank you Frank van de Loo,
owner and winemaker of the super-premium Mount Majura Vineyard, Canberra region,
and your team.
Frank and I were Wine Science students together at Charles Sturt Uni, years ago. Since then he has gone on to be one of the top winemakers in Australia.
As a winery manager, Frank knew what was needed, knew how to do it, and did it. He promoted our wines in a newsletter to his customers, then he and his team took over all the work and the cost and the administrative hassle of collecting orders, sending out the wines, handling all the addressing, billing, posting and accounting and so on.
Mount Majura sold more than 40 cases of our wine at a time when trade here was dead and we had little time to look after our customers.
Frank had run out of irrigation water for his vineyard at that time, and as we know now, has lost the Mount Majura Vineyard 2020 vintage to smoke taint.
Try his wines!
https://www.mountmajura.com.au/

We are also indebted to Dyers and to Abletts Transport, who between them took the wine Frank sold to Canberra at no charge. Thank you Transporters, very generous of you, especially as direct roads were closed.

Thank you Forestry Guys.
You took down a tree for us with minimal damage to the other trees, and you were considerate to the trees along the road which I planted 30 years ago.
I was impressed with your skills.

Thank you, Pickers.
You called in to share tears, a hug and the tale of a ghastly night.
Especially to all of you who lost everything.
And to you who lost a beloved person.
Thank you for lovely gifts of comfort and for lovely comfort food.
We will keep in touch, take care.

Thank you, picker Durelle. You too had a terrifying night, and fire on your property, and you took the time to give me free vet advice on a chicken with badly burnt feet.
I care about Puffy and she has healed.

Thank you Inge, Tom, Debbie and Lou for listening to my chicken woes.
Croad Langshans are important. Besides being gorgeous, endearing and intelligent they are resistant to the deadly chicken virus causing Marek’s Disease.

Puffy, “mother” of many of my Croad Langshans
Some of my Croad Langshans, and their burnt homes

Thank you Brad and Damien, Tinamba Hotel.
Your hotel is committed to great food, great service and to country hospitality. You have succeeded, awards and popularity proving it.
You have been supporting us for well over 20 years, first at the famous Neilsons, and then pouring our Cabernets-Shiraz-Merlot by the glass, ever since opening Tinamba over 10 years ago.
Your special call for support still came unexpected.
It has been very successful.
https://tinambahotel.com.au/

Thank you Bill Sweeney (a founder and director of SEJ), Leongatha, South Gippsland.
Hearing for the first time about Sarsfield Estate at the Tinamba Hotel you did a brilliant job promoting our wine through SEJ (STEVENS EGAN JOHNSTON PTY LTD) to help us. You coerced everybody to pay an outrageous price.
You also did all the administrative work, collecting the wine here and distributing it.
Gratefully acknowledged also the work of Bill Egan and Terry Johnston, both from SEJ.

Thank you Glenn Calder from Leongatha,
Bill talked you into supporting us, too. You promoted our wine through VIRIDIAN ADVISORY.

Thank you also Chris George, CL & HJ George Pty Ltd, Plumbing, Gasfitting & Backflow Prevention, Leongatha,
Walter Romanic of Flood Responce.
Nikki Miller of MinterEllison and Lyle Miller
Michael Stevens, Terry Johnston, Steve Earl, Dean Herbert

Thank you all “Locals” who brought your friends and relatives from all over the world, and forced them to buy our wine. We can but hope that they like it.

Thank you Leadoux, Mechanics & Motor Engineers Bairnsdale.
You repaired and serviced our urgently needed dam-water pump, instantly and at no charge. This really, really helped, thank you.

Thank you, farmers who donated hay, and to Elders who organised the loading and distribution. We got the amount of hay burnt here replaced for free. We cannot hope to ever repay this kindness.

Thank you Ray Pearce. You have kept us supplied with hay for more than a decade, always giving us personal and efficient service, always interesting to talk to. You sold us hay at a very, very kind price after the fire.

Thank you Kim, Bramall & Co, Farm Services
You gave us more than a day’s work of free emergency fencing to try and keep my chickens safe, and also lovely building material for new chicken sheds.
As a professional fencer you showed us some new dirty tricks for fast and cheap fencing.
I appreciate your help more than I can say, Kim.

Thank you, Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund,
for a generous and quick donation.
With your help we will rebuild our hay shed and reestablish vineyard infrastructure like trellises and irrigation lines (for none of which we had insurance).
Our thanks go to everybody involved with GERF.
Your generosity and support creates hope.

Thank you Alan,
You supported us with more than considerable wine sales to your friends.
I loved your photography and very much appreciate your quiet and gentle understanding.
Below is one of your photos.
Shalom.

Thank you Warragul Farmers Market for organising a special market in Bruthen. After many doubts we decided to take part and were very pleasantly surprised at our success.
It seems to have been an international event, because surprisingly often we had to explain that Sarsfield is just down the road from Bruthen.
Now we will become known and famous far and wide!

Setting up at the Bruthen farmers market, organised by Warragul Farmers Market

Thank you Roger and Nick,
Dismantling burnt fences and collapsed stock yards, then rebuilding them is not really fun, especially in the heat of summer.
Except with special helpers.
You not only know how to do things, you also know where to find things. And even better: you overflow with fascinating knowledge on all sorts of topics.
Rebuilding is good, with you.

It is easier to build a fence than to dismantle it.
I know, I have tried both.
Only clever locals know where to find posts to rebuild cattle yards..

Grateful thoughts to Greg Clough and a to the lovely group of people who came from Melbourne to spend money in the burnt areas. They bought a lot of wine, were good to talk to, and they showed great compassion to my poor chickens, burnt fruit trees and grapevines.
Thank you all.