Yarloop bushfire – assistance required

Published on: 12 February 2016

Kim Skipworth (1966), owner of the Skipworth Wine Co located three kilometres from Yarloop, spent Thursday 7 January alone on a four wheel motorbike extinguishing spot-fires in and around the buildings on his property, while bushfire surrounded him and burnt out his vineyard. Miraculously Kim saved his house and cellar door (singed), winery, wine stock and sheds, but the rest of the property is a black horror story. His grape crop has been completely destroyed and irrigation lines all melted. Kim will not know whether the vines have survived until next spring.

Kim was President of the Old Boys’ Association in 1976 and now members of the association can do their bit to assist Kim and his rebuilding of his business. Kim needs cash-flow for vineyard infrastructure and the way to help Kim is to purchase wine from his current stock. Kim offers free delivery to Perth and the wines, described on the tasting notes here and can be ordered here.

www.skipworthwine.com.au
skipworthwine@gmail.com
Skipworth Wine Co – Facebook page

Andrew Jenkins (1971) breeds Angus beef on his property Toolleen just south of Yarloop, not far from Skipworth Wines. Andrew’s brother Mark Jenkins (1967) is on the adjoining property. Both the Jenkins brothers stayed on their respective properties and fought the fire which came through at about 11.00pm on 7 January. Without power they relied on generators to pump water as they wet down the land around houses and sheds to protect these investments. Andrew said as the fire approached the smoke was choking, and as soon as it came it went, leaving the paddocks bare. Andrew has sold his calves to get them off the farm and has moved most of his remaining stock to other properties. Amazingly he lost no animals. Andrew said it was as if cattle know what to do to stay out of the fires way. What is left is a big clean-up operation as many strainer posts have burnt away, meaning gates and fences are all down. This photograph was taken from Mark’s verandah as the fire approached.

30 hours of fire fighting: one volunteer’s experience
Wallcliffe volunteer bush fire brigade member Rob Barnett (1966) has taken time to reflect on his time spent on the front line. Click here for the full story.

Gordon McLarty (1962) and Peter Gillett (another 1966) have become involved in the fire clean-up operation. They are both members of the Rotary Club of Pinjarra. The club immediately set up an appeal to accept donated funds, which have been put straight to work to help fix the damage. During the weekend of 30/31 January, over 200 volunteers worked on many properties pulling down and disposing of burnt fences, mainly in the Yarloop area. The club had three previous busy bees with club members pulling down fences.