Railway sleepers donation aids fire effort
08 July 2013
Wooden railway sleepers donation aids bushfire relief effort.
Australia’s state-owned agency RailCorp is donating wooden railway sleepers to reconstruct fences destroyed by bushfires in New South Wales. About 1,800 railway sleepers will be used as fence posts, to help replace an estimated 3,500 kilometers of fencing that was lost in January’s fires.
The wooden railway sleepers will be used by volunteers helping farmers in Cooma, Yass and Coonabarabran to repair properties damaged in the fires. Volunteer organization Blaze Aid is helping farmers rebuild fences.
At the Nimmitabel camp near Cooma, co-coordinator Paul Forgeard estimates they have at least 2-3 months work ahead of them, with 200 kilometers of fencing to rebuild.
“Many of our farmers are having to make do with old and worn equipment as most of their good machinery has been lost, together with houses, sheds and other infrastructure in some cases,” said Paul Forgeard.
“At the moment we are working with nine farmers but there could be others who haven’t registered with us yet.”