The devastating bushfires in the summer of 2019/2020 caused significant and sometimes tragic losses to thousands of people in eastern Australia. They also hit our property in the Wolgan Valley, burning virtually every square metre of our land and in the process damaging or destroying almost all our fences. But its been a case of mates to the rescue as the group of guys from the Cronulla beaches that I have run with for years joined forces to help rebuild our fences and have a few beers along the way.

Last year a group of these guys joined me at the property for their introduction to fence building and proved the case that with a few beers and a few more laughs you can build high (enough) quality fences from a zero base. This year most of the same guys, now seasoned fence builders, plus one newbie joined me again to continue our long term project of repairing or rebuilding our ruined fences.

And so it came to pass that over a three day weekend which was sporadically interrupted by rain we cut, dug, sunk, packed, wired, strained and repaired more than 15 posts and their accompanying braces, numerous star pickets and all sorts of wire, including a section across a running creek, and removed a gate that was beyond repair. It was a herculean effort, for the most part operating as a well-oiled machine, with barbeques, beer, two bottles of port and no major injuries to top it all off.

My huge thanks to Gaz, Pedro, Frenchie and Macky for a job well done. I couldn’t have done it without you!