The Lakes Rotary Club has donated $2500 to BlazeAid following the recent Victorian bushfires which started from dry lightning strikes in December and burnt over 76,000 hectares of national park and agricultural lands in the Grampians.


BlazeAid have set up an ongoing tent camp in Willaura, on the eastern slopes of the Grampians National Park, from January 3 to replace 540km of fencing damaged by fires.


BlazeAid is a nationwide volunteer-based organisation that works with families and individuals in rural Australia after natural disasters such as fires, cyclones, droughts and floods.


The Lakes Rotary Club is part of Rotary District 9780 which covers an area from Geelong to the Western Districts of Victoria to Bordertown, Millicent and Mount Gambier.


Lakes Rotary Club member Colleen James said one of the clubs in the 9780 District sent out a call to help to the other clubs.


“Our donation is going to go towards food and camp costs for those volunteers so they are going to be there for an estimated six months,” she said.


“We have made the initial donation of $2500 and we will look into that in a couple of months’ time and we are willing to top it up depending how they are going.


“The purpose is for those landowners who had to remove stock and lost their fencing to get their stock back in. It is not our town but it is our neighbours.”