Free firewood donated to community groups

Published on 04 November 2021

Hepburn Shire Council has begun distributing free firewood to community groups as part of the clean-up efforts following the extreme storm event earlier this year.

Mayor, Cr Lesley Hewitt, said Council was pleased to be able to distribute firewood to the local community groups who are then able to utilise it to raise much-needed funds for their groups, or to donate to residents in need of a hand. “The Storm Recovery Team has done a great job of coordinating and executing this enormous task,” she said.

Clunes Angling Club

The Clunes Angling Club received about 9m3 of free firewood from Council. The Angling Club was established back in the 1950s and one member, Ken Corney, has held various offices and won a few trophies over his time with them. For many years Ken delivered raffled firewood in the back of his 1929 AA Ford truck, a striking blue machine with wooden wheels and a wooden tray.

Council’s free delivery came at a perfect time. Many of the Club’s 30 members are now less able to collect and handle the volume of wood they once could.

However, firewood is important as Clunes doesn’t have town gas and so solid fuel fires are the mainstay of heating for many residents.

Fundraising was traditionally used for restoration of their headquarters, the old School of Mines building. As that has now been completed, the Council donated wood will either be raffled, or more likely, distributed in four or five loads to local citizens.

The club also works closely with the Neighbourhood House. 

Trentham Primary School

Principal Arthur Lane was on hand to receive the school’s firewood. The school is pleased to be able to work with Council and to offer wood to any of its 70 school families who express an interest. They hope to be able to take some more as it becomes available.

At the Creswick Railway Workshop, Cr Don Henderson was on hand to greet the truck. The Creswick Timber Mill is hoping to engage with some local youth to split the wood and will then work with community aid group Anglicare who will identify some local recipients for it.

The Creswick Railway Workshop will then work with the Timber Training Centre who will assess the quality of the timber and use it to run some chainsaw courses to upskill local students.

Further back in the timber yard, a large and separate pile of storm-felled logs wait to be assessed and milled into very high-grade timber, which will be kiln dried and made into F17 – the very high strength timber for construction.

Cr Henderson noted the difficulty of accessing high quality logs nowadays as there is no more hardwood being felled. Students come from sawmills and timber training facilities all over Australia and some internationally. 

The Hepburn Football Club will store the timber until it can dry out and be raffled to raise funds for the club.

Community groups interested in obtaining free firewood can contact Inga Hamilton on ihamilton@hepburn.vic.gov.au.

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